The New York Yankees were just swept four games by the Oakland A’s. Were there any glaring Yankees weaknesses exposed in Oakland? Four one run losses, two were the walk off variety. Offensively, the Yankees scored 10 runs in the four games. The pitching staff gave up 14 runs.
Should the Yankees be looking to add a bat or add a few extra arms at the trade deadline? Maybe both?
Even with four consecutive losses, The Yankees still have the best record in major league baseball.
The Yankees no doubt are talented enough to make the playoffs, and win the American League East, and barring a Red Sox like collapse of 2011, they will be a part of the postseason. The more relevant question is how deep can the Yankees go in the playoffs?
Living For the Long Ball
The Yankees lead all of major league baseball with 150 home runs. They lead the American League in slugging percentage (460) and OPS (.795)
They are sixth overall in batting average in the American League, and seventh overall in total hits.
Translation: The Yankees live for the long ball. A walk, a hit and a three-run homer.
They play half their games in Yankee Stadium, where routine fly balls to right field often become home runs.
Oakland beat the Yankees this weekend with good pitching, and some timely hitting.
Once the playoffs began, the Yankees will be facing good pitching every game, and that may be the Yankees undoing.
If they want to add a bat, and they probably do, Justin Upton, Shane Victorino, and Denard Span could be on their radar.
Should the Yankees add Pitching at the Trade Deadline
The old adage is good pitching beats good hitting, unless of course, you had better pitching. As it stands right now, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
CC Sabathia is and has been the anchor of the Yankees pitching staff. The drop-off that occurs after Sabathia may be more of a problem than the Yankees want to take into October. do they want to trust games two and three of a postseason series to Hiroki Kuroda and Ivan Nova ? Publicly they would say yes, they are fine with those guys. Privately? We will find out this week.
To go deep in the playoffs typically requires a team to have three reliable, quality starters and a bullpen to take care of the end of the game. Losing Mariano Rivera didn’t help, but for the most part Rafael Soriano has pitched well.
The bridge to Soriano maybe a place where the Yankees are looking to add an arm.
Adding a pitcher like Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies would go a long way towards solving their issues. Of course all the usual suspects like Matt Garza, Zack Greinke, Ryan Dempster and Cole Hamels have been rumored to to have drawn the interest of the Yankees.
Yankees Are Always Buyers at The Deadline
Historically, the Yankees are always buyers at the trade deadline. The Yankees seemingly can never have enough parts, never enough offense, and never enough pitching.
Can the Yankees make it to the playoffs as presently constructed. Absolutely they can.
Will the Yankees be able to go deep into the playoffs the way they are presently constructed?
We think they need a frontline starter and an additional arm in the bullpen. What do you think ?
