Yankees lost first game of Mariners Series Thanks to Cliff Lee
Last year, Cliff Lee was the ace of the Phillies staff. Lee pitched in game one of the World Series and made the Yankees look pathetic. Lee pitched a complete game, allowing one run on six hits and struck out ten Yankees. Lee put the Phillies in a good position by stunning the Yankees, but everyone knows the Yankees erased that game from their brains and won the World Series in six games. Eight months later, the Yankees faced Lee once again when they met the Mariners at Yankee Stadium last night.
The Yankees wanted to have a better outing against Lee this time around. The Yankees had Hughes pitch, who has been the Yankees best pitcher this season. The Yankees felt good about their chances this time around against Lee. Unfortunately Hughes was not his usual self last night. The first inning looked promising, Hughes put up a zero and the Yankees scored one run in the bottom of the inning. Then the wheels came off for Hughes, from the second inning through the fifth he let up one run per inninng. The Yankees were held scoreless for those same four innings. Going into the sixth inning the score was 4-1 Mariners.
In the sixth, the Mariners unleashed for three more runs to make it 7-1. With Lee’s dominance, the Yankees stood no chance for a comeback. The Yankees were only able to muster one more run in the bottom of the sixth, but wait! In the ninth inning, Lee was looking for another complete game against the Yankees. Lee was obviously tiring, but the Mariners bullpen is so bad that the Mariners coach trusted a tiring Lee over his bullpen. Will the Yankees be able to mount another ninth inning comeback? The Yankees scored two quick runs and with only one out they were down 7-4. Lee remained in the game and got Granderson and the rookie Huffman out to end the game.
At least the Yankees made Lee sweat a little in the end of this game. Lee has the Yankees number and the Yankees have no solution on how to beat him. Instead of losing to him all the time, the Yankees have been rumored that they want to make a trade for Lee before the deadline. If you can’t beat him, trade for him. If the Yankees get Lee their rotation would be solid. Once Burnett is back to his usual self, the Yankees could have five possible number one starters on their team.
Hughes picked up his second loss of the season, last nights game was definitely his worst game of the season. I guess Hughes was due to lose some time.
The Yankees look to bounce back tonight against the Mariners. The Yankees have Javier Vazquez going against the Mariners Felix Hernandez. (yankees.com)
By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
The Yankees/Dodgers Rivalry Continues On
The Yankees and Dodgers have met in the World Series more than any other team in baseball. All of those World Series together, which was mostly when the Dodgers were in Brooklyn, created a rivalry between the teams. Before the Mets became the Yankees inter-league rivalry, the Dodgers rivalry was even bigger.
Game One:
This past weekend the Yankees and Dodgers faced off again and this time the heat was back in the rivalry because of former manager and hitting coach of the Yankees are now doing the same with the Dodgers in Joe Torre and Don Mattingly. To go along with those two, the Dodgers also have the old Yankee killer Manny Ramirez and Vincente Padilla who has had a history of hitting Yankee batters.
The first game on Friday had C.C. Sabathia going for the Yankees against Vincente Padilla. After struggling a little bit in May C.C. has been lights out in June not losing any games in the month. Padilla has been injured most of the season, it was only his sixth start of the season.
Both pitchers were lights out, Sabathia started off letting up one run in the first inning from Ramirez’s two out RBI double. The Yankees answered back quickly in the top of the second from Jorge Posada’s RBI single. For the next three innings both pitchers put up zeros.
In the sixth inning Alex Rodriguez hit a solo home run to put the Yankees up 2-1 and the score stayed that way the rest of the game. Both Padilla and Sabathia had seven strikeouts each. Sabathia went eight innings allowing four hits and Padilla went seven innings allowing six hits.
Mariano Rivera came in the ninth for the save and struck out all three batters, which leads to the backstory of the fireworks during the game. As I mentioned Padilla had a record with some of the Yankee hitters and it continued in this game when Padilla hit Robinson Cano. Sabathia was not happy about this and when Padilla came up to bat Sabathia hit him in the calf. Padilla looked at Sabathia and started walking towards him, Sabathia did not back down doing the same. Nothing came of it from there. Then in the ninth when Rivera struck out the last batter of the game, Andre Ethier, there was jarring made about the strike calls from Torre and Mattingly who were both thrown out of the game. The game was over anyway so it didnt really make a difference, but they will probably be fined.
