New York Yankees: In-Depth Analysis

It's now been two weeks since the All-Star break, and it's time to jump back into looking at actual teams with an In-Depth Analysis feature on the New York Yankees.  I'd been wanting to profile them since doing the Mets as my last team, and it seems especially appropriate now as they're the number 1 power-ranked team heading into the second half of the season (despite recently dropping 4 in a row to the red-hot-in-July Oakland Athletics).  They've also recently made a splash in the trade market - but in the final days approaching the July 31st trade deadline, I'll bet that will be the case for a lot of teams moving forward.

The Yankees are the winningest franchise in all of baseball, with a sickening 27 World Series titles to their name, more than twice that of the nearest competitor.  They've had some of the game's best players wear their Tiffany-designed logos on their caps over the years: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Yogi Berra, just to name a few.  And yet they've managed to find themselves hated by a large portion of baseball's serious fans - likely because their astronomical payroll flies in the face of every statement Commissioner Bud Selig has ever made about "parity" and because their tendency to win all the time leads to the propensity of annoying, entitled bandwagon fans to come out of the woodwork every playoff season.

But you've got to give the 2012 Yankees credit: even as most pundits wrote them off as an aging team with pitching uncertainty, they've managed to play (and spend) their way back to the top of the heap in recent months.  Below you'll find a graphic representing their current roster, but if you've been paying attention, you'll notice that it's different than the ones I've previously included in this feature.  That's because I've spent the last two weeks completely overhauling my database to reflect stats through the first half of 2012 rather than the already-completed 2011.  The points (and points/g), teams played for, positional eligibility (10 games at a position to qualify for hitters, 5 games for pitchers), and color-coding have all been updated as of the All-Star Break, while pre-season rankings and salaries remain the same.  Check it out!

Highest Paid Yankees

I'm sticking with the same format I used for most of my previous teams just so that I could have an excuse to list these unbelievable salaries.  The Yankees have a staggering 11 players getting paychecks of $10mm or more with three of those cashing in more than $20mm this year (Alex Rodriguez gets $29mm, CC Sabathia gets $23mm, and Mark Teixeira gets $22.5mm).  Ichiro, the newest Yankee having been acquired just yesterday, was getting $17mm in the last year of his deal with the Mariners, and I'm not sure how much the Yankees are on the hook for.  The next four highest salaries go to the middle infield (Jeter and Cano) and the relief corps (Rivera and Soriano, who's getting a chance to earn his closer's salary because Rivera is not able to earn his).  To say that no other team comes close to their level of expenditure would be an understatement.

Highest Scoring Yankees (2012.5)

Cano refused to shake #ASG MVP Melky Cabrera's hand as he rounded
the bases following his 3-run Home Run in the Midsummer Classic.

The two Yankees who have put together the best 2012's through the break also started the All Star game for the AL: 2B Robinson Cano (1,317) and CF Curtis Granderson (1,215).  Mark Teixeira (1,076) has shaken off a bad start to once again put him on pace to reach the coveted 2,000 point plateau. CC Sabathia (1,055), who had to cede his All Star spot due to injury, is the only Yankees pitcher to top 1,000 points.  Just to give you an idea of how potent this roster is, the Bronx Bombers had six other players with at least 900 points at the break.

Highest Scoring Yankees (2011)

The quartet of Yankees with 1,000 points at the break is the same quartet to break 2,000 points back in 2011 - however they were joined by Mariano Rivera whose freak knee injury during batting practice will preclude him from reaching that milestone this year.  This seems as good a time to point out as any that Mariano is one of 10 Yankees currently on the 60-Day DL - the only other team to approach that level of injury is the Padres with nine players out for at least two full months.

Newest Yankees

Let's go in chronological order through the Yankees off-season (and regular season) to see who they added and when.  The first player picked up after the World Series was (drumroll please) Jayson Nix, who has spent most of his time in pinstripes shoring up a LF left vacant by the injury to Brett Gardner.  (During the break, this position looked even less defined with Darnell McDonald and Dewayne Wise also contributing.  Both have since been dropped from the 40-man roster.)  The next biggest name to be acquired, although he hasn't yet pitched for the Yankees due to rotator cuff tendinitis, was Michael Pineda, in what would prove to be the first of two big trades with the Mariners.  Three days later followed the signing of Hiroki Kuroda to a 1-year deal, and the Yankees' pitching staff was deemed bolstered.

The team addressed the only uncertainty in their starting lineup when they signed Raul Ibanez as their full-time DH - although as the graphic shows he's actually been the Yankees' everyday left fielder.  Even before Pineda officially went on the DL, the Yanks lured Andy Pettitte out of retirement because you can never have too much pitching... but you can never have too few pitchers with fractured ankles, as Pettitte will gladly attest to.  Then just two days before Opening Day, the Yankees traded with the Giants for Chris Stewart to replace Francisco Cervelli as their backup catcher.

During the season, we've seen under-the-radar deals for low-profile relievers, only one of which is on the roster at the moment (Chad Qualls, an underrated 7th inning type brought in from the Phillies - Rapada and Eppley were signed to a minor league deal/claimed on waivers (respectively before the season began).  Then of course there was yesterday's deal for Ichiro, acquired for D.J. Mitchell (who had been on the 40-man roster) and Danny Farquhar (who had already been claimed on waivers three different times this season before being involved in this deal. Seems strange that the Mariners would give up up such a valuable piece of their team and culture for a trade chip who was let go by two other teams so far...).  Presumably Ichiro's arm will keep him in RF, shifting Swisher over to LF and Ibanez into a DH platoon with Andruw Jones.

Outlook

The Yankees have enough pop in their lineup and enough big names on the pitching staff to keep themselves pretty firmly in contention for the next couple of months.  I know how competitive the eastern divisions of baseball have been this year, but the Red Sox don't have a single consistent starting pitcher, the Rays' defense has fallen apart, and the Blue Jays have too many question marks on their roster.  Even if the Orioles' fairy tale season continues, they're going to be shooting for one of the Wild Card spots at best.  Their playoff hopes depend on what other (if any) acquisitions they make to strengthen their rotation or bullpen, but as it stands, this team has a good shot to go far.