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Yankee offense flashing shades of 1998

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In most Yankee fans’ lives, no team has been better than the 1998 iteration. Led by a stellar offense and a top-notch pitching staff, the Yankees went 114-48 and finished with a 22-game lead. While they would lose two games to the Indians in the ALCS, that would be the only post-season blip en route to a four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres in the World Series.

What really impressed the most about that team was its balanced approach. Nearly every starter had an outstanding career year, and the Yanks lead the world with 965 runs scored.

Recently, as Steve Lombardi pointed out last night, the Yanks have been on a 1998-style tear. Since the All Star Break, the Yankees are 23-6, and since June 24th, the Yanks are 36-11. As Steve notes, that’s a 124-win pace over a full slate of 162 games. That’s just insane.

Since that fateful night in Atlanta when Brian Cashman addressed the Yanks behind closed doors, the team has been killing the ball. They are hitting .290/.370/.495 as a team over the stretch and averaging 5.9 runs per game. The pitching has flashed a staff ERA of 3.66 over those 47 games.

All of this got me thinking about the 1998 team and the Yankee offense. Take a look at this chart comparing offenses:
[TABLE=28]

Besides the utterly sick seasons of Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter in 1998, what sticks out are the similar OPS numbers. Right now, the 2009 Yankees are actually hitting better than the record-setting 1998 club. The current team’s run-scoring pace is off the 1998 mark, but this is a truly special offense.

Right now, of course, we have no idea how the 2009 story ends. With a 7.5-game lead over Boston and an eight-game lead over the Rangers, the second-place Wild Card team, the Yanks have a better shot to make the postseason than any other team in baseball. Cool Standings pegs their playoff odds at 98 percent while Baseball Prospectus has them at 99.1 percent. While nothing is over until it’s over, this one’s pretty close.

Hopefully, though, as shades of 1998 echo through the offense and pitching staff, the Yankees can write a similar ending. This team is certainly good enough.

Recent Yankee trends

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As the afternoon ticks on — it is after all about time for Robert Goulet to show up — let’s take a look at some recent Yankee trends. Think of it as a general “Who’s hot and who’s not” for the Yankees.

On the pitching front, A.J. Burnett has been lights out of late. Through May 22, he was just 2-2 with a 5.28 ERA, and the Yankee Universe was growing restless. Since then, Burnett has made 10 utterly dominant starts. He is 7-2 over that stretch with a 2.31 ERA and 58 strike outs in 62.1 innings.

Joining him atop the Yankee rotation is CC Sabathia. While the Big Man hasn’t gotten the run support to win more games, over his last 14 starts, CC is 8-3 with a 3.18 ERA. Opponents are hitting just .218/.276/.347 off him over his last 96.1 innings.

In the bullpen, Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera have been holding down the fort. Since his flu-inspired disaster against Tampa on June 6, Rivera has 16 saves over 18 appearances. He has allowed five hits, one run and two walks over 18 innings while striking out 17. He hasn’t surrendered a run in 15 straight games. Hughes is working on a stretch of 14 straight appearances without a run. He’s thrown 17.2 innings, giving up 10 hits and a Mariano-like three walks while striking out 22. One day, these two might pitch poorly.

Offensively, the Yanks have turned into the A-Rod Show. Since taking a day off in Florida, A-Rod has been mashing to the tune of a .322/.446/.667 line with 10 HR and 29 RBI. Joining him in the hitting party have been Robinson Cano (.344/.374/.550 over 139 PAs since June 12), Derek Jeter (.357/.435/.457 over 147 PA since June 11), Hideki Matsui (.319/.441/.702 over 59 PAs since June 30), and Jorge Posada (.341/.412/.591 over 51 PAs since July 4).

On the other side of the equation are the slumping Yanks. Mark Teixeira has hit just .248/.342/.383 with 4 HR since June 11. Johnny Damon, while working on a five-game hitting streak, is batting just .240/.343/.438 since June 8. Nick Swisher is making us all miss Xavier Nady quite a bit too. Since June 8, Swisher is at just .200/.313/.309 with two jacks and 15 RBI in 131 plate appearances.