Game Two:
The Dodgers really needed a win in this game after struggling mightily lately. The Dodgers season has been up and down all year long and there are rumors that this will be Torre’s last year as manager no matter what happens. Saturdays game had the 0-4 in the month of June, A.J. Burnett for the Yankees against the Dodgers Hiroki Kuroda.
This game was the complete opposite of Friday night’s game. The Yankees started things early when in the first inning they scored three runs on Mark Teixeira’s three-run home run. When the Dodgers got up to bat in the bottom of the inning they scored two runs of their own of the still struggling Burnett. All week the Yankees worked on Burnett’s mechanics to try and straighten him out, but apparently it didn’t work.
After a scoreless inning in the second by both team, the third inning brought on more offense, first by the Yankees adding another run on Rodriguez’s RBI single making the game 4-2 Yankees. That didn’t last for long, in the bottom of the third Burnett imploded once again, letting up three more runs. The Yankees pulled Burnett from the game after that inning knowing that he still wasn’t right. In the fourth inning the Yankees brought in Boone Logan to pitch and he let up another two runs to make the game 7-4 Dodgers. Logan lasted two innings when Chan Ho Park relieved him in the sixth inning. Park had a strong sixth inning, but in the seventh he also let up two more runs to make the game 9-4 Dodgers.
The game wound up staying at 9-4 and the Dodgers receieved their much needed win. Burnett recorded his fifth straight loss and put himself in the history books by becoming the only Yankee pitcher to be 0-5 in the month of June with an ERA over 10. Another concern for the Yankees must be their bullpen. The only guy that can be trusted is Rivera and Joba Chamberlin who when is on is unhittable.
Game Three:
The rubber game of the series featured Andy Pettite for the Yankees against Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers. Pettite has been strong for the Yankees all year long and was looking for his tenth win of the season. Kershaw is also having a good year for the Dodgers looking for his eighth win of the season.
The first offense of the game came in the bottom of the third when the Dodgers scored three runs. In the next inning the Dodgers continued their offense when Ronnie Belliard hit a two run home run to give the Dodgers a 5-0 lead.
Kershaw was dominating through the first five innings holding the Yankees scoreless. Pettite was the opposite having one of his worst games of the season and the Yankees lifted him from the game after five innings.
The Yankees showed a little glimmer of hope in the sixth inning when Rodriguez hit his second home runs of the series, this time a two-run shot to pull the Yankees within three runs, 5-2.
In the eight inning the Dodgers added another run making the game 6-2 Dodgers. That should have sealed the deal and helped the Dodgers start their winning ways once again by beating a good team like the Yankees. Shockingly, the Yankees, after having little offense all game, lit up the Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton. Broxton is known to be one of the best closers in the league, it wasn’t a save situation with the four run lead, but Torre badly wanted this win so they brought in Broxton anyway.
Broxton easily struck out Teixeira with only four pitches to start the inning, but from there Rodriguez hit a single, then Cano toughed out a long battle to get a double that drove Rodriguez in. The next batter, Posada, also had a tough at bat and made Broxton throw a lot of pitches. Posada got a single and then moved to second on a defensive indifference. The Yankees had a runner on second and third with one out and Curtis Granderson up at the plate. Again the Yankees gave Broxton another tough at-bat and Granderson worked a walk to load the bases for the rookie Chad Huffman who was in the game for Brett Gardner who left after getting hit by a pitch from Kershaw. The rookie Huffman also had a tough at-bat and hit a single to drive in two more runs. The score is now 6-5 Dodgers and the Yankees had a runner on first and third with still only one out. The Yankees fate now stands in another rookies hand with Colin Curtis. Broxton is clearly tired and was over 40 pitches thrown for the inning. Curtis just like everyone else in the inning, had a tough at bat fouling off pitch after pitch when he finally grounded to first. James Loney picked up the ball and instead of throwing the ball straight home where Granderson was attempting to score the tying run, he instead got the out at first and then threw off balance to home which made him throw the ball inaccurately and Granderson was safe!
The Yankees came all the way back to tie the game. Derek Jeter was up next to try and score Huffman from second, but he got out. On to the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees bring in Rivera who pitched an easy scoreless ninth. More fireworks erupted when Garret Anderson mad the second out of the inning, on his way back to the dugout he said something to the umpire arguing about a strike called against him earlier in the at-bat. Anderson was thrown out of the game which prompted Torre to come out and argue, but he stayed in the game.
