Day 4: New York Yankees

The entire schedule of when team recaps will be.

Team: New York Yankees

2007 Regular Season Record: 94-68

2007 Postseason Record: 1-3; lost in ALDS

Cost per Win: $189,639,045 / 95 = $1,996,200 per win

2007 Season Recap: Another season and another year without a World Series championship. They’re starting to get desperate in the Bronx which is why they thought they needed to change managers, a mistake they will probably regret. I like Joe Girardi and all but I think Joe Torre is the best guy for the Yankees. The Yankees on the field had mixed success. They finished the season a lot better than they were doing in the middle. For a long time it looked like they wouldn’t have a chance of making the playoffs but in the end the world’s most overpriced players decided maybe they should earn their paychecks.

Once the Yankees did get to the playoffs though they didn’t rise to the occasion. They fell to the Cleveland Indians in 4 games in the ALDS. The pitching had mixed success in the playoffs much like the regular season. On the offensive side the Yankees bats fell asleep for the playoffs. This bad performance included a poor performance by Derek Jeter who finished the postseason with a .176 batting average. As a team they had a .228 batting average.

Overall the season just wasn’t what everyone expects from the Yankees. When you have a salary that is the largest in the majors by a long ways you expect a lot more success. Especially against a Cleveland team with a payroll that is a third of the Yankees. That is why they play the games and don’t just let you buy championships.

Key Free Agents: SP Roger Clemens & Andy Pettitte, RP Mariano Rivera, 3B Alex Rodriguez, C Jorge Posada, 1B Doug Mientkiewicz; The losses for the Yankees start on the pitching mound. It is starting to look like both Clemens and Pettitte are going to hang it up. On the other hand there is good news for Yankees fans and that is that both Rodriguez and Posada both are on the verge of signing new contracts it’s just a matter of making it official. In additional good news Rivera also looks like he is ready to sign a new deal with the Yankees, signing a 3 year $45 million deal. Mientkiewicz isn’t that major of a loss and the Yanks already have backup at that position.

Offseason Needs: As usual the Yankees don’t have any major needs going into the offseason. One of those advantages of having a nearly blank check to bring in every player you need. Center field is probably the spot with the most need because Johnny Damon is bad defensively and a risk at center and Melky Cabrera doesn’t put up the power numbers you would expect from a Yankees outfielder, he did however have a .327 average in 2007 so the Yanks will be fine if they are stuck with Cabrera. The other position with a question mark over it is first base. Shelly Duncan developed over that last season and Jason Giambi can also be used there. So if the Yankees want to add a new player because they can then expect it to be at first.

Prediction for the 2008 season: As far as names and talent go the Yankees should be contenders for the World Series but the question is what has really changed in the Bronx. The answer is nothing. All they have done is brought back everyone that they had before for even more money. This combined with the loss of 2 starting pitchers puts the Yankees in a bad position where they will have to trade off even more of their farm team just to be able to assemble a quality 5 man pitching rotation. From a name power standpoint the Yankees will go undefeated but to bad for their fans the name on the jersey isn’t what wins games, it’s the performance that those players put out. So my prediction for the Yankees is more of the same. They will win the Wild Card and probably finish about 10 games back of the Red Sox in the AL East. Then in the playoffs they will fall to a better managed and much less high profile team and the baseball world will be better because of it.