Yankee fans. Hear me out. There’s a baseball writer that used to write for Newsday that now works for ESPN New York. His name? Wallace Matthews. He recently wrote an article called… Perfect ‘10? Tough to top ‘09 for Yanks Why I ask in the title, voice of treason? He used to write for the Yankees in Newsday. When you write for the Yankees, you’re supposed to have a Yankee bias. I could sit here and tell you that he’s a jerk for saying the Yankees will have a harder time repeating but that wouldn’t be realistic. I’ll always be honest with you, even if it’s bad. Here are some of his points… All season long, the injury bug was out of town. Aside from A-Rod, not one of their regulars missed a significant portion of playing time. Ok good point. It helped immensely that all season long, Girardi was dealing with a full deck. Jeter and Damon, both 35, played 153 and 143 games, respectively. Swisher appeared in 150, Hideki Matsui, despite two aching knees, played 142. Teixeira played 156 and Robinson Cano missed just one game all year. Another good point. And every one of them performed at or near peak expectations. Jeter rebounded from a so-so 2008 to hit .334. Damon hit 24 home runs, matching his career high. Despite a horrible April, Teixeira (.292-39-122) posted his best numbers since 2005. And Rivera went 51 appearances between blown saves, from April 24 to Sept. 18. Umm ok. Is it conceivable, or even possible, that such a confluence of happy events could occur again in one Yankees lifetime, let alone in consecutive seasons? Plain logic and common sense tells you it can’t. To begin, let’s dispense with the obvious: Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte are all a year older, which rarely means a year better. That’s true but don’t forget the Yankees have David Robertson, Phil Hughes, Alfredo Aceves, Joba Chamberlain, Francisco Cervelli, Ramiro Pena, Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson who are all in their 20’s, have World Series experience except Granderson and will all improve. The Yankees also have some one by the name of Jesus Montero who some say is one of the best hitters in the minor leagues. He’s just itching to get his way into the line up. Overall I say that Wallace Matthews gave a pretty fair assessment of the New York Yankees. I don’t think all of his points were right on and I don’t think all of his points were wrong either. The best point he made was the age factor of the core group. You have to figure that die hard Yankees fans will not like this article. If you read it with a clear mind, you won’t be angry. If you read it with a Yankees bias, you’re bound to curse Matthews out.
