The Dirty Dozen

Good morning, Fackers. The Yankees have lost eight of their last twelve games. They started out this homestand with two wins but finished it just 3-4. They are only one game ahead of the Blue Jays.

Things are looking bleak heading into the Subway Series and the Yanks have, at one time or another during the last two weeks, been sabotaged by a lack of offense, poor starting pitching, bullpen implosions, defensive blunders, bad luck or any combination of the above. But, on the other hand, they've had all of those things working for them at one point or another over the last 12 games too.

Over the first five games of the skid, the Yanks' offense couldn't seem to get it going, averaging three runs per contest (including their only two scoreless efforts of the year) from the last game they played at Fenway on May 9th through the four game set in Detroit. Since then, though, the offense has scored 47 runs in seven games, just in time for their pitching staff to let them down. In the last five games, the Yanks have allowed 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 runs (although not in that order) due in part to poor starts by Andy Pettitte, A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes but mostly to a series of meltdowns by the bullpen.

Add that all up and the Yankees have scored 62 runs while allowing 67 but have dropped 66% of their games during that span. Is that glass a third full or two thirds empty? I tend to think it's not quite as miserable as it has seemed.

Yes, the last four losses have been particularly painful. The Yanks finally let the Twins up off the mat at The Stadium. They blew two 5-0 leads against the Red Sox. They were out-pitched, out-slugged and out-defended and abused on the basepaths by the Rays. There's no hiding the fact that they are now five games back in the division and closer to the Red Sox than they are to Tampa.

However, this streak has come while the roster has been in a state of total disarray and the Yankees have been without, to varying extents, important contributors like Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson, Jorge Posada and Alfredo Aceves. You could say that Curtis Granderson wasn't hitting well anyway, Nick Johnson isn't coming back, Frankie Cervelli has been filling in admirably and Alfredo Aceves wouldn't have stopped the bleeding out of the bullpen, but the Yankees will be stronger and more complete as the season moves on and those players return.

The Yankees were vulnerable during a tough stretch and paid the price. They played 12 games against what are likely four out of the five or six best teams in the American League without 25 players available on most nights, let alone their 25 best. It's tough to watch your team lose eight of of twelve regardless of the circumstances, but the Yankees were weak at the wrong time and got worked by some very good squads.

If you want to, you can see a team that has a terrible bullpen and isn't as good as their 25-14 record indicates. If you change your perspective a bit, however, you might see a club that is a little black and blue and just went through a brief stretch in the red.

Some Perspective On Jeter And Gehrig

Today is Thursday and the Yankees are off, as they will be every Thursday for the remainder of the regular season. As such, news is hard to come by, so we will be given more and more of the Jeter/Gehrig Story.

While the mainstream media continues to beat that drum, in the Yankee blogosphere the narrative has turned to the coverage overkill by the mainstream media. It's a warranted criticism, perhaps best summarized by Bronx Banter's Cliff Corcoran.

Jay and I have both been guilty of giving this story more legs that it doesn't need. However, much like our friend Jason at IIATMS, Fack Youk is trying to supply a little perspective on this achievement. The mainstream media is making this out to be a little bit more than it is. The inevitable backlash from elsewhere is probably selling it a little bit short. As usual, the truth likely lies somewhere between.

Keith Olbermann had blog post earlier this week lamenting Gehrig once again being knocked from the record books, and fearing that the Iron Horse might some day be forgotten. I can appreciate Olbermann's sentiments, but I can't agree with them. As I stated this morning, Gehrig is amongst the best baseball players ever. Period. His peers are Ruth, Williams, Bonds, Aaron, Musial, Mays, Cobb, Mantle - the best ever to play the game. If Gehrig were ever to be forgotten, it certainly wouldn't be because Jeter passed him on a leaderboard that while glamorous because it belongs to the most celebrated franchise in the game, is relatively meaningless in the big picture of baseball history. If anything, perhaps the recent media storm will actually increase the profile of this all-time great.

Jeter's latest accomplishment is something to be recognized and is as good a reason as any to celebrate his remarkable career that has been at times both over and under rated. But lest we lose sight of just how incredible Lou Gehrig was, let's take a look at what Jeter and Gehrig did with their 2,721 career hits:


The point isn't to say that Derek Jeter isn't the slugger that Gehrig was. They are two very different players in that regard. The point is to illustrate that while Jeter will soon surpass Gehrig in total number of hits, the New York Yankees franchise will have received far more value out of Lou Gehrig's 2,721 hits than they did out of Jeter's 2,722.

Gehrig still sits comfortably atop the Yankees all-time double and triple lists, and is safely third on the all-time home run list. He sits behind only the imcomparable Babe Ruth on the franchise's total bases leaderboard. Jeter is fifth, within five total bases of Joe DiMaggio in fourth, but a good two seasons behind Mickey Mantle in third, and light years behind Ruth and Gehrig. Consider this: Derek Jeter has 718 career extra base hits. Lou Gehrig has 697 combined doubles and triples before even counting his 493 home runs.

Of course, the object of baseball is to score runs, and they key to scoring runs is reaching base safely. While hits are the most valuable way to do that, it's just one of three ways to reach base safely. Here's a look at the franchise's all-time leaderboard in times on base:


Jeter will likely sit atop this list one day as well, but it will take him a good two and half to three more years to get there. And that doesn't take into account his on base percentage, which is currently 7th amongst all Yankees with at least 4,000 career plate appearances. And as Steve Goldman pointed out earlier this week, Jeter's OBP will likely begin to fall as he enters the decline phase of his career.

None of this is meant to discredit what Derek Jeter has done over the past fourteen seasons, has done this week, or will do this weekend and over the remainder of his career. He is sure fire first ballot Hall of Famer and is undoubtedly the greatest Yankee shortstop ever. Lou Gehrig is amongst the select few members of the Hall of Fame who are deserving of their own wing. Jeter is on the shortlist of the greatest players in Yankee history. Gehrig is amongst the best players in baseball history.

Though people of my generation have been treated to all-time Yankee greats like Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and less recently Bernie Williams and Don Mattingly, more than any of them, Derek Jeter is the name in recent Yankee history. This milestone, and all the others Jeter will reach before his career is over, will be deservedly trumpeted. However, next time someone waxes nostalgic about Gehrig losing another record, or next time someone in the paper or on TV gets overly hyperbolic about Jeter setting this record, please try to remember the context.