"No seriously, everyone else does suck."Starting Catcher: Grade A
What is not to love about what King Jorge has been doing this season? He’s hitting .326, slugging .505, and getting on base at a .399 clip, he also leads the team with 25 doubles. Not only that, he actually called out his teammates for being the slackers that they are. We could nitpick about the fact that opposing teams are running against the Yanks at will. However, I’m not sure how much of that is Jorge’s fault and how much is the fact that Moose and Clemens couldn’t keep my grandmother from taking a big lead.
Backup Catcher: F-----------
Words fail to describe how truly awful Will Nieves actually is. Just looking at his stats makes me want to roll around in a bathtub full of rusty nails. The only thing good taste allows me to print is 50 at-bats, 6 hits – I’m going to be sick…
Note: I am separating catcher and back up catcher because to put Will Nieves and King Jorge in the same paragraph is straight blasphemy. Seriously, my computer refused to let me type when I even tried to write about them together. Now if only my computer could keep Nieves out of the Yankees dugout.
First Base: F
The only thing keeping this from being an F- is that Josh Phelps (before getting cut) actually hit the ball. Watching Miguel Cairo at first makes me embarrassed to root for this team. And by the way, can Yankee fans please get off Cairo’s jock. I mean we put a picture up of him on the website, but it was a joke. Saturday night, a good friend tried to argue that Cairo playing first isn’t the problem and that Cairo’s the kind of guy the Yankees need. First of all, I’m not sure how a first baseman who is hitting .263 with 6 extra base hits provides anything to a team, unless Cairo gets credit for not being Doug Mientkiewicz. And, second of all, why do the Yankees need a barely competent hitter on our team at all. Someone, please explain the allure of Miguel Cairo to me.
Given the state of things for the Yankees this year, the fact that Andy Phillips has actually been hitting since he’s been called up, means he’s likely to get hit by a bus over the All-Star Break.
Second Base: C
Right now Robinson Cano has two things going for him, according to Zone Rating (see www.nomaas.org) he is ranked 2nd out American League Second baseman, which is a very good thing; and the fact that he rakes in the second half of last year. As most experts, see Steven Goldman or anyone form Baseball Prospectus, have pointed out, if Cano is not batting over .300 he’s simply not a good hitter. This year he is hitting .274, not a bad batting average by itself, but his on base percentage is only .314 which is putrid. To put the utter awfulness of Cano’s .OBP in perspective, Bobby Abreu is having as awful a year as humanely possible and he is getting on base at a .352 clip. Cano is either going to have to learn to identify pitches or hit above .310 to really have any value.
Third Base: A+++++++++
If you disagree with this grade you are retarded. If you think that the Yankees should not do everything in their power to make sure Alex Rodriguez is in pinstripes next year, you are too stupid to sit in the back of the short bus. The next person who says that the Yanks need more guys like Cairo and to get rid of A-Rod is getting beaten till they are bloody. Look at the numbers - 30 homers, 86 RBIs, 79 runs, .317 batting average, .413 on base percentage, .665 slugging percentage at the break – he is out of his freakin’ mind.
Shortstop: A-
It is kind of weird, Derek Jeter has been so good for so long that he has almost become underrated. He’s batting .336, slugging .463, getting on base at a .408 clip and no one notices because we all expect him to do that. For the first half of the season the Yankees are 1 game under .500 and Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada are the only players hitting like they are capable of – that says something about how good these guys are.
The only knock on Jeter is his defense, which has been especially awful this year. Zone Rating has him as worst in the American League and anyone who has watched a few games this year knows how much trouble the Captain is having going to his left. Unlike Posada whose trouble with base runners involves others, Jeter’s defensive problems are all his own fault so it is costing him half a grade.
Tomorrow – the outfield
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