Don't fall in love with Melky

WANGERY
Right up until the Nelson Cruz home run, Wang was having an uneven start, but one which should be viewed as a success. He got eight out groundouts against just one fly out. He walked only one, and uncharacteristically struck out five batters in 4.2 innings. That he allowed three doubles and a homer speaks to his continuing problem of maintaining a consistent sinker, something that is going to express itself more frequently over 70 or 80 pitches than it would in 20 or 30 from the bullpen. It should also be kept in mind that he was pitching against a very potent offense, even with Josh Hamilton on the DL. All in all, there was enough here to earn him at least another start.

THE BURNETT SUSPENSION
Pathetic. MLB lord of discipline Bob Watson played in the Majors for almost 20 years. He understands the ethos of the sport having lived it, and yet it is very difficult to believe that he issued A.J. Burnett's suspension having actually viewed the video of the game. Vincente Padilla, who always has high hit batter numbers, drilled Mark Teixeira twice. In throwing up and in to Nelson Cruz, Burnett was sending the same kind of message that pitchers have been sending on behalf of their teammates for over 100 years. There was no intent to injure, he didn't throw behind Cruz, which would have been truly dangerous--in contrast, Teixeira was hit up and in and also in the buttocks, which by definition are behind. To suspend Burnett at all is a bit ridiculous, but to suspend him without offering anything more than a fine to Padilla is simply unjust.

MELKY: REIGNITED/SWISHER/NADY
In his 20 games prior to Thursday, when he hit his big eighth-inning home run, Melky Cabrerahad hit .282/.297/.380. He's been valuable to the Yankees, but he's far too mutable to be given an everyday role. Continuing a career-long pattern, he still can't hit lefties. His current .282/.333/.385 against them is as well as he's done and represents a huge improvement and yet is still far from being a plus, as the average right-handed hitter has .346/.433 on-base/slugging against southpaws. Joe Girardi has done a fine job mixing Cabrera with Brett Gardner, who also has his limitations, and together the two have made up a pretty good center fielder, batting a combined .297/.363/.432. The average Major League center fielder is hitting .264/.339/.421. Cabrera has also started eight games in right field and five in left. Given his defensive skills (Thursday's ill-considered ninth-inning dive notwithstanding) and his occasional offense, something like what he's doing now, a 75 percent starting role mixed with substitutions for others, is the perfect role for him. Falling in love again would be a mistake... At some point, Austin Jackson is going to crowd the picture as well, and then the Yankees will have some interesting decisions to make, but not necessarily centered around the exclusion of Cabrera, assuming he's viewed as a 350-400 at-bat a year player and not a 500 and up guy.

In the nearer future, Xavier Nady will return and start actively punishing the Yankees. Nick Swisher has been streaky and somewhat odd--he's batting .305/.389/.695 on the road, but only .147/.356/.235 at Yankee Stadium, and that includes today's two-hit performance. Those home rates are almost certain to change, though it is worth noting that Swisher had a weird home/road bifurcation last year as well, going into deep freeze away from Chicago. What is certain is that his .356 home OBP at home will only be exceeded by Nady if he hits .310 or better.

TO THE MATS WITH READER COMMENTS
Here's another attempt at education, based on yesterday's main entry, 'cause even when I praise Derek Jeter someone rips me:

Steve,
You guys in the media want to deride Derek Jeter because he will be thirty five years old. You sight his declining productivity. Do your research! 2005 202 hits .309 average, 2006 214 hits .343 average, 2007 206 hits .322 average and 2008 (with an injured hand from being hit by Daniel Cabrera) 179 hits .300 average. Give the guy a break!-- stankucharski23

Stan, I'm all about the research, but not in the way you want me to do it, which would be overly and deceivingly selective. Batting average and hit totals do not provide an accurate picture of offense. In 1928, Sam Rice of the Washington Senators batted .328 and made 202 hits. That same year, Babe Ruth hit only .323 and made 173 hits. An extremely superficial analysis would lead one to believe that Rice had the better year, but this leaves out the key aspects of each player's offense, getting on base and hitting with power. Remember, batting average doesn't tell us how often a player gets on base or how many extra bases he gets when he does. Rice, a fine player and a Hall of Famer, drew 49 walks and hit two home runs, so his on-base percentage was .379 and his slugging percentage was .438. Ruth drew a league-leading 137 walks and also led the league in home runs with 54, so his OBP was .463 and his slugging percentage was .772. The Babe was responsible for generating about 173 runs of offense that year, Rice only 104. Both had very good years, but Ruth was decisively better even though he trailed Rice in the two categories we first looked at.

You can play the same game with Jeter's career, comparing one season to another. While Jeter's 2005 through 2007 were very good, if you look at the components of those seasons, there is a visible decline in his production. Considering only Jeter's new-millennium seasons, his power peaked in 2004, then slid down gradually in each of the following four seasons, bottoming out with last year's .408 slugging percentage. Now, you may be right that some of last year's power outage was a result of the Daniel Cabrera-inflicted injury he suffered, but we also have to acknowledge some other truths, which is that over time, Jeter has become more of a ground ball hitter, which automatically limits his power potential. Second, this season's power return seems to owe a lot to the new Yankee Stadium, and while Jeter has hit well overall, we may have a distorted view of this aspect of his game. Additionally, until this year, Jeter's walks had also dropped off. Jeter has drawn walks in nine percent of his plate appearances over the course of his career, but in 2007 and 2008 the percentage was just under eight. Finally, in another "until this year" development, over the last two years his stolen attempts had dried up, his success percentage had dropped, and in general he looked far slower than he had in his youth. Again, he seems to have been reinvigorated this year.

In short, Stan, when "we in the media" cite Jeter's declining offense and his age, it is because his offense had declined going into this season, and he's getting old as ballplayers go. It's not personal. It's not about wanting to tear Jeter down--I grew up watching Bobby Meacham try to play short for the Yankees; to me, Derek Jeter is an ongoing miracle--it's about doing our job, which is to report and analyze what's happening with honesty and accuracy.