Recap: New York fought back from a 9-12 start and through a 15-15 September/October to post the best record in the American League and dispatch the Indians in a one-game playoff. Unfortunately for them, they had to get there without the heart of their team, SS Ty Stover, in the lineup, and they were straight-up unable to keep up with the Twins in the ALCS. It didn't help that outside of starter Tracy Mosher they just plain lacked the front-line starters who win games for you in the postseason. Knowing the Yankees, they'll find a way to remedy that.
History: To say that the Evil Empire allowed the wealth to be spread a little more in this version of baseball is not entirely accurate. It's more applicable to say that they started late. The Bronx Bombers didn't make their first World Series until 1955, the 10th year of this league, and didn't win one until the next year. That said, from 1955 to 1967 they only missed the postseaso 3 times; their recent playoff "drought" of 1968 and 1969 ties their longest since '55. And just when they looked like they were done, which, to be fair, even in the previous two years they won 85 and 88 games, they pulled a little bit from deep down and got themselves right on back into October.
Outlook: The Yankees are still aging and still have a rotation built on Tracy Mosher and a bunch of nothing. Will this be the year they really and truly regress? I wouldn't count on it.
Rotation
Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
Mosher, Tracy 31 LL 25 12 .676 2.67 40 40 0 20 6 0 323.2 282 106 96 22 64 2 243 1.069 7.8 0.6 1.8 6.8
Olthof, Obke 25 RR 0 0 .000 2.80 36 36 0 0 0 0 163.2 138 56 51 5 26 2 112 1.002 7.6 0.3 1.4 6.2
Caneas, Danilo 34 RR 17 13 .567 4.22 35 35 0 8 1 0 245.0 259 124 115 32 57 2 125 1.290 9.5 1.2 2.1 4.6
Holm, Roy 34 LL 7 5 .583 4.99 15 15 0 1 0 0 101.0 110 60 56 10 40 0 106 1.485 9.8 0.9 3.6 9.4
Powers, Jake 25 SR 2 4 .333 5.50 12 6 1 0 0 0 52.1 66 33 32 6 29 1 36 1.815 11.4 1.0 5.0 6.2
Ballard, Dan 35 LL 3 8 .273 5.02 22 12 4 1 0 0 95.0 105 54 53 11 40 0 64 1.526 9.9 1.0 3.8 6.1
If the Cy doesn't go to Angelo Ramos, it'll almost ertainly be
Tracy Mosher, who led the league in innings pitched for the 3rd straight year and became the first pitcher since 1958 to complete 20 games. Those IPs were also, thanks to the one-game playoff, the highest total in modern MLB history. The case for him is that he willed his team to the playoffs as much as anyone in baseball - if his rate stats weren't as strong, it was only because the Yankees were pushing him much, much harder. His #2 throughout the year was
Obe Olthof, better known as The Flying Dutchman. Olthof would be good enough to be the #1 on most teams, although in the playoffs he was only the 2nd best #2 man in the AL. He's still just 25 and the future looks bright.
Danilo Caneas was the #3 guy throughout the regular season and the playoffs, but there's a big, big drop-off from 2 to 3. He led the league in BB/9 in 1969 and was still pretty effective control-wise; however, he went from allowing a solid 14 HRs in 192.2 IPs to leading the league in homeruns allowed last year with 32. This is a new and distressing aspect to the 35 year old's game. Speaking of guys who give up a lot of HRs, the Yanks traded off the largely ineffective Dan Ballard for Roy Holm, who in the second half was the same Roy Holm everyone knows: fantastic stuff, iffy control, and a predilection for the longball. Holm allowed 10 in 101 ABs with the Yankees, which is actually slightly below (0.9 HR/9) his career rate (1.0). You would expect his OBA to go down from .253 so at least there's that. One guy who won't be in the team's plans for 1971 is
Jake Powers, who suffered a torn flexor tendon in his elbow while pushing the AAA Syracuse Chiefs to the Minor League World Series. He will miss the entire season and who knows what he'll be like in 1972. The next highest ranked prospect who's got any chance of making the show is
Noah Cooper. Cooper was 6-6 in AA and seems more likely for 1972 than 1971 and that's if he can stick in the rotation.
