One-hundred and twelve homers, two gold gloves, fifty-one stolen bases, and four World Series belong to last year’s Yankee infield. The whole quartet will be back in 2010 hoping to improve on last year’s performance.
Best news of all, A-Rod will be anchoring the lineup starting April 4th, as opposed to May 8th, when he started ’09. The Yanks finished with the best record in baseball last year, despite a 13-15 start pre-Alex. Having him back in the lineup could give a better start to the season for the Yanks, helping as they try for the best record in the game yet again. Oh, right, Yankee fans love post-season hero Alex now. Plus, he has all the steroid/divorce/Madonna stuff off his back. He’s got a World Series ring, and he won’t be playing this season with a hip that was operated on pre-season. Does anyone else sense a .330/.410/.540 type of year for A-Rod? It seems like he always has trouble hitting those milestone homers, and he’s just 17 away from number 600, so I think he’ll have a ten game slump in late June, but nothing too major. He’s going to be the ’09 MVP (Yeah Joe Mauer…that’s a challenge). Honestly, what is in Alex’s way from hitting 50 homers and playing like the star he is? He has no off-season issues, and even though he and Kate broke up (tragic), Alex has everything going for him right now. He’s 34, but this could be the best season of his career.
Then there’s Derek, who had a little renaissance (not that he’d hit any definitive lull beforehand), hitting .334/.406/.465 and playing outstanding defense. People always said “Jeter can’t field to his left,” after this year, they should be as quiet as those who said “You shouldn’t rest your starters just because you clinched a playoff birth” are now, following Wes Welker’s leg injury. Jeet earned his Gold Glove. Still, Jeet’s value is mostly due to his ability to get to first base. He had the 10th best OBP in the game, the second best among shortstops, trailing only Hanley Ramirez. Look at the Yanks’ lineup right now…..10th best OBP, 3rd best OBP (Nick Johnson), 33rd best OBP (Teixeira), 12th best OBP (Rodriguez). Jeter and Johnson are going to set the table for Tex and Alex to hit career-high RBI totals. Jeter turns 36 in June, but his performance really hasn’t dipped, despite everyone thinking it would. People love to bitch and moan about Jeter being the game’s most overrated player, but 5 World Series rings, 3 Gold Gloves, 1 near-miss MVP (He should’ve beat Justin Morneau, it’s not even a debate.), and hitting better than 300 in each of the past 5 seasons is a pretty good track record. He’s not overrated; deal with it. Add in that Jeet is entering his contract year (don’t worry, the Yanks will re-sign him following the season. Zero doubt in my mind.) and expect Jeter to have another strong season.
Robby Cano may very well be useless without Melky Cabrera. Okay…I joke. Robby had a strong ’09, .320/.352/.520, but he has possibly the worst plate discipline of anyone to ever play the game. Seriously, Steven Hawking walks more than Robby. Cano did smack 25 homers last year though, and he puts the ball in play enough to make up for his inability to take a free pass. The thing with Robby is that when he doesn’t hit extraordinarily well, he’s never on base/a position to score. So long as either the ’05, ’06, ’07, or ’09 versions of Robby show up, the Yanks will be fine. I just worry about ’08 Robby resurrecting. Still, I’d place 86.4% of Robby’s value on his handshakes with the Melkman, who is no longer with us (sorry, crying break). Okay (still dabbing a few tears), Robby also plays stellar D, and could very well be the best second baseman in the AL (not saying he is, but could be).
Then there’s the $180 million dollar man. Tex play gold glove defense, hit 39 homers last year, and is always really bad in April. Maybe hitting in front of A-Rod will help him. Okay, maybe not. I’m reading J.C. Bradbury’s Sabernomics, and he makes the case that lineup protection could be next on Mythbusters. Anyways, Tex is historically slow in April, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason why that would change this year. Still, from May through November he does most everything well. Expect more of the same from Tex in ’10.
So here’s my question…is this the best infield in baseball? Here’s my answer: Yes. Youkilis/Pedroia/Scutaro/Lowell….puh-lease. Pena/Zobrist/Bartlett/Longoria have a lot to prove. Howard/Utley/Rollins/Polanco…how bout we wait until Rollins gets a prediction right and hits like he gets credit for? Also Polanco’s bat at the hot corner…meh. The Yankee infield is the best in the game. Now the question is, will the rotation, outfield, bench, bullpen, and manager prove to combine as the best in 2010? Prediction: Yes. But, there’s definitely a long wait until we’ll know for sure.
