GARDNER SETBACK & THE "HIT VIRUS" IS COMING

Brett Gardner can’t be out with a setback, it’s just not possible, is it? Read Marc Carig of the Star Ledger HERE. Sure, I suppose the best news out of this whole thing is it’s May and not September, but still the Yankees seem like they’re a mess right now with injuries and inconsistent winning.  We need rhythm and consistency. Hopefully last night with the 5-3 win against the Rays will start something...I hope so.

Yes, the Yankees are built for power, historically we’ve been the “Bombers” and Gardy is far from that.  Gardy brings speed, something that needs to be utilized more with this ball club and when the Yankees don’t have it, it’s clear it affects them.  Couple the loss of Gardner and the Yankees relying more and more on the long ball than hitting the runner over, and we could have bigger problems.  9 hits from the Yankees on Wednesday night and they only scored 1 run.  I don’t blame David Robertson for that, I blame the Yankees for not playing small ball.  Remember, we hit against Jeff Niemann, not exactly Nolan Ryan.

We needed hits that scored runs, it was that simple. Robinson Cano figured that out Wednesday, and Derek Jeter hauled ass for the lone run of that game. Luckily, last night Cano continued to hit, and maybe the Yankees are waking up. Cano went 3-4 in the Rays win, Alex Rodriguez finally was 2-4...hopefully a sign of good things to come...

Enter Brett Gardner, the guy we could really use on the base paths right now.  You can pretty much always count on him being knocked home, after all, that’s the goal. Couple his speed with the Yankees power and we have the fundamentals of baseball.  Gardner’s quick and it’s an important weapon that’s under-utilitzed by these  New York Yankees.

Sure, I read that Russell Martin wanted to steal more bases this season (Read HERE) and Mark Teixeira thought about trying to bunt more (Read HERE), but let’s be honest, let’s concentrate on hitting and scoring runs.  You guys are major league baseball players and you’re paid a ton of money that comes out of our pockets.  I don’t mind you tinkering, but start knocking in runs before you think about stealing more….you need to get on base first. 

Sure, the best part of all if this is Derek Jeter and his 37 year old frame just keeps playing baseball like he’s 23.  That’s amazing to me and he’s doing a wonderful job.  Now it’s time that it started to trickle down to the rest of the club.  They always say that losing is a virus in the clubhouse…why can’t hitting be a virus too? Luckily, after the last game against the Rays...I see the "hit virus" brewing...I hope so at least.  The Yankees really need to start playing alittle small ball and realizing that we have less speed in our lineup, maybe overcompensate when we can, and that doesn't mean JUST hitting home runs, it means the basics.

Without Gardner, believe it or not, it can hurt the club.  So, now we wait for Gardy to come back and we need to re-adjust.  Again, my thoughts are simple; play alittle small ball and do the basics to get the job done. I wrote WHY THE YANKEES NEED TO SOLVE THE RAYS’ SHIFT and it talks about the basics.  Base runners are runs… have we forgotten? We need to plan of attack that’s goes away from the long ball script.  If we can, we’ll get the wins we need.  If we want to cross our fingers and hope we hit home runs every night while we wait for the speedy Gardy to return, that’s a risk we’re taking.  Sure, we all love the long ball, but no one cares if you lose and don’t score runs.  Take a page from Brett Gardner’s handbook, especially while he’s on the shelf, because we need runs guys…and we need them now while Gardy’s on the mend, then when he finally gets back, well... it’ll get easier.

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