And that’s your state of the Yankees report. Make of it what you will.

Unrelated Update (4:10 p.m.): Mark Buehrle just threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Good news for the Yanks as they, for now, gain a half a game on Tampa.

The popular gang

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While we await the start of baseball this evening (weather permitting), let’s pat ourselves on the back. According to a study released earlier this week, the Yankees are the most popular team in baseball. According to the Harris Poll results (here as a PDF), the Yanks beat out the Red Sox and the Braves as America’s favorite team. Despite the popularity though, 21 percent of fans pick the Red Sox as this year’s World Series winners while 19 percent tab the Yankees for that honor. Winning a game or two against Boston this year would probably help the Yankees in the eyes of America’s baseball fans.

While the Yanks have now led the league in popularity for most of this century, I’d be quite curious to see the opposite results. I believe the Yanks would also be the nation’s most hated team as well. Funny how that works out.

A sportsnation ranks the Yanks poorly

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Every year ESPN The Magazine ranks all of the sports franchises across the four major sports leagues for their Ultimate Team Rankings feature. Each team is graded against eight categories — title track, ownership, coaching, players, fan relations, affordability, stadium experience and overall bang for the buck — and the magazine publishes the standings.

Earlier this week, the Worldwide Leaders released the 2009 edition of the Ultimate Team Rankings, and the Yankees did not perform so well. The team is ranked an absurdly low 107, ahead of also-rans and disasters such as the Knicks, Clippers, Bengals and Islanders. They are ranked just 27th in the “title track” department, despite a lofty payroll and the third best record in Major League baseball, and they find themselves far behind the Angels, the overall No. 1 team, the Red Sox (58) and even the hapless Mets (82).

A few months ago, as ESPN was putting together this list, I spoke with Eddie Matz, the reporter assigned to write up the piece on the Yankees. At the time, the team was struggling, and people were complaining about the new stadium. Furthermore, with no George Steinbrenner-type figure atop the Yankee Front Office, even the ownership seemed in flux. In the end though, the new stadium dragged down the team. Matz writes:

How do you replace a legend? You don’t. That’s what fans are saying about the new Yankee Stadium, which ranked a surprising 37 spots lower than Babe’s house did a year ago. (Among outdoor AL parks, only Oakland’s, Minny’s and Tampa’s rated worse!) Sure, the new crib has double-wide concourses that circle the park. Yeah, the seats have as many as 10 inches more legroom, and the 101-foot-wide scoreboard is seven times larger than its predecessor. Plus there’s a Hard Rock Cafe and cupholders and family bathrooms. So what’s missing? A certain je ne sais quoi. “It just doesn’t have that same feel,” says Ben Kabak of fansite RiverAveBlues.com.

In fact, the only feeling most fans have is the need to knock off a bank to pay for a date with the Bombers: For the price of an average Yanks ticket ($72.97, up 76% and the most in baseball by more than 20 bucks), you could buy five — count ’em, five — average seats (a lot more if you were going for the cheapos) at a D-backs game. Steak sandwiches for $15 from Lobel’s don’t cut the mustard either. Yes, it’s tough replacing a legend. And right now the sound filling Yankee Stadium isn’t the actual Voice of God (retired PA announcer Bob Sheppard) but an honest-to-goodness Bronx cheer.

The use of “right now” in that last sentence is certainly out-dated. As the Yanks find themselves just a few games out of first, the stadium has been filled with cheers of a different nature. Meanwhile, fans have come to embrace the new stadium for what it is: a spot to watch the Yankees play baseball. It may not be the old Yankee Stadium, but it is home.

