New York Yankees - All-Decade 2000-09

I'm starting off my All-Decade Teams feature with the New York Yankees, the winningest team of the 2000's (the decade, not the millennium... although they may be that too, I haven't checked). Even though only two of their record 27 championships came in this decade (in the first and last years of it, in fact), the deep pockets of the team-owning Steinbrenner family and a remarkably long run of excellence from their top homegrown talent led to many winning seasons and many boring AL East divisional races. Here's some analysis of the top batters first, followed by the pitching staff, all determined by total games played at each position (for the most part), with the years that player was active with the team to the right.

Let's start with the outliers: even though the Yankees had two batters who were with the team for the entire decade (as shown by the bold underlined text in the "years active" column), this will not be a common occurrence going forward. Shortstop Derek Jeter (aka The Captain, aka YEAH JEETS) has the most games played with a single team out of ANYBODY in the entire decade. Despite never winning an MVP award, Jeter's premium level of play was a big reason for New York's dominance in this decade - and the previous one too, considering he took over the position in 1996, when he was named Rookie of the Year. Jeter clocks in at fourth place in all time Yankees wins above replacement, behind such luminaries as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Catcher Jorge Posada (23rd all time) is the second offensive member of the Yankees' famous "Core Four" (the other two will show up below), and these two show that good things can happen when you build your team around consistency up the middle.

Continuing down the line of most games played at a single position, Alex Rodriguez (11th in all-time Yankees WAR) was acquired from the Rangers in a famous salary-dump trade, and was promptly moved from his customary shortstop position over to third base due to the presence of Jeter on the roster. Before his career exploded in steroid-related controversy, he took home two MVP's as a member of the Yankees, but also gained a reputation as an anti-clutch postseason performer. Going slightly out of order, but sticking with the infield, second baseman Robinson Cano (19th) is the only batter on this list who is playing on a major league deal this seaso. Cano only played in the second half of this decade, as he took over from Alfonso Soriano (466 games from 2001-03), who was traded to the Texas for Rodriguez prior to the 2004 season. I saved Bernie Williams (14th) for last in this section, because of the irregularity of having two players in the center field slot. But first it's worth mentioning that the jazz guitar-playing Puerto Rican was a consistently pleasant presence for the Yanks, not only for the first half of this decade, but for the entirety of the previous one as well.

Now for the numbers in parentheses in the rightmost column, which will also explain why there is no DH spot in the lineup, even though the Yankees are an American League team. Longtime star of the Yomiuri Giants (of the Japan Central League) Hideki Matsui and pre-Moneyball Oakland Athletic Jason Giambi (the A's couldn't afford him when he hit free agency after the 2001 season) are the Yankees all-decade leaders at left field and first base, with 562 and 501 games at their respective positions. However, Matsui and Giambi are also #1 and #2 in appearances at DH during the same time period, with 248 and 213 games, respectively. Behind Giambi at 1B is Tino Martinez, who accumulated 425 games there between two different stints with New York in this decade (from 2000-01 and then again in 05), and after Matsui in LF is technically Johnny Damon, who had a little over 200 games there from 07-09. But current Pittsburgh Pirate Melky Cabrera is a close third, and when you add to that all the time he spent in center field after taking over from Bernie in 2007 (it might be more than the 485 total games listed above, since I'm pretty sure I made a math mistake), he becomes the logical choice to slot in at left field with Matsui technically occupying the DH slot. Rounding things out, Bobby Abreu had the most games in right field, which had been a bit of a revolving door for the Yanks since Paul O'Neill's retirement after 2001.

While perhaps best known for his time with the Orioles, Mike Mussina pitched nearly his entire 2000's decade with the Yankees. While he never picked up a Cy Young award, Moose continued his reputation as a defensive whiz, winning three of his seven Gold Gloves in New York, and pitched well enough to nail down his case for the Hall of Fame. Left-hander Andy Pettitte (13th in all-time Yankees WAR) is the only member of the Core Four to not play for the team for the entire decade in question. The Baton Rouge, LA native took a three-year break to pitch for his near-hometown Houston Astros, following his once and future Yankees teammate Roger Clemens down south. Each of those two returned to New York for the 2007 season, but Pettitte stuck around through 09 for NYY's most recent championship. As for Clemens, the long time member of the rival Red Sox came to New York in a trade with Toronto, and put up some solid numbers, but his time with the Yankees will perhaps best be remembered by controversy - throwing a broken bat at Mike Piazza in the 2000 World Series, and getting caught in a PED scandal. Signed as an amateur free agent out of Taiwan, Chien-Ming Wang nearly won the Cy Young award in 2006, despite mediocre strikeout numbers, and basically saw his career come to an end because of injuries. Speaking of injuries, Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez missed all of 2003 due to a rotator cuff injury, but the Cuban wouldn't have gotten past the 100 game threshold when healthy anyway, as he was traded to the Expos just before going down.

Rounding out the Core Four and anchoring the bullpen is the only unanimously-voted Hall of Famer in baseball history, Mariano Rivera. The all-time leader in saves and games finished also clocks in at 10th overall in all-time Yankees WAR and has the distinction of pitching the most games with a single team in the decade in question. Despite the penchant of lefty relievers often facing only one batter per game, Mike Stanton earned his placement on this list, as he averaged almost exactly an inning per appearance in the bulk of his time with the Yankees in this decade (.991 from 2000-02). Not to be confused with Giancarlo, Mike was used as a lefty specialist during his second stint with the Bronx Bombers in 2005, a year in which he also pitched for Washington and Boston. The nomadic Kyle Farnsworth put up his second-most career games with any one team in New York, behind the 343 he pitched for the Cubs. Tom "Flash" Gordon only pitched two years for the Yankees, but he surpassed 80 innings in each and was an All-Star in one of them. I usually only include five total relievers in these lists, but since Scott Proctor and Brian Bruney were literally neck-and-neck for fifth place, I decided to list them both here to round out the bullpen.