In the top of the tenth, Cano hit a two-run home run to give the Yankees a 8-6 lead. Cano just came that much closer to being named MVP. The home run came off of George Sherill who hasn’t let up a home run to a lefty in 150 batters.
In the bottom of the tenth Rivera went back out and shut down the Dodgers to pick up the win. Again there was more fireworks when the second out of the inning, Russell Martin was thrown out when he thought he receieved a walk only to be struck out looking. Martin slammed his bat on the ground and broke it. The Dodgers had every right to be frustrated, the Dodgers should have never lost that game and the series. Torre looked bad in the last game leaving Broxton out there for so long.
The Yankees hope to continue where they left off in L.A. when they face the Mariners tomorrow night back at home. The Yankees have Phil Hughes going against the Mariners ace Cliff Lee. (yankees.com)
By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Derek Jeter Makes #4 of the Best Shortstops of 2010
Only one of the big three shortstops remain, Derek Jeter. Nomar Garciapara retired this year and Alex Rodriguez moved over to third base when he came to the Yankees. Now when people ask who the premier shortstops are? They struggle to get two or three names out. I somehow came up with the top five shortstops of 2010, it was a struggle, but here they are.
4. Derek Jeter, New York Yankees: The aging captain still remains as one of the elite shortstops in the league at the age of 36. Jeter is actually having somewhat of a down year so far in 2010. Since the shortstop position is so weak these days even a struggling Jeter makes it into the number four spot. Jeter is hitting .283 with eight home runs and 39 RBI’s. Jeter is on pace to have more RBI’s than his last two seasons and his home runs are pretty much on pace, but the stunning stat is his average. Jeter has hit over .300 every year since 2005 and only three years of his career he has hit under .300. The thing is with a guy like Jeter is, most of the time when he struggles he makes up for it later on in the season and still goes on to have a great season. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jeter moves up into the one or two spot by the end of the season.
Click here to read the full article – By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Subway Series: Yankees Take Two Out of Three
Game One:
After losing two out of three to the Mets at Citi Field, the Yankees looked to win the season series by sweeping the Mets at Yankee Stadium. Well, that didn’t happen the first game had Javier Vazquez going for the Yankees against the Mets new, young, Japanese sensation, Hisanori Takahashi.
Takahashi has been a godsend for the Mets. He pitched six scoreless innings, only allowing four hits. The Yankees were lifeless in this game. The only chance the Yankees had of winning came in the ninth inning against the Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez. Down 4-0 the Yankees had their first threat of the game with one out and the bases loaded for Derek Jeter.
Jeter came into the game in a slump and he wasn’t his normal self in the ninth inning. Jeter is known to be one of the best clutch hitters in the game, but he easily went down against Rodriguez with a strikeout. The Yankees last chance came down to Nick Swisher who already had two hits in the game and has been hot all year. Out of character again, Swisher who usually likes to work the count, swung at the first pitch popping the ball up in foul territory past third for David Wright to easily catch and end the game.
Vazquez again has had terrible luck when he pitches. He has put together five straight good starts now, but he never gets much run support. Vazquez pitched seven innings of one-run ball and had to be taken out because of his high pitch count.
Takahashi is now 6-2 on the season with a 3.13 ERA. Takahashi has proven that he is capable of being a number two starter for the Mets, just what they need if they want to make it to the playoffs.
Game Two:
This was definitly the most exciting game of the series. The Yankees had Cy Young Award candidate Phil Hughes against the Mets Cy Young Award candidate Mike Pelfrey. Pelfrey and Hughes had the same record of 9-1 going into Saturday’s game. These two pitchers are proving to their teams that they are the aces this year.
This game was the only game of the series that was close throughout. In the first inning the Mets started quick, scoring one run on the re-born Jose Reyes’s home run to lead off the game. The Yankees came right back in the bottom of the first with Brett Gardner leading off with a single followed by Nick Swisher who also hit a single which allowed Gardner to make it to third. With Mark Teixeira coming up the Yankees had a good chance to score a lot of runs quickly, but the struggling Teixeira grounded into a double play, which allowed Gardner to score and tie the game.
In the third inning for the Mets, Reyes hit another home run, this time a two run shot that gave the Mets a 3-1 lead. Once again the Yankees didn’t let the Mets keep that lead for long. In the bottom of the third the Yankees also hit a two-run homerun by Mark Teixeira to tie the game back up at three.