Bullpen
Code:
Pitching Age BT W L WL % ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9
Kelly, Jesse 32 LL 9 5 .643 3.01 66 0 59 0 0 26 98.2 95 45 33 17 20 3 91 1.166 8.7 1.6 1.8 8.3
Hinkson, David 29 LR 0 0 .000 4.89 40 0 22 0 0 4 49.2 55 30 27 9 10 2 44 1.309 10.0 1.6 1.8 8.0
Herod, Nate 35 LL 4 2 .667 2.96 34 1 12 0 0 1 51.2 57 26 17 10 13 2 16 1.355 9.9 1.7 2.3 2.8
Wilson, Chris 33 RR 5 3 .625 2.86 31 11 11 2 1 0 100.2 85 38 32 7 42 0 78 1.262 7.6 0.6 3.8 7.0
Carbajal, Manny 27 RR 1 5 .167 6.64 14 6 4 1 0 0 40.2 54 34 30 8 7 0 28 1.500 12.0 1.8 1.5 6.2
Hardin, Brent 37 LL 1 0 1.000 1.86 11 1 1 0 0 0 19.1 14 4 4 2 6 0 9 1.034 6.5 0.9 2.8 4.2
Cabrera, Armando 26 RL 0 0 .000 0.00 8 0 0 0 0 0 3.0 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 1.000 9.0 0.0 0.0 3.0
Ramirez, Oscar 31 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 1.000 9.0 0.0 0.0 4.5
Greene, Matt 27 LL 0 0 .000 9.00 1 0 1 0 0 0 2.0 2 2 2 1 0 0 1 1.000 9.0 4.5 0.0 4.5
Covarrubias, Gabriel 23 LR 0 0 .000 0.00 2 0 2 0 0 0 1.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.600 5.4 0.0 0.0 5.4
Relievers aren't usually this consistent, at least season to season.
Jesse Kelly has won 9 games each of the last 2 years, saved 24 and 26 games, and had an ERA of 3.00 and 3.02. Game to game, though... Kelly blew 10 saves in 1970. He reared back and threw as hard as he ever has but he allowed 17 HRs last year, 9 of them with runners on base and 11 of them in high-leverage situations. As a result, fully 19 of the 22 runners he inherited came around to score. Maybe "consistent" is the wrong word here. If you stand back and look at the year as a whole, though...
David Hinkson was not consistent, even though he'd been a decent reliever as recently as last year, and was cut in September; the White Sox snapped him up immediately. You might look at
Nate Herod and think "ah, lefty specialist" but you would be wrong: Herod is a lefty screwballer and I constantly have to remind myself of that whenever I play this team. That said, he was a very effective middle reliever.
Catcher
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Tabb, Khalil 25 RR 122 454 58 121 22 1 7 64 34 85 1 0 22 .267 .319 .366 2*
Mooneyhan, Jason 38 LR 67 155 12 33 6 1 1 10 13 21 0 0 9 .213 .277 .284 2
Paige, Josh 26 RR 22 50 5 12 1 0 0 7 5 5 0 0 2 .240 .298 .260 2
Khalil Tabb took the starting job over from longtime incumbent
Jason Mooneyham to start the season and really never looked back. I ran a semi-platoon with Mooneyham for a while since he is that rarest of catcher breeds: the left-hander, but he never really hit the way he had in the past. Now he's angry and I'll go ahead and guess that he won't make the roster next year, whether he's traded away or cut. Should he leave, he'll exit as the 4th longest tenured Yankee in terms of games played. Tabb followed up a .339 campaign with a... fine 1970. I can't complain too much about a .267 average with at least a small bit of power from a catcher. He doesn't have a world-class arm but there are only a couple players in today's American League who are poised to test that.
Infield
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Cardenas, Alex 37 LL 159 643 107 191 35 2 31 98 71 66 0 1 22 .297 .364 .502 3*
Berg, Bobby 30 RR 53 49 12 14 1 0 3 7 13 11 0 0 0 .286 .422 .490 /3
Yi, Wing-fung 26 RR 113 366 50 76 10 4 4 39 65 45 14 8 15 .208 .326 .290 4/6
Jones, Pat 33 LR 113 299 43 76 16 4 6 42 27 26 2 0 15 .254 .312 .395 4/56
Weiss, Tom 31 RR 156 591 104 179 31 4 22 80 118 79 2 1 13 .303 .418 .481 5*
Stover, Ty 37 RR 140 492 98 135 30 1 28 97 115 110 0 1 12 .274 .413 .510 6*/4
Armand, Mike 30 RR 31 70 7 15 4 1 1 8 13 21 1 0 3 .214 .337 .343 6/4
Ybarra, German 23 RR 6 5 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 .200 .333 .400 /6
First base was rock solid for New York all season long, thanks to
Alex Cardenas. I think he's just barely off the MVP pace - I know the algorithm puts a special premium on either leading the league in RBIs or hitting the century mark, and Alex did neither - but he finished in the top 10 in hits, doubles, HRs, and RBIs (he was 2nd in that category) so trophy or no, the Yankees had little to worry about here. Incidentally he's just under 2500 career hits (2,458) so it's not out of the question, should he keep things going at this great rate, that he clears 3,000.
