New York YankeesFormer GM Bob Watson, and to a greater extent current GM Brian Cashman, understand that building a winning team is not about having the most stars, but about having the best possible parts. Other than Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, the Yanks don't have a single player who could be considered one of the top 10 players at his position in the majors. Yes, they are all quality players, but very few are stars. And that is the Yankees' strength. A team full of stars would never do the little things to help the team win. There needs to be a combination of stars and good role players.
The offense is still a solid group even with the offseason losses of Daryl Strawberry, Tim Raines and Chad Curtis. None of those guys were part of the nucleus that has driven the Yanks to their recent success. That distinction belongs to Jeter and Williams. There is a feeling that Jeter is the best of the 3 great AL shortstops, but the numbers just don't bear that out. ARod has huge advantages in most offensive categories, especially slugging, RBI and steals and he's 2 years younger. Garciaparra also has a huge lead in slugging and is comparable in most of the other categories even though he's played one fewer year in the bigs. Still, even though Jeter might not be the best shortstop in the majors right now, he is and will end up as one of the best shortstops ever. Williams is a very good switch-hitter who gets on base at a high rate and contributes a healthy number of doubles and homers. The other parts of the Yankee offense are solid if unspectacular, but they all share two things in common: they get on base and they hit a lot of doubles. Between Scott Brosius, Chuck Knoblauch, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada, the Yanks average about 19 homers and about 30 doubles a year from each guy. They also get on base at a collective .355 clip. The forever highly touted Ricky Ledee will platoon with 1998 September Superman Shane Spencer to more than replace Curtis' production in left. Even with all this going for them, the Yanks do have some cracks in the offense. In recent, years they've been able to call the likes of Wade Boggs, and the aforementioned Strawberry and Raines off the bench. This year, they do not possess that same depth of experience on the bench. Alfonso Soriano, the MVP of last year's Futures Game, is available as a super sub, should anyone go down with injury for a long period, but the Yanks don't really have much beyond that. Jim Leyritz is always good for some high drama in the postseason but rarely shows much during the regular season. O'Neill is now 37 and will probably start showing signs of decline. The boys from the Bronx still have one of the best offenses in the AL but there are definitely some cracks in it. GRADE: 70
The Yanks have had very good defense over the past few years and that's unlikely to change. Williams in center, Brosius at third and Jeter at short are all very good defenders, although Williams doesn't have much in the way of an arm. Martinez, Posada and O'Neill are at least average defenders. Knoblauch was one of the best second baseman in the league a few years back, but got a touch of Steve Sax disease and has trouble throwing to first. He's still very good on the pivot and if he can get by the mental block of throwing, the Yanks will have another premier defender. Ledee is a good defender, Spencer is not, but together, they should be adequate. GRADE: 65
The biggest concern this year for the Yanks is their pitching. David Cone and Roger Clemens are both 37. Orlando Hernandez says he's 34 but that could be 34 celsius as Peter Gammons often comments. Hernandez has looked very good in spring and early this season. Cone and Clemens have not. Both are getting hit pretty hard and neither is showing their trademark control. Just as young pitchers blossom suddenly rather than gradually as hitters do, old pitchers flame out rather suddenly. We could be seeing the end of two great careers, or at least the end of the great part of their careers. Cone will probably retire after this year and Clemens will hold on for a year or two more before following suit, occasionally showing flashes of his greatness, but mostly being a very average pitcher. Andy Pettitte hasn't shown much during the regular season since 1997 and might be the first Yankee not to live up to his hype (tongue firmly in cheek). The Yanks traded Mike Lowell to get Eddie Yarnall, who was slated to be the 5th starter. But a very poor spring prompted a demotion back to AAA for the time being. Ramiro Mendoza is the likely successor. What has been a strength of the Yankees for the past 4 years now has 3 huge question marks. The Yanks have very little in the way of quality pitching in their highly rated farm system and are now faced with the prospect of having to face down Pedro and the Sox and a loaded Blue Jays staff with only a couple of bullets in the gun. To add to the problem, pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer and might miss much of the season. He's been an excellent pitching coach, under-appreciated as much as he was as a pitcher back in the 60's. Like the rest of the team was while Joe Torre was out for the first part of last year, without Stottlemyre, the Yanks pitching will be significantly inferior. GRADE: 55
The Yanks still have a great bullpen with Mariano Rivera closing things out. He, Wagner and Hoffman have been struggling over the title of best closer in baseball for 3 years now with no clear winner yet. He is set up by Mike Stanton from the left side and Jeff Nelson from the right, each of whom are very, very good. The Yanks lost Graeme Lloyd to free agency, but Allen Watson is a competent replacement from the left side. Jason Grimsley is available from the right side. The biggest loss for the bullpen could be moving Ramiro Mendoza from his swing role into the rotation. Mendoza has been very good for the past three years doing everything from spot starting to closing. If the Yanks lose his versatility and innings in the pen because of needs in the starting rotation, they could be in for a savage fight for the division crown. GRADE: 60
Brian Cashman was one of the first GMs to recognize and commit to the value of getting on base. He also recognized the value of a very good defense. So rather than spend a load of money on the top free agents, which he could have with all the money Steinbrenner has at his disposal, he built a team on those two principles. It's hard to argue with his success. He's also done a pretty good job and caring for the farm system. He hasn't really had to make any deadline deals yet, spending most of his energies blocking others from doing so. This year he might actually have to make a couple himself. Joe Torre has been a steady and calm influence throughout his tenure as manager, which is quite an achievement considering the media zoo where he plies his trade. Last year, he missed a good portion of the start of the season with a bout of cancer. Don Zimmer, a man who's had a lot of experience managing, lead the team. But they were clearly not the same team without Torre. Torre has never been considered a brilliant game tactician, but he makes the moves that need to be made, which is about as good as one can expect from a manager. He will face his biggest test as the Yanks manager this year if Stottlemyre misses significant time. GRADE: 70