From the fourth inning on Hughes turned things up a notch pitching brilliantly not allowing any more runs. On the Mets side Pelfrey couldn’t keep things together. In the bottom of the fourth the Yankees broke out the long ball again with another two-run homerun from Curtis Granderson this time making the score 5-3 Yankees.
The Yankees bullpen held the score at 5-3 with Joba Chamberlin coming in to pitch the eight to set thing up for Mariano Rivera’s 16th save in the ninth.
Game Three:
This is the game everyone was waiting to see, C.C. Sabathia against Johan Santana. Both pitchers, who are supposed to be their teams aces, have struggles somewhat this year. Sabathia really showed up yesterday though, in a game the Yankees had to win if they wanted to tie the overall subway series.
Both pitchers pitched well actually, the only blemish came in the bottom of the third when with the bases loaded Teixeira hit a grand slam. Even though Teixeira’s average is much lower than usual, his home run numbers are still up. If it wasn’t for that grand slam, the game would have been tied 0-0 into extra innings. That was the only mistake Santana let up in the game.
The Yankees got their revenge this time blanking the Mets 4-0 behind Sabathia’s stellar eight scoreless innings. The Yankees tied up this year’s subway series when it looked like the Mets had it in the bag.
The Yankees continue their inter-league schedule in Arizona against the Diamondbacks tonight. The Yankees, who now stand alone in first place and have the best record in baseball, should expect nothing less than a sweep against the last place and fourth worst record in baseball Diamondbacks. (Yankees.com)
By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Yankees Vs. Phillies: World Series Re-Match, Yankees Are Still Better
Last night the Yankees and Phillies had their aces on the mound for the first game of the World Series re-match. Roy Halladay vs. C.C. Sabathia, this will be a pitchers duel right? Wrong! Halladay was roughed up early starting in the second inning when the Yankees scored two runs on a Brett Gardner Triple, his fourth on the season.
The next inning led to Halladay’s undoing when the Yankees hot two home runs, a solo shot from Curtis Granderson to start off the inning and then a two-run homer by Nick Swisher.
The Phillies answered back in the fourth inning, they scored three runs and beat up Sabathia in the process. Chase Utley hit a ball up the middle that struck Sabathia’s pitching hand. Sabathia un-phased by the batted ball stayed in the game for three more innings not allowing any more runs.
Halladay doesn’t usually let up more than two runs a game. It was shocking to see him get roughed up. The Yankees are used to seeing Halladay over the years when he was on the Blue Jays. It has been less than a year since they last faced him and the Yankees proved that it would take a long time for them to forget how he pitches.
Later in the game Mark Teixeira put icing on the cake when he hit a solo shot that barely squeaked around the foul pole in the fifth inning. That home run capped off a three home run night against Halladay who left after six innings. In a game that was supposed to be a pitchers duel, the Yankees turned it into a laugher finishing the game with two more runs in the seventh to win 8-3.
The Yankees have the up and down A.J. Burnett going tonight against the never-aging Jamie Moyer. I am expecting this game to be very high scoring. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a 12-5 score. It all depends on what Burnett will show up, if he’s on it could be an even bigger deficit. Either way the Yankees should crush the 83 mph fastball that Moyer throws. Moyer might be able to get away with that in the National League, if he was still in the American League he would have been retired eight years ago. Hopefully the Yankees won’t get embarrassed, if they don’t win by more than four runs it would be shocking! (yankees.com)
By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Alex Rodriguez Makes #5 of the Best Third Baseman of 2010
Three out of the five third baseman on this list are having comeback years. One of the players career looked like it was over, one of them hasn’t had a good year since he was in the National League, and the last comeback player had a power outage last year.
5. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees: Rodriguez has had another slow start to the season for the second year in a row. A slow start for Rodriguez is still better than most of the third baseman in the league. Rodriguez hasn’t found his home run swing this year only belting eight home runs so far. Rodriguez usually has eight home runs by the beginning of May when he’s on. Even though Rodriguez is lacking in home runs, his average and RBI total has been on par. Rodriguez is hitting .290 with 43 RBI’s. By the end of the season Rodriguez should put up his 14th straight season of over 30 home runs and 100 RBI’s.
Click here to read the full article – By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
The Yankees Sweep the Astros
The Yankees easily handled the Houston Astros this past weekend mostly with the power of their bats.
The first game of the series on Friday, the Yankees had Andy Pettite on the hill and he was spectacular! The only game that did not feature that much offense was Friday’s game. The Yankees only scored four runs on five hits, but thanks to Pettite the Yankees sweaked out a 4-3 victory notching Pettite’s 200th win as a Yankee.