The Yankees struggled through most of the year with 2nd year starter
Wing-fung Yi, finally turning to former White Sox star
Pat Jones in the second half. The 33 year old Jones proved he still has a decent amount of gas left in the tank. Going forward, the Yankees have to be thinking about moving Ty Stover to this position but in order to do that they need to find a replacement at shortstop first. Yi gave them a lot of hope that he'd eventually just be their guy at this position with a .302/6/48 season in 1969 but he opened the year with a .171 average in April, was still hitting .191 as late as May 20, and never really got his season on track. Jones at this point is who he is; if anything, his league-average performance last year was a little more than what he's produced over the last few years, and he's much better suited as a utility guy and short-term injury replacement.
Tom Weiss has been with the team for years but never really got an opportunity to show what he could do in a full season. Blame it on the constantly stacked nature of a large-market team. Getting career highs in games and at-bats, Weiss finished 5th in the AL in runs and 2nd in walks. He's too slow to bad 2nd (hey, by 1970 standards) but you've got to consider him to be a major spot in the middle of the Yankees' order for at least the next 5 years.
The Yankees keenly felt the absence of their franchise cornerstone
Ty Stover, who missed the last 2 weeks of the season and the entire ALCS with a broken foot. The pessimist in me sees this as a good way for Yankees fans to begin to accept the reality that the end is much closer than the beginning for Stover, although it should be said that even missing 22 games, he still finished 2nd on the team in both HRs and RBIs. As a fielder he's never been a top-notch shortstop and now, we hate to say it, he could be the worst defensive regular in baseball. Their best prospect at this position is
German Ybarra, who was called up as a late-season defensive replacement thanks to his work in AA Manchester; his 26 at-bats in AAA Syracuse (.154/0/2) indicates that he's probably not going to be ready to go as of the beginning of 1971, however.
Outfield
Code:
Batting Age BT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS DP BA OBP SLG Pos
Field, Dan 26 RR 157 607 64 179 36 0 19 87 46 77 0 0 23 .295 .347 .448 7*
MacMillan, Micah 26 LR 137 577 93 146 19 4 14 61 57 96 15 7 4 .253 .321 .373 8*
Murphy, Jeff 26 SL 21 62 9 13 0 0 3 7 5 6 2 1 0 .210 .268 .355 8
Meneses, Frank 33 LL 129 414 90 109 8 7 32 91 103 113 7 3 4 .263 .407 .548 9*/7
Poynor, Ross 27 LR 84 171 17 48 3 2 7 29 7 44 2 4 1 .281 .304 .444 98/74
Ash, Marc 27 RR 57 117 15 29 2 2 4 12 27 24 5 3 3 .248 .405 .402 9/87
Rhoades, Aaron 26 RR 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 .000 .400 .000 /98
Dan Field enjoyed a fine first full year as a Yankees' starter, beginning the year hitting in the 7-hole and slowly moving his way up as the season progressed, and even earned an All-Star nod for his efforts. His speed, or lack thereof, suggests that he's better suited for a spot in the middle of the lineup than the top, but he's got the pure hitting ability to take over as the #3 man if and when Alex Cardenas ever decides to call it quits.
Micah MacMillan did what was asked of him in center field. He's never going to win a Gold Glove out there with his D and on offense he's not at all flashy. He just works hard, has a motor beyond belief, doesn't make mistakes in the field or on the basepaths, and last year had the privilege of hitting ahead of a powerful Yankees lineup that allowed him to just about crest the century mark in runs scored. His stated backup at the start of the season,
Jeff Murphy, got squeezed out of PT so much that he was sent down to Syracuse, so at this point his backup, more or less, is 4th OF Ross Poynor.
Frank Meneses lost his job late last year but then gained it back this year by doing nothing but hitting homeruns and walking a lot. He's one of those OOTP players with good enough speed to leg out triples but virtually no gap power (or, apparently, enough speed to turn singles into doubles), although even at that his 8 doubles last year were his lowest total since 1963, when the Yanks were using him primarily as a pinch-hitter (and he still got 8 2-base hits in 156 at-bats). The starter turned backup turned 4th OF is
Ross Poynor, a man who'd likely start for at least half of the rest of the American League. He's reportedly not super happy with the situation and may also find himself traded (although probably not, given that he's only 27 and still very effective, cut).
Marc Ash filled a similar backup OF/PH role for the Yankees last year but, perhaps because of lower expectations, he's apparently satisfied in his role.