Hindsight and Foresight: Yankee Review May 13th - May 27th

I'm going with what I promised even if I'm dead tired from 7 hours of travel to Tulsa, Oklahoma today for work. After watching what was a very disappointing season of 24 (which they subsequently said Season/Day 7 would "promise to be the best season of 24 yet") I switched on the Yankees/Red Sox game and watched the Yankees take the first game 6-2 which lifted my spirits some. I also haven't read Doug's posts here so we'll keep the Hindsight and Foresight fresh and raw, the way I like my sushi.

Hindsight May 13th to May 20th:
This was my first week not watching any Yankees games on my MLB TV subscription (I'll explain why), but what I saw in the box scores was ugly. To put it mildly, the Yankees played poorly. Losing both series this week to the White Sox and then to the Mets, the Yankees fell further behind the Red Sox in the AL East. There was even this nice little three game losing streak in the middle of the week before the Yankees pulled off a win Sunday, side-stepping a Mets sweep in the first 2007 Subway Series. Wang has come around, as I was hoping, winning a 8-1 over the White Sox before handing it over to Farnsworth and Mo who somehow held down any sort of rally. Then after the Chicago Series, Jason Giambi gave that interview to USA Today which pretty much took the fun out of the series. A-Rod continued to make April look like the fluke month of his season and was in a 2 for 25 slump at one point I read.


Weekly Stats (which you can safely say are always from ESPN and Baseball Prospectus)
W-L: 2-4
RS/RA: 23/25
Offensive Numbers (BA/OBP/SLG): .274/.342/.517
Pitching Line (ERA/Whip/K per 9/BAA/SLG): 3.96/1.30/5.4/.255/.440
Who's Hot: Hip-Hip Jorge! Posada going .476 3 HR 4 RBI who going into tonight had a 15-game hitting streak
Who's Not: Jason Giambi who has one hit since May 6th, but whose comments about taking steriods have caused a MLB investigation and refueled the Yankees pursuit of getting out of their contract with them.
My Yankee of the Week: I'm going with Jorge Posada who is quietly putting together an amazing season as a catcher. Jorge has always been a great catcher in an age when Piazza, I-Rod, and Joe Mauer, just to name a few, have taken the spotlight.


Foresight May 21st to May 27th:
My concern this week (and for subsequent weeks), is not only the Red Sox series, but the number of distractions facing the Yankees right now. Let me put a nice little list together for you: Giambi made comments on steriods and the Yanks want out of this contract again, Joe Torre is still on the hot seat despite what Steinbrenner may have said, Farnsworth made his comments about the Clemens treatment, and yes, the Yanks start the week off playing the Red Sox who they are 11 games behind (the most games behind ever under Joe Torre). Now it's easy for players to say or think they can just play through the distractions and win, but that's gotta be hard when you have the NY sports media with its harshness and critical eye. Not only that but 67% of ESPN viewer believe the Yankees are not going to make the playoffs. The whole world's against us!