Although it’s never too soon to start planning for 2011, there will be plenty time to discuss that later. For the moment, on the theme of hey-it-wasn’t-such-a-bad-year, here are my top ten moments of the 2010 Yankees’ season.

Honorable Mentions: Kim Jones’s porkchop incident, Jorge Posada hits two grand slams in two days, Brett Gardner hits a grand slam in an eleven run outburst inning vs. Toronto, A-Rod grand slamming after Mark Teixeira is intentionally walked on multiple occasions…

10. Hope Week Returns

The Yankees might be the big, bad, evil empire…but for the second year running they showed just how big that Yankee heart can be while honoring those whose ability to overcome various disabilities or obstacles inspire hope in so many of us. Some things are bigger than baseball, and HOPE week is a tradition that we all hope may continue.

9. Golson’s gun

Greg Golson was a bench player, a spare body to come in as a late inning defensive replacement or pinch runner. No one really expected much more from him, but on a September night in Tampa, he may have been responsible for the best defensive play of the year.

Closer Mariano Rivera had been struggling (buh?) that month, and the Yankees were nursing a one run lead over the Tampa Bay Rays. When Matt Joyce hit a fly ball to right field, it was an “okay, we can live with this” second out–or so we thought. Carl Crawford, who was on second base, did as we thought he would and tagged up, trying to get to third base. At this point, Golson unleashed a perfect throw, all the way across the diamond, right into A-Rod’s waiting glove. Game, set, match.

8. 600

Bruised shins and banged up calves may have marred Rodriguez’s season, but the Yankee third baseman still has the power to wow, like he did on a Wednesday afternoon game. There were a couple funky notes to his becoming the youngest person ever to hit 600 home runs:

It was the third year anniversary of his 500th home run, and the same starting pitcher–Phil Hughes–was on the mound for the Yankees.

Over the previous weekend, the Yankees had first inning, two-run home runs in multiple games, only to go on and lose almost all of those. Rodriguez’s home run? A first inning, two-run home run (the Yankees won).

7. Papelbad, Part One

Is there a better way to ingratiate yourself as a member of the Yankees than hitting a home run in your first at bat? How about an extra-inning home run that gives the Yankees a lead up in Boston in the first series of the season? Curtis Granderson did both of these, which no doubt built him his fair share of post-trade good will. The moment was huge, but what may have been bigger was that, as the Yankees’ new center-fielder, Granderson helped anchor an outfield that may have been the best the Yankees have had in years. Their defense, coupled with the offensive breakout of Brett Gardner and All Star campaign of Nick Swisher was far more than the Yankees could have possibly expected back in March.

6. The Awareness of Robinson Canó

It’s impossible to pick just one moment or one play for Robinson Canó. That’s how good his season was this year. Truth be told, he was great last year, but for one fluke or another, couldn’t hit with runners on base. This year, however, was a much different story. Canó was the most valuable Yankee, and it wasn’t even close. Whether a grand slam after an intentional walk or a defensive play that looked so easy you almost think you can do it, Canó was owning it.

If you’re a Yankee fan, you are no longer unaware of the team’s superstar second baseman.

5. Behold the power of Colin

Coming into a game to pinch hit is hard enough. Coming in to pinch hit when it’s mid-count and you have two strikes on you is even harder. Now, try doing it as a rookie. Tough, right?

Well, not according to Colin Curtis, who blasted a three-run home run while pinch hitting for Brett Gardner. The Yankees went on to win the game–one of the few Javy Vazquez games that Yankee fans will remember fondly from the 2010 season.

4. Mariano Miracle

At this point, there’s probably nothing more that Mariano Rivera can do to amaze us. In the postseason, in the regular season, it is as though Yankee fans are watching an immortal when the otherwise-very-humble Rivera steps on the mound. Yet, for all the accolades, Rivera still had yet another trick up his sleeve in Arizona.

In the bottom of the tenth inning, after the Yankees had taken an extra-inning lead, after a single, double and intentional walk, the bases were loaded with no one out and Rivera was in his second inning of work.

That’s when Rivera got down to business: a foul out, a pop out and a strike out that ended the game.

It makes us wonder: is there anything the great Rivera can’t do?

3. Sunday Night Surprise

The 2009 Yankees left their mark via the late-inning comeback and walk off. The 2010 Yankees hadn’t done that much, but on this Sunday night in Los Angeles, it felt as though the Yankees stuck a season’s worth of comebacks all into one evening.

The ninth inning play by play:

M Teixeira struck out swinging
A Rodriguez singled; A Rodriguez to second on fielder’s indifference
R Canó doubled; A Rodriguez scored
J Posada singled; A Rodriguez to third
J Posada to second on fielder’s indifference
C Granderson walked
C Huffman singled; R Canó and J Posada scored, C Granderson to third
C Curtis grounded out to first; C Granderson scored, C Huffman to second

The Yankees took the lead on a two-run extra inning home run from Robinson Canó, and the most dramatic comeback win of the regular season was secured.

2. Swisher honors the Boss

Ever have to go back to work after a death in the family? It’s hard. Yet, this is what the Yankees were tasked with doing after George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard passed on over the All Star break.

The game was a catharsis; while the tributes to The Boss and Bob Sheppard were moving, the game itself was a tense, playoff-like atmosphere. Although Derek Jeter had a chance to win it in the bottom of the ninth, it feels almost fitting that instead it came down to Swisher, someone who’s loose, fun demeanor may have been precisely what the Yankees needed, because once you’re done mourning, you still need to go on living…

1. Papelbad, Part Two

One gets the feeling that absolutely everything could go wrong in the Yankee season, but if the team is still better than the Red Sox, you can live with it.

So it was this evening, when the Yankees had a 5-0 lead, then blew it in the latter innings, only to recover with a game tying home run from Alex Rodriguez, and a game winning home run from Marcus Thames. The game echoed the pre-2004 sentiments long expressed in the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry: that no matter how hard the Red Sox tried, the Yankees would still somehow find a way to win the game.

To do it versus Jonathan Papelbon, of course, just makes it that much better.

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View the complete set, including the greatest A-Rod shot ever (well, okay, maybe not) at http://flickr.com/firerosearien

Grab the Nostalgia Train

Honor America

Let CC pitch.

Score runs when the other team doesn’t play defense.

And on home runs.

Pick Andrus off second.

Give the baseball to the Greatest Of All Time.

Victory.

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The standings don’t care.

The standings don’t care if a game is won in April or August, by one or by twenty, in sunshine or in rain. All that matters is that a win is a win, and the team with the most in the W column keeps on playing, long after the nights have become longer than the days.

For the fans, however, when narrative is everything, some wins just matter more than others.

Take tonight, for example.

With the Yankees’ having split with the Rays and in danger of being swept in the final home series of the season, they discarded their previous plan to try to conserve innings for their young fifth starter, Phil Hughes, and instead bade him the task of pitching tonight’s game. Not clinching a Wild Card spot is one thing; not even reducing the magic number would have been quite another.

So it was that tonight almost felt, to some, like a need for validation–that the Yankees are not the 2007 Mets, that they will still be playing baseball on Halloween. Losses build upon one another, and losing tonight’s game–where both starters were excellent and Alex Rodriguez worked some familiar late-inning magic–would have been that type of demoralizing loss that can take the color out of autumn leaves.

The win was far from perfect, and there is an emerging worry about Mariano Rivera, who has now blown three saves in one month. Is it his annual dead arm period, or something more serious? It’s not the first time Rivera has blown a save and it won’t be the last, but no one wearing pinstripes, on their uniform or, trite as it sounds, in their hearts, has had to watch a closer who was mere human for at least the past sixteen years. We simply don’t know what humanity on the mound in the ninth inning looks like, and any time previous we may have seen it, we pretend we haven’t.

On the other hand, in some respects the game illustrated the best about the Yankees: a young starter who looks poised to take the mound in the playoffs, the once almost-anathema Rodriguez hitting a late game home run and then fake-bunting to allow a steal of third base, a clutch single from Robbie Canó, dramatically cementing his MVP candidacy if he had not already done so, two and two-thirds innings of absolutely stunning bullpen work from David Robertson, Kerry Wood, Joba Chamberlain and Boone Logan, and a walk-off walk from Juan Miranda–far from the biggest bat on the roster.

All it takes is one win, strategically placed at the right time, to change the outlook from fans and writers: an elimination number of three with a week of baseball left still allows for hope; an elimination number of one would require a six or seven game losing streak.

Of course, the standings don’t care about what the fans think; they’re there, printed in greyscale in the Times and the Record and the News and the Post, and fifty years from now you probably won’t remember how the Yankees got that 93rd win of theirs, but in the end, all that the standings care about is that they did.

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The last time I ever had to leave a Yankee game early, they were up by a large margin and I remarked to my friend, “well, if the Yankees blow this lead, I don’t particularly want to see it.”

I was reminded of this incident today.

I’ll keep it simple.

1) The game story, as explained by WPA, courtesy Fangraphs.

2) Prayers are with David Huff, who took an A-Rod double off of his head. Fortunately, word has it that he never lost consciousness, and his CT scan was negative. His family was in attendance at the game. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how dangerous this game can be…

3) CC Sabathia, via tweets from JMK and OSingh91, respectively:

CC currently sporting a career high in FIP, career low in BABIP, contact rate at 79%, high in HR/FB, less than 7 K/9. Career low in fastball velocity.

Wow, a career high in 2-seamers says Pitch f/x (18.1%, career 3.0%, but only 4 yrs of data). Explains low K’s and high FIP.

I mentioned that maybe CC’s heavy workload the past two years is coming home to roost. I hope it’s not the case, but no human being (except maybe old Hoss) can really pitch that many innings that often without having issues.

3) Joba Chamberlain

Needs to not be pitching in high leverage situations.

Last five games: 5 IP, 11 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 3 BB, 6 K.

What’s worse? His numbers in high leverage situations: Opponents are hitting .308/.357/.462/.819, which is very much not what you want from your set-up man. It’s the anti-what-Hughes-did in 2009.

4) Joe Girardi

This shouldn’t be entirely on him, because CC and Joba should have been able to do their jobs, but I don’t really understand removing Mitre after facing just one batter and even less removing Damaso Marte after he got the second out of the inning.

As Jay Jaffe tweeted, the Yankees do not have a shut-down non-closer, healthy RHP in the bullpen right now. That’s, um, not good.

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There is no possible way I can sum up this game. None. So take a look at this graph. It’s shiny.

(via Fangraphs)

Okay, bullet points:

1) Phil Hughes had his first not good outing, even though he left the game with a lead. Basically, he didn’t have a ‘finish’ pitch working, and the Red Sox made like the Yankees and built the pitch count up early. By the time of JD Drew’s home run in the fifth inning, Hughes was way over 100, high-stress pitches. Every pitcher, especially one still only 23 years old, is gonna have not so good outings. His next start should come against the Mets, we’ll see how he rebounds.

2) Joe Girardi’s bullpen managing was full of ‘buuuh’, but think about it this way: had the game gone to extra innings, Javier Vazquez would have been able to give the bullpen some length. Of course, this would have probably not happened and instead Mariano would have pitched the 10th and then, umm, who knows what, but hey, Marte pitched well, and Chan Ho Park…not so much.

3) Brett Gardner and Alex Rodriguez need to hit against Jonathan Papelbon more often. Wow. Just. Yeah, A-Rod hate is so 2004.
3a) Reminders of that 15 inning game last summer and ALDS game 2.

4) As, apparently, does Marcus Thames. About whom I never will again say bad things.

5) Joe West has a point. That game was what, four hours and change? Or just under four? Eeesh.

6) A-Rod’s game tying and Thames’ game-winning home runs will be added to the “for your viewing pleasure” post shortly. You can find the link on the sidebar.

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It was great to see the Yankees win today–notably on the stength of an Alex Rodriguez grand slam, but something that occured during the game got myself–and some others–a little riled.
Yankee Fans:  Real Yankee fans do not do the wave.

Here’s why.

1) It’s distracting.

Yankee fans (usually) come to Yankee games to, well, watch the game.  The Yankees are, and have been since the mid-1990s, a very good, almost-always-still-playing-in-October baseball team.  With the exception of exhibition games or games played in late September after a playoff-berth clincher, Yankee games mean something in the standings.

While you can never pin the results of a season on one particular game, a division such as the AL East can very often come down to just one game in the standings–so every game counts.

When a section of the Stadium all of a sudden makes a ton of noise, everyone else turns and looks to see what’s going on–it takes work to ignore it.  And when you’re busy watching the wave, you’re busy not watching the game.

By all means, cheer your hearts out at the appropriate moments–like, when A-Rod hits a grand slam or Francisco Cervelli legs out an infield single–things that relate to the actual game.  The fans are there to see the game–not the fans that you’ve never met in the section at the opposite end of the stadium.

2) It’s lame.

Yankee fans can, and have, been creative with their cheers.  Like when Pedro Martinez graces the mound and the fans start chanting “who-se your da-ddy”.

Seriously, creativity rocks.

Last week, when I went to Fenway, when the Red Sox were clearly getting blown out, the Red Sox fans started chanting “Let’s Go Bruins!”

Last season, in the middle of July, being in the right-field bleachers when someone spotted a fan wearing a Mets jersey, jumped up and started serenading, “Lu-is Cas-Till-o”.

In fact, these aren’t even particularly creative per se, they’re just topical.  And you don’t have to deal with people standing and sitting and standing and sitting.

The Wave?

Come on, New York.  You are so, so much better than that.

3.) On a hot, humid day you don’t want 50,000 people all raising their arms… (via Josh)

Baseball reigns in New York in a way no other sport–not football, not basketball, not hockey–can do.  The thing is, there has almost always been a decent New York baseball team, a team still playing for something on September 30, every year.  Even when the Yankees have been down, there has been someone else–the Giants, the Dodgers, the Mets–that did well.

That’s how the great rivalries developed and continue to develop, and that’s why New Yorkers know their baseball.

It’s not a sideshow here; it’s the real deal.

If you want to be a Yankee fan, we’re more than willing to have you come aboard (and enhance our world domination, whoo!), but you need to understand–we take our baseball seriously (most of the time, anyway).

And we most definitely do not do the wave.

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[All individual player stats are as of before today's game].

As of Cinco de Mayo 2010, the Yankees are eleven games over .500. They’re only a half game behind the Tampa Bay Rays, a team that’s prompted comments by the likes of Buster Olney about similarities to the 1998 Yankee squad.

Four of the Yankees’ five starters have ERAs under 3.00, and there had only be one game–one, out of 27 played–the entire season in which the Yankee offense has failed to score three or more runs. Only one starter not named Vazquez has a loss on his record–and that’s CC Sabathia.

Mix those two things together, and, injury concerns not withstanding, good things are probably going to happen.

Here, however, is the kicker: the Yankees are finding ways to win–pending the outcome of the Rays/Mariners game, the Yankees could end the evening in first place–and they are doing such while the 2-3-4 hitters in their lineup have an average OPS of .653.

For comparison’s sake, the Pittsburgh Pirates, a team that’s, as of this posting, scored 93 runs (the Yankees have scored 151) have a team OPS of .677. (Since you’re probably interested, Johnson, Teixeira and Rodriguez have combined to score 36 runs, not including today’s game.)

If we break it down individually, we can find the following:

Nick Johnson might only be batting on the interstates, but he has an on-base percentage near .400. He might not be tearing the cover off the ball (though this is exactly what he did in the first inning of today’s game, holy bejaysus that was a monster shot), but he’s not exactly making outs, either.

Johnson’s also been tremendously unlucky–with a BABIP of .182. There is almost no conceivable way he can remain that unlucky all season.

Mark Teixeira’s also been unlucky, but he hasn’t been unlucky, and while he is drawing some walks, it’s not nearly enough to make up for a batting average of .175 (just ask my fantasy team). However, slow starts for Teixeira are nothing new–thus far this season, Teixeira has had three multi-hit games; last season, on May 5th, Teixeira had had four.

Since Alex Rodriguez didn’t make his 2009 debut until May 8, it’s hard to compare his stats this year with those of last season, but here we may have the most cause for pause–he hasn’t hit a home run since April 20th at Oakland, no small thing since he’s the Yankees’ clean-up hitter, and since then he’s batted to a tune of .204/.226/.265/.492. That’s a slump if ever there was one.

Even so, there’s a very good reason to remain optimistic about Teixeira, A-Rod and Johnson: long histories of producing. Logic and statistics tell us that the three of them will recover and play to something more similar to the back of their baseball cards–we perhaps saw some of that with Johnson today.

When they do that, it’s entirely possible they take an offense already on pace to score 907 runs (they scored 915 last season) and turn it from being merely good into something bordering on historic.

At that point, the Yankees could very well be unstoppable.

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(Stolen from LoHud (NYYanksfan:)

Canó, April 2010 81 AB, 21 Runs, 33 hits, 5-2B, 1-3B, 8HR, 17RBI .407/.444/.790/ 1.235

A-Rod, April 2007 93 AB, 27 Runs, 33 hits, 7-2B, 0-3B, 14HR, 34RBI, .355/.415/.882/ 1.297

You’re welcome

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Today, the Yankees did as is long standing tradition for the winners of any major American sports championship, and visited the White House.

It was all very much golly-gee amusement for the fans (the heartwarming part happened earlier, when the players went to visit the vets at Walter Reed), the type of feel-good, we-rule-the-world thing that has us living vicariously through multi-million dollar athletes for a few hours of the day.  Nothing to see here, move along…

…that is, until someone brought up that President Obama did not mention Alex Rodriguez by name.

ZOMG, CONTROVERSY!

Only, not.

*****

Like any devoted Yankee fan, I’ve heard it from all comers on A-Rod.

I’ve heard about how he’s a great person, about how he’s a horrible person, about how he’s the best ballplayer ever, about how he’s a fraud, on and on it goes.

I think I’ve shocked more people when I tell them that Rodriguez is not my favorite Yankee (Mariano is; of course you, dear reader, know this by now…) than I have when I say that Jeter is not.

****

For the non-Yankee fan, A-Rod would seem to sum up all there is to hate about the Yankees:  the big money contract, the glamour, the aura of inaccessibility, the drama.  He’s like Derek Jeter, but with hubris.  (Thus far, it’s either that Jeter’s hubris is his defense, or he doesn’t have one.  Which is kind of crazy in 2010).

For Yankee fans, A-Rod is the ballplayer that can do and does some crazy awesome things on the field, but somehow, for some reason, always manages to be the center of attention.  Some Yankee fans will tell you that it’s only what he does on the field that matters, and because of this they’ll wear their #13 jerseys without a second thought; others will tell you that he’s not a team player, yadda yadda.

****

In 2009, the A-Rod story arc was actually one worth following–the hip injury, the steroid admission (at this point, I can no longer remember which came first, though I believe it was the latter), the home-run-on-the-first-pitch-of-the-season, the walk off against Boston, the grand slam on the last pitch of the season, the bottom-of-the-ninth game tying home run in the ALDS, the extra inning home run in the ALCS, the camera home run in the World Series…

In 2010, it almost feels like in The Lord of the Rings, after Frodo and Sam have been to Mt. Doom, and are on their way back to the Shire.  They’ve conquered the big, bad demon of Sauron (in this case the injury and the “unclutch” reputation, and proving himself to be a “true Yankee”),  but they still have to deal with the just-as-annoying Saruman (in this case, the media-yes, the blogging community, too-that will grasp at straws to create controversy where there is none, just because it’s Alex).*

A-Rod has now won MVP awards, won games, contributed monumentally to postseason wins and won the World Series with the New York Yankees.    He’s done what he was expected to do, and early on in 2010, he’s performing pretty well as is.

At this point, any controversy feels strained and forced, as though somehow some in the media are yearning for more Dallas Bradens to come forth, just because it’d make for good copy.

I don’t really care that Obama didn’t mention A-Rod by name–and if Alex himself cares, that’s his business, not mine.

Or maybe I’m just a bad media-type.

*Note:  The Scouring of the Shire, while a central part of the Return of the King book, was left out of the movie due to fears of anti-climax and time constraints.  No word exists on whether or not  Peter Jackson cut the scene in order to appeal to Joe West, who may have thought that the movies were too long and a disgrace to the cinematic community.

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(Brief recap because it’s 2 AM and I want to sleep)

Just call them the Gods of OBP.

In Oakland tonight (err, this morning?), the Yankees managed a 7-3 win over the Athletics with only five hits–but they were helped by their ten walks.

Yankees’ starter Javier Vazquez was spotted a three run lead before he even threw a pitch; although Vazquez was not particularly efficient with his pitch count, he pitched well enough to win, and would have likely remained in the game longer had Curtis Granderson not misplayed a fly ball he should have caught.

Boone Logan made his Yankee debut, and seemed to be doing all right until coming undone after a Derek Jeter miscue (one which could have been called an error, but was not.)

Home Plate umpire Ed Rapuano took a foul ball off the mask; he left the game one batter later and as of this writing, had been taken by ambulance to a hospital for a CT scan. Here’s hoping that he is not seriously hurt.

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