Take a look at ESPN’s final Yankee rankings:

Title Track: 27
Ownership: 64
Coaching: 83
Players: 81
Fan Relations: 101
Affordability: 121
Stadium Experience: 84
Bang for the Buck: 119

That affordability number is completely skewed by the expensive seats. True, the average ticket price is up, but it’s easy to find an affordable seat at Yankee Stadium. The team has also made an effort to improve their fan relations, and the players — one of the more talented collection in any sport — deserve higher than 81.

In the end, this seems to be more Yankee negativity coming out of Bristol. It’s far better for sales if the Yanks are ranked lower. Everyone likes to beat up on the Bombers because everyone is jealous of them. It just makes winning that much sweeter.

Looking at the Yankees in June

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In many regards, the Yankees had a frustrating month of June. They went 15-11, their second-best monthly total of the season, but with tough losses against the Nationals and Marlins as well as another sweep at the hands of the Red Sox, June seemed almost to be a disappointment. As we turn the calendar over to July and the dog days of summer, let’s see how the Yanks performed last month.

We start on the mound. For the month, the Yanks’ hurlers were outstanding. The pitchers sported a combine ERA of 3.55 and a WHIP of 1.228. Both figures are season lows. The staff also supported a K/9 IP of 8.5 and K/BB ratio of 2.47. The bullpen, an Achilles’ Heel early on, sported a 2.46 ERA. The breakdown is as follows:

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What really jumps out at me are the walks. After issuing 112 free passes in 254.1 May innings — or nearly 4 per 9 IP — the staff held the walks to 3.44 per 9 IP. The strike outs go up, the walks go down, and everyone is happy.

On an individual level, the Phil’s and Al Aceves led the charge from the bullpen. The three of them combined for 39.1 innings, 40 strike outs and just five earned runs. Mariano nailed down nine saves, and outside of one bad start in Boston, A.J. Burnett dominated June.

How then did the Yankees managed to finish just four games over .500 for the month? The offense wasn’t nearly as good as the pitching. For June, the Yanks hit just .253/.354/.433, and their OPS was nearly .060 lower than it was in May. They may have allowed just 102 runs in June, but they scored only 140. They also ran into some bad luck as their Pythagorean expectation pegged them for 17 wins this month.

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The main cause of this offensive malaise were a series of slumps. A-Rod, Hideki, Jorge, Robbie and Melky all had sub-par months, and A-Rod with a .190 BABIP really struggled until the final week.

But now June is over, and July is upon us. The Yankees have won six in a row and a primed for a run at first place. If the pitching can replicate its June success and the bats resembled the last six June games instead of the first 20, this team should be in the driver’s seat until the All Star Break and beyond.

Heyman: Yanks can’t add payroll (for now)

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ESPN puts the Yankees’ payroll at a cool $201,449,189. It is nearly $55 million more than the Mets who come in second on that illustrious salary list. Now, though, Heyman claims that the Yanks cannot add more payroll. Right now, this item jibes with what we heard about the Yanks’ spending in December: The team has reached its limit and cannot add any more. We’ll see if the same holds true when late July rolls around and the Yanks are one piece short of locking up a playoff spot.

Yanks to channel Fred Durst on Memorial Day

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When it comes to Yankee hats for different occasions, I consider myself something of a connoisseur. I have hats from various World Series and other special events dating back to 1996 when the MLB patch craze kicked off. I might skip this year’s Memorial Day tie-in.

For the second year in a row, as part of an effort to fund the veterans’ organization Welcome Back Veterans, MLB teams are donning special hats. Last year, the hats were blue with a flag logo. Every team, no matter their regular colors, wore that blue hat.

This year, the hats look a little different. As Darren Rovell reported this week, the Memorial Day hats will be red this year with the stars and stripes logo. At $37, they cost a pretty penny, but all of the proceeds go to Welcome Back Veterans.

Personally, I love the idea but hate the execution. I can’t argue with MLB’s efforts to aid veterans support groups. But can’t we do it in a way that won’t have my favorite team sporting the Fred Durst look on Monday? The Yankees are definitely not doing it all for the nookie, and red hats are so 1999.

A tip of the hat to WasWatching for teeing up the hats this morning.