Game two on Saturday featured another milestone, this time for Jorge Posada. The match-up was Javier Vazquez against Wandy Rodriguez. Vazquez continued his win streak and complete turnaround from his horrible start. Vazquez went seven innings allowing three runs on six hits. The bigger story was the Yankees bats which hammered Rodrigues for eight runs over five innings. Posada and Jeter led the offense with three home runs combined, two for Jeter and a grand slam for Posada. The grand slam for Posada in the third inning notched his 250th home run of his career and it really opened up the game from there. The Yankees were up 6-2 at the end of the third inning and Jeter put a little cherry on top in the sixth inning hitting his second home run of the game to give the Yankees an 8-3 lead. The Yankees finished the game with a score of 9-3 and creaped one game under the first place Rays.
In Game three, the Yankees still had their power surge going from the last game. Hold on, am I watching Yankees Encore? I must be because it’s showing Posada’s grand slam again! Wait! This isn’t Yankees Encore, oops, he did it again! Posada who was slumping coming into the Astros series hit two grand slams on back to back days!
The Astros didn’t even have a chance in this game. In the first inning the Astros scored one run and held that one run lead for three innings. One run isn’t going to be enough against the Yankees hot bats. In the fourth inning Cano led off with a solo home run and the Yankees followed up with two more runs that inning making it 3-1 Yankees. Then in the fifth inning the game was over thanks to Posada’s second grand slam in as many days. The Yankees had a commanding 7-1 lead going into the sixth inning.
Wait! This game isn’t over! The Astros started beating up a tiring Hughes and pushed across four runs in the top of the sixth making it a 7-5 game. The Yankees might have an epic failure on their hands! Not to worry, the Yankees pushed across two more runs in the bottom of the sixth and it remained that way for the rest of the game giving the Yankees a 9-5 victory to complete the sweep. The sweep gives the Yankees a tie for the best record in baseball with their division rival Rays.
The Yankees continue their inter-league schedule in a re-match of the World Series Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies. Both teams have their ace’s going C.C. Sabathia for the Yankees against newly acquired Roy Halladay for the struggling of late Phillies. (yankees.com)
By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Cano Makes #1 of the Best Second Baseman of 2010
Second base isn’t producing many offensive numbers this year. One man stands far and beyond at the best second baseman of 2010 so far and probably for a long time to come.
1. Robinson Cano, New York Yankees: The other four guys on this list do not even come close to Cano this year. Cano is hitting a league leading .371, 13 home runs, and 47 RBI’s. Who would have thought that Cano would be leading the Yankees with home runs, RBI’s, slugging, average, and on base percentage? Cano is outshining Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Teixeira as the elite all-around player not just on the Yankees, not just out of all second basemen, but everyone in all of baseball. Cano is the prime reason why the Yankees are currently tied for the best record in baseball with the Rays. If Cano was having just one of his usual seasons, which still were good seasons, The Yankees would be struggling this year. Rodriguez isn’t having his typical power number year yet and Teixeira is only hitting .229 so far. Cano has picked up the slack and carried the team on his back. If Rodriguez and Teixeira start playing like they are accustomed to, the Yankees are going to run away with another World Series trophy. If Rodriguez and Teixeira do not come back to form it is going to be a close race between the Yankees and Rays all year long. Right now, until the Yankees prove that they can beat the Rays, the Rays are the better team by a hair. (MLB.com)
Click here to read the full article – By Eric Heyer of Sports-Fan Blog Network
Yankees Lose Two Out of Three to the Blue Jays
When it comes to facing teams with a winning record the Yankees have been having some trouble. The same was true this weekend when they lost two out of three to the Toronto Blue Jays who have move within two and a half games behind the Yankees and are tied with the Boston Red Sox for third place in the division.
On Friday night Burnett had a rough outing facing his old team. Burnett was charged with all six runs scored by the Blue Jays. Burnett’s undoing came with his usual suspect, the long ball. Burnett let up three home runs in six innings pitched. Usually when Burnett struggles he gets hammered and again that was the case. The Blue Jays are leading the lead in home runs and they weren’t afraid to show their home run power on Burnett’s mistakes.
On the other side, the Yankees only scored one run against the Blue Jays starter, Brett Cecil. Cecil mixed up his pitches well and kept the Yankees off balance. Cecil became the first pitcher to go eight innings against the Yankees all year.
