After going 5-4 on the road, the Yankees finally get to spend some more time back in the Bronx as they open up a three game series against the Chicago White Sox this weekend.  At 14-7 the Yankees have opened up the 2010 series looking stronger than ever, though they still sit 2.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East standings.  Chicago, on the other hand, has struggled out of the gate, going 9-13.

Pitching Matchups:
April 30: Andy Pettitte (3-0, 1.29) v. Freddy Garcia (0-2, 5.82)

May 1: Javier Vazquez (1-3, 9.00) v. John Danks (3-0, 1.55)

May 2: Phil Hughes (2-0, 2.00) v. Mark Buehrle (2-3, 4.68)

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In this relatively young season, no Yankee has been more consistent than Robinson Cano.  Overshadowing a phenomenal eight-inning shut out performance by A.J. Burnett, Cano showed off his skills on both sides of the plate and propelled the Yankees to a 4-0 victory and their sixth series win.

Derek Jeter led things off for the Pinstripes with a single to left field in the top of the first.  He moved to third on a double by Mark Teixeira and scored when Alex Rodriguez hit a sac fly to right field.  The Yankees lead stayed at 1-0 until the top of the fourth, when Robinson Cano crushed the ball over the centerfield wall for a solo homerun.

Cano was far from done, starting the sixth inning with a double, and scoring when Marcus Thames followed with a double to left, giving the Yankees a 3-0 lead.  Cano added one more run in the eighth with his second homerun of the night and giving Burnett a comfortable lead, before he handed the ball over to Mariano Rivera in the ninth.

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By now, you know that I’m not the president of ARod’s fan club. That doesn’t mean I look for ways to bash him or summarily toss him under the bus (though some of you might actually think that). So when I read this today by Tracy Ringolsby (a well respected, long-time writer in Denver), I had to step back and figure out whether I wanted to laugh or simply yell. (h/t to HBT)

And that wasn’t the first time A-Rod put his own needs ahead of an organization. Tom Hicks, the man who is attempting to sell the Texas Rangers, was able to cover the Rangers’ share of Rodriguez’s 10-year, $242 million deal signed before the 2001 season, despite Hicks’ bankruptcy problems.

It’s the working stiffs with the Rangers, the ones who had their future caught up in a Hicks-created retirement plan, who are left with nothing to show for their efforts.

So it’s all ARod’s fault that Hicks overpaid by some $100 million, thereby accelerating his own financial woes and, by proxy, the problems in paying his staff? Yeah, right. That’s a good one.

You can blame ARod for many things, many dumb things, but to hang Hicks’ inability to pay his staff on him is flat out wrong.

Just wow.

In his last eight games, Cano is batting .531 (17 for 32) with four homers, sustained production that has alleviated the pressure on slumping hitters like Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. And on Thursday, Cano supplied a defensive