This Team is Excellent, But It Could Be Better

The Yankees are excellent. At this moment I have no qualms over saying that they are the second - maybe even first - best team in baseball. Their offense is clearly fantastic and the bullpen has turned into a strength, while their rotation is overall pretty good but clearly has its ups and downs.

I'm fairly happy with where the team is at the moment but they definitely could be even better. Here are some areas where they can improve and how they can improve.

Rotation

CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett are clearly doing their job. However, Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain have been up and down all season. Hopefully Joba can build on today's excellent start. With Wang on the DL and Aceves and Hughes being in the bullpen, the Yankees announced that Sergio Mitre will be added to the rotation, a move which I am fine with.

At this very moment I would not touch it. Mitre was fantastic in the minors and deserves to get a tryout with the Yankees. Right now, nothing can be done to Pettitte, and Joba earned a some more time in the Majors today.

But if Mitre fails and/or Joba and/or Pettitte struggles, they may need to look around for a new starting pitcher. I am going to assume that Aceves and Hughes are in the bullpen for good this year as well.

Down in the minors, at this very moment, the options are fairly limited. Ian Kennedy had to have surgery for an aneurysm and may miss the entire season. Kei Igawa is Kei Igawa. Jason Johnson is Jason Johnson. Josh Towers is Josh Towers. George Kontos, unfortunately, recently had to undergo Tommy John surgery. The only starter in Triple-A that may be effective is Ivan Nova, who the Yankees got lucky with, to say the least.

Ivan Nova was drafted via the Rule V Draft by the San Diego Padres this offseason, but they opted not to keep him on the 25 man roster and returned them to the Yankees. He was coming off of a mediocre 2008 season but he has really flourished this season. He started the season with Double-A Trenton where he had a 5-4 record over 12 starts; over 72.1 innings he had a 2.36 ERA, 31 walks, 47 strikeouts, and an excellent 2.47 groundout per airout ratio. He has since been promoted to Triple-A Scranton where he has a 1.42 ERA over 3 starts. He could be the next guy they go to if they have an opening in the Major League rotation.

Furthermore, they may want to consider promoting Zach McAllister to Triple-A when he finishes his DL stint (with what seems to be dead arm/tiredness, nothing major at all.) McAllister does not have overwhelming stuff, but holds a 2.25 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 92 innings with a BAA of .228.

The out-of-organization options start with Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. Roy Halladay will not happen unless the Yankees take Vernon Wells, who has one of the worst contracts in the history of baseball, so I see zero chance of that happening. Lee has a better chance of being traded but the trade talks have not really heated up yet. Lee would likely cost one elite prospect in another to several other solid ones.

Two other options are Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Harang of the Reds who would be cheaper to acquire than the previous two.

Bullpen

As of now the bullpen consists of Mariano Rivera, Brian Bruney, Phil Coke, Alfredo Aceves, Phil Hughes, Mark Melancon, David Robertson, and Brett Tomko.

Clearly, Rivera has been amazing. Hughes, Aceves, and Coke have all ben amazing as well. Brian Bruney has been pretty poor since returning from the DL, but he is not going anywhere. Girardi has clearly lost faith in him right now, but he is get the opportunity to work through his "funk" when the Yankees have a "blow out" game; the last few games have been way to close to use the volatile Bruney. David Roberson is fine in middle relief, but his control has been very off lately. Melancon has amazing minor league numbers so he should get a chance soon enough. But the one change that they need to make is clearly: lose Brett Tomko. I do not see what the Yankees see in a 36 year old pitcher that has not had success in years, and even when he did have success, was not very good. If they were using him solely for long relief, I would not really have an issue, but they don't. They use him in middle relief.

They need to DFA Tomko and either call-up Jonathan Albaladejo or Zachary Kroenke. Albaladejo was with the Yankees before and was very impressive in his most recent stint with the Yankees. Kroenke is a 25 year old lefty who has a 1.08 ERA in Triple-A. They could try him out in middle relief or see if he can be a LOOGY. He does have been numbers against lefties in the minors (see here).

Lineup

The lineup is basically set, but I would love to see Brett Gardner get significantly more playing time than Melky Cabrera. Gardner's defense so vastly superior to Melky's, and his speed really, really helps the Yankees.

Bench

Another easy fix here. Lose Cody Ransom. I see zero reason why he should be in the Majors. He cannot field. He cannot hit. If they want Ramiro Pena to continue to learn to play in the outfield in the minors they can go to either Yurendell de Caster or Kevin Russo in Triple-A. Or, by all means, look outside of the organization! By looking only at the Diamondback's Triple-A team I see two better options in Ruben Gotay and Ryan Roberts.