The Yankees wound up losing 6-1, it was a wake up call for the Yankees who just faced easy competition in the Orioles who were swept by the Yankees.
Saturday afternoon the Yankees had Andy Pettite on the hill and he pitched a gem. Pettite went seven and two-thirds innings striking out 10 batters and allowing two runs on two solo home runs. That should have been enough for the Yankees to win the game, they average 4.5 runs a game on the road. That wasn’t the case though, the Yankees were abysmal at the plate matching the Blue Jays with two runs thanks to Derek Jeter’s two run blast in the fifth inning.
The Yankees wound up striking out 14 times in 14 innings, with the strikeout leader being Mark Teixeira with five. Ricky Romero matched Pettite with a solid eight innings pitched and seven strikeouts. With the lack of offense the game remained tied for 14 innings when the Yankees bullpen couldn’t handle any more. Chad Gaudin recently re-acquired from the Oakland Athletics let up the winning run on an Aaron Hill line drive to center that scored Fred Lewis from second.
Game three of the series was another close game with solid pitching performances from Javier Vazquez and Brandon Morrow. The biggest story of the game was Vazquez who has made it back to his old form and keeps getting better and better from start to start.
Vazquez had a no-hitter going through the first five innings of the game. His only mistake came in the sixth inning when he let up a two run home run to the resurgent Vernon Wells. Vazquez wound up going seven innings with nine strikeouts and only allowing the two runs from Wells.
On the other side, the Yankees were held scoreless for the first seven innings against stellar pitching by Morrow who struck out eight Yankees. It looked like Vazquez who hasn’t been getting any run support all year, may have another tough loss. That wasn’t the case though because the Yankees finally woke up in the eighth inning on relief pitchers Scott Downs and Jason Frasor. The Yankees scored four runs that inning when Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner led off the inning by both getting hit by pitches. Jeter then hit a line drive double to score Cervelli. Then there were some fireworks when Nick Swisher was called out on a check swing that he clearly held up on. Giradi came out to argue and was thrown out of the game by the home plate umpire. Giradi may have done that to fie up his team and win the game and it worked.
Teixeira was up next and was intentionally walked. The Blue Jays wanted to set up the double play with Alex Rodriguez coming up. With Rodriguez down 0-2 in the count Frasor threw a wild pitch that allowed Gardner to score. Rodriguez eventually struck out, but no worries the Yankees best hitter of the season was up next, Robinson Cano, Once again he came through with a two run double to give the Yankees the lead which they never surrendered.
Joba Chamberlin came in to pitch the eight allowing one run to score making the game 4-3 Yankees. Then Mariano Rivera came in for his easiest save of the season. Rivera only had to throw five pitches to record his 13th save of the season.
At least the Yankees salvaged the last game of the series to boost their momentum for another easy stretch of schedule this week with the Orioles and Astros. Phil Hughes will take the hill tomorrow night against the Orioles where he looks to get a team leading 8 wins for the season. (yankees.com)
By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Robinson Cano VS. Justin Morneau for AL MVP
Robison Cano has flourished this season batting fifth, behind Alex Rodriguez, in the lineup. Last year Cano struggled mightily when the Yankees first moved him to the five hole. He was known to choke under pressure when there were runners in scoring position. This year is a completely different story.
Cano is not only the best hitter on the Yankees this year, most can argue that he is the best in all of baseball. It is a little early to talk about MVP, but how can you not with the way Cano has been hitting and fielding, he is doing everything!
In the field Cano makes every play look easy. It’s almost as if he is floating on air, the way he glides over to the ball. It seems like anything that is hit 10 feet to the left or right of him is turned into an out.
Cano’s stats are out of this world so far, he is leading the yankees in eight categories on offense: runs-41, hits-82, doubles-18, home runs-12, RBI’s-45, on base percentage-.402, slugging-.611, and average-.363.
The only other person that i see giving Cano a run for his money in the MVP voting is Justin Morneau. Morneau also leads his team in almost all of the hitting stats and has actually drawn almost double the amount of walks as Cano which also gives him a higher on base percentgage.
Morneau is known to get injured at least one time a season, which may hurt his chances of winning the MVP over Cano. I actually think these guys are both so good that it will come down to who plays more. If either one of them is injured for a few weeks or more, they aren’t as valuable to their team.
There is still a long way to go in the season. These two players could cool down and open the door for some other outside candidates
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