CTR Week in Review: Ouchie Edition

Record: 9-4 (19-13)
Runs Scored/Allowed (Ranks): 196/140 (3/5 in MLB)
Projected Pythagorean Record: 107-55
Key Wins: April 30, 4-1 vs. Toronto; May 5, 8-7 at Texas; May 10, 7-3 vs. Boston
Bad Losses: May 1, 7-3 at Boston; May 9, 14-3 vs. Boston; May 11, 5-3 vs. Boston; Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui

How can a team that has won seven of its last 10 and sits just a game out of first place about 20% of the way through the season have more bad losses than good wins since we last chatted?

Well, Randy Johnson’s continued struggles don’t help. All of the team’s “good wins” came after Mike Mussina picked the team up after a horrendous start the previous night by Mr. Johnson.

Over his last three starts, Johnson has what would appear to be a respectable 2-1 record, but looking at the peripherals, the Big Unit has been the Big Ugly:

18 hits
18 runs (13 earned)
7.63 ERA
K/9 – 5.3
BB/9 – 6.5

All of this of course was capped by this beauty of a line to open the Boston series:

3.2IP 5H 7R 2ER 5BB 3K 2WP

Johnson’s struggles, coupled with Jaret Wright’s continued existence, would normally top the list of Yankee worries, but fate and a couple of contact injuries to their corner outfielders.

On April 29, Gary Sheffield ran over Shea Hillenbrand at first base, banging up his left knee and right wrist. After trying to tough it out for the short road trip to Tampa and Texas, he succumbed to the 15-day DL just in time for Melky Cabrera to come up for the Boston series (again).

The bigger blow, however, is Hideki Matsui’s wrist going all Joe Theisman on us in last night’s game. With a sur-gery scheduled today, some pundits, including BPro’s Will Carroll speculated overnight that Godzilla could be out as little as eight to 10 weeks, similar to the Cubs’ Derrek Lee. However, today speculation swirled that it might be 2007 before we see Matsui back in left field.

The Yankees moved quickly, bringing up Kevin Reese to fill Matsui’s roster spot, so for the next few weeks expect a rotating audition of Cabrera, Reese, Bubba Crosby and possibly Kevin Thompspn in the corner outfield positions, with a return engagement of Bernie Williams, starting outfielder to boot.

Unless one of the kids catches Shane Spencerism, this situation is extremely untenable.

One of the biggest criticisms of the Yankees in the post-championship era is that the talent pool was a 1,000 miles wide and a half-inch deep. On a nightly basis, the Yankees trotted out a potential All-Star at nearly every position, but their bench was among the weakest in baseball.

Now we’ll see if the new Brian Cashman “chain of command” plan can stand up to a crisis.

The New York press are already starting to circulate the A-name (Alfonso Soriano) as a possible target, as well as Torii Hunter and Shannon Stewart. However, in one of his more lucid moment’s Buster Olney said on ESPNews last night that Yankees also are looking for another starting pitcher, so the cost of getting a pitcher and an outfielder might be prohibitive to a rebuilding farm system.

So, what to do?

When examining the question, it helps to start with what you have, so just on the back of the napkin, here are some names that the Yanks might be willing, if not eager to part with, and who may have some limited value.

On the 25-man
Tanyon Sturtze (He of the 7.84 ERA and generally mediocre career)
Ron Villone (Effective second lefty/long man so far – could have value)
Carl Pavano (Remember how awesome 2004 was? Let’s hope someone else does too)
Jaret Wright (See Pavano, Carl. Ignore the last 16 months)
Aaron Small (Should already have been traded – pixie dust is a fleeting ally)
Melky Cabrera (young, no power, .385 average at AAA this year)

In the system
Columbus
Carlos Pena (.219/.378/.328as Clip . . . and no one wanted him before)
Eric Duncan (.217/.282/.264 this year, no homers in 30 games, time to go back to Trenton?)
Darrell Rasner (2.52 ERA 34-6 K/BB in 35.2 AAA innings)
Colter Bean (0.42 ERA in 21.2 innings 26-9 K/BB)
Matt DeSalvo (5.02 ERA in 28.2 IP, 20-19 K/BB)
Sean Henn (2-0 with a 5.11 ERA but just 12.1 innings 10-2 K/BB)

Trenton
Steven White (2.61 ERA in 41.1 innings, 28-20 K/BB)
Tyler Clippard (4.00 ERA in 36 innings, 35-13 K/BB)

I won’t really go any deeper than Double-A, because I don’t think any other team will.

So that’s half the battle, and the Yanks are, in the words of The Untouchables’ Mike Malone “bringing a knife to a gun fight.”

All that done, we’ll ignore pitchers for right now, and see what might be out there in terms of outfielders. For this quick peak, we’re looking for struggling teams, or teams with a glut of outfielders.

Aubrey Huff
Damon Hollins
Torii Hunter
Shannon Stewart
Lew Ford
Jason Kubel
Reggie Sanders
Jay Payton
Alfonso Soriano
Jose Guillen
Carlos Lee
Bill Hall
Craig Wilson
Juan Rivera

That’s a list of 14 players – entirely wild-ass guesses – and there’s only a handful of those I think are attainable based on the what’s in the Yankees coffers.

Looking at the list – here’s the top five in my eyes based on pure ability, regardless of cost.

Carlos Lee – Pipe dream. Not gonna happen. Although he’s a free agent at the end of the season, and Milwaukee’s Doug Melvin has made noise about dealing him – the Yanks don’t have the ammunition. Remember, Melvin turned Richie Sexson into like half their rotation and a pair of starting position players.

Alfonso Soriano – As a left fielder, he’s honestly not that bad. RFK hasn’t completely killed his offense and he’s already been tested in the crucible that is New York. That said, with Stan Kasten readying himself to oversee things, the price again will be likely too high. I’d almost rather go after Jose Guillen, provided he promises to use a bank for his financial transactions.

Torii Hunter – He’s said he’d play a corner to play for a winner. That’s fine, but nearly all his value is wrapped up in his ability to play centerfield, and he’d cost a good bit. His running partner in Minnesota Shannon Stewart is probably a more likely candidate for relocation.

Jay Payton – He won’t kill you in the bottom-third of the order, which is really all you are looking for at this point. In addition, he’s made noise about not wanting to be a reserve AND some items on the Yankees’ list (see Bean, Colter) might be attractive to a smart GM.

Reggie Sanders – He’s been around forever, plays solid, if not great defense. Is a solid, if not outstanding hitter. Won’t make waves. His current team is terrible and his GM is an idiot. A definite possibility.

Will the Yankees get any of these guys? I doubt it, but maybe. Cashman did trade Tony Womack for two actual human beings who play baseball – so anything is possible.

Elsewhere on the health front, Carl Pavano made a rehab start with Tampa last week – going five innings, allowing four hits and three unearned runs while striking out four in a loss. He takes the hill in Trenton tonight for a second one, with speculation being he could be in the Bronx sooner rather than later.

On Thursday, Octavio Dotel threw two scoreless in extended spring training, reportedly hitting the mid-90s on his last few pitches. He too is scheduled to see more rehab work, but could be on the way as soon as next month.

With some reinforcements on the way, the Yanks can do some overhaul work – getting rid of Sturtze (by trade or otherwise) and giving his innings to Dotel and pushing Wright to the bullpen (or to another team) in favor of Pavano would improve an already staff that has been surprisingly effective this year, which may diminish the pain of losing Matsui.

The next two weeks will tell us a lot about how committed the Yankees are to rebuilding the farm system and how far they may have to go to replace Matsui.

Coming up they have 13 games in 13 days, seven at home against Oakland and Texas, then six on the road against the Junior Varsity and Boston.

If going into Memorial Day weekend, Sheffield is back at 100%, the Replacement ‘Zillas are holding their own and Randy Johnson stops being terrible, they just might be alright.