Hindsight and Foresight: Yankees April Review, May Preview

This post isn't the one you have been waiting for. Much to my pleasant suprise Doug posted an entry on here and I didn't see it until a couple days later after which I pumped my fist in the air. Welcome back and I'm sure we'll see more coming!

But here from me is the seasons first Hindsight and Foresight which is now a monthly installment. I'm going to play around with how I write these. There will be stats and comments, and I'll throw my two cents in on decisions, quotes, and so forth. Anything I've posted on during the month already I'll just lead you back to what I wrote or if I have anything new to say, I'll just say it. So let's just get into this.



Hindsight: April Review

April was a tough month to watch. The new pitching combination of Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy failed to produce a win. The offense struggled. Injuries crept up on key players. And Hank Steinbrenner in his father's fashion blasted the team for not starting Joba (and clarified his comments later on). Was this a typical April in the Bronx?

Fans shouldn't be suprised with the lackluster and mediocre start by the Yankees in April. Here's how the last five April's have gone for the Yankees in terms of their record:

2008: 14-15
2007: 9-14
2006: 13-10 (tied first place with Boston)
2005: 10-14
2004: 12-11

Can the Pope be blamed for some of this? Well, the Yankees only had 11 home games because of his visit to Yankee Stadium. But they only won five of these games. Overall, the Yankees failed to put any sort of winning streak together. They hit three wins in a row twice and subsequently lose three in a row after both of those streaks. They won three series against teams (Toronto, Chicago, and Tampa Bay), split three (Boston, Tampa Bay and Cleveland), and lost the other three series (Kansas City, Boston, and Baltimore--I'm not counting Detroit which ended in May).

April Stats

W-L: 14-15
RS/RA: 125/133
Offense (AVG/OBP/SLG): .255/.324/.411
Pitching (ERA/Whip/K per 9/BAA): 4.56/1.41/6.55/.269

Who's Hot: Hideki Matsui was off to a .322/.425/.511/4 HR/13 RBI start
Who's Not: Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy (0-6 combined, each with ERAs over 8.00, more on this), also Robinson Cano is off to a terrible start (.151/.211/.236)

My Yankee of April: Although Matsui is great out of the gate, Melky Cabrera has been showing power early hitting 5 HRs (8 is his career high) and actually had more RBIs than Matsui (15).


Notes on Offense

• The Yankee offense scored only 4.3 runs/game in April
• Bobby Abreu known for a good batting eye, walked only 8 times against 24 strike outs.
• Robinson Cano, known as a "slow first half" player had his worst April to date. In the last two years he was hitting over .300 and then dropped off only to pick it up in the second half of the season. His rythm is off at the plate and he looks uncomfortable swinging.
• Jason Giambi isn't cutting it at first base. I have no stats to share on this, but after watching a few games he'll have to platoon more with someone else at first and DH (I just don't know if Duncan or Betemit's gloves are that much better though).

Notes on Pitching

• The Yankees will just have to deal with Kennedy and Hughes' poor starts. Hughes is now injured (more on in a bit), but both did not show any command on the mound. Kennedy has consistently worked behind in the count leading to lots of hits (10.9/nine innings) and walks (8.05/nine innings). Three of Hughes' starts lasted no more than 4 innings pitched. Just check out his game log.
• A bright spot is how quickly Mike Mussina has reinvented himself. See I knew that Stanford degree would come in handy again. Asked to pitch more like a "Jamie Moyer", Mussina has done just that throwing more breaking stuff and not relying as much on his fastball which got him in trouble a lot last year.
• In the bullpen LaTroy Hawkins is looking like the twin of Kyle Farnsworth. Hawkins has allowed every runner that was on base when he came in the game to score. Don't you think in his wind up he gives away his pitch (he doesn't cover the ball with his glove)?
• What's up with Wang? 6.23 K's/nine innings! We'll see if this holds up.

Injuries

Well, I noted this the other day before even more injuries came into play. Lots of injuries are going to put the Yankees in a precarious position this early in the season. To note:

• Brian Bruney tore something called a lisfrac in his foot. After getting three opinions, he is going to try to rehab and avoid season ending surgery. He won't be back until the second half at best.
• Wilson Betemit is recovering from pink eye and is playing in the minors right now.
• Phil Hughes somehow has a stress fracture in his ribs and is out until July. This is bringing back memories of Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano. Again, not an arm injury so no one's freaking out yet.
• Alex Rodriguez as I suspected has a grade 2 tear in his quad. He just needs rest, but his bat will be missed the next two weeks. Let's hope this isn't a lingering problem during the year--don't rush him back.
• Jorge Posada was probably the worst injury of all since he's never been on the DL and the Molina, Moeller combo behind the plate is weak at best. As reported by BP's Will Carroll, from MRIs Posada has a strained rotator cuff. They are getting multiple opinions, but the only way to know if anything serious is torn would be to open him up and look. Likely, he's going to miss 6 weeks and rehab the shoulder. However, if problems throwing still persist, expect him to be DHing a lot.
  

Foresight: May
The Yanks will has six series at home and four on the road in May. There are some key match ups against Detroit, Cleveland, the Mets, and Baltimore. Right now the offense is showing some signs of waking up and hopefully when A-Rod is back will be in full swing. The pitching is what is most concerning. While Wang, Pettitte, and Mussina are holding the line they could all have a bad month. Look for Kennedy to be sent to the minors and for spots starts from Rasner, Karstens, Henn, and dare I say it--Igawa.