Yankee Notes: May 22nd, 2006

Let's get down to the nitty gritty. Yankee notes lightning style.

1. Alex Rodriguez doesn't deserve to get booed the way he has this season, but he has been stinking it up something awful. People like to condemn him for being "unclutch", but the numbers really don't support that....except this year. He failed miserably in the 8th when the team had a chance to steal another win, but the double play bit him, and that was that. It's not a chronic thing, but it certainly has found him so far at the plate, and in the field. A-Rod has produced the following numbers this year, last year, and for his career:

2006
Bases Empty .308/.413/.513
Runners On .235/.351/.444
RISP .250/.385/.481
RISP/2 outs .217/.419/.348

2005
Bases Empty .337/.436/.670
Runners On .305/.406/.551
RISP .290/.410/.484
RISP/2 outs .302/.429/.512

Career
Bases Empty .302/.380/.569
Runners On .311/.390/.581
RISP .302/.393/.552
RISP/2 outs .263/.381/.453

If I've learned one thing in all my years watching baseball, it's that a player eventually finds his averages. If a guy hits .400 in April, but he's a career .250 hitter, he'll find his way back to .250 by the end of September. If a guy is a career 1.000 OPS guy, but throws up a .700 for the first few months of the season, he'll ignite like the Hindenburg and climb back to his career number. Be patient. We're not too far out of 1st, and there's a lot of baseball left.

2. Colter Bean did a good job. He was often behind hitters early, but he didn't panic and ended up going 1-2-3. You knew Joe was going to keep him on a short leash, and when he walked the first batter to start his second inning, he pulled him....probably wisely. Let's hope we get Colter into Joe's clubhouse so he gets a fair shake.

3. What a year so far for Jeter. .351/.438/.530 with 34 runs and 32 RBIs in 42 games.

4. Small is toast. The rest of the pen looked great yesterday, but Small can't even survive a couple of innings without blowing up anymore. I actually thought his strong start last night was a sign that he might stink coming out of the pen, but fare well as a starter. So much for that idea. We're stuck with Small and Erickson as our long men.....which one do you want to see in a ballgame? I'll take Ron Guidry.

5. The Mets are a good ballclub. Delgado is sick. Wright is for real. Kazuo Matsui must have a VORP of -1 billion. I'd bet that Hideki Matsui is a better player with a broken wrist than Kaz is on HGH and Gamma Rays.

6. The Yanks signed Erubiel Durazo to a minor league contract. NoMaas and COH both posted our hopes about Erubiel a few days ago, and I'm very happy to see this kid in the Yankee fold. Watch out. He should be on the Major League roster in a flash, and play DH the rest of the year.

The Yankees have signed enough low level major leaguers recently to start a mini-Yankees team that might be better than the Kansas City Royals. Durazo, Pena, Terrance Long, maybe Richard Hidalgo...not that they are all good players, but it speaks volumes about KC.

Better luck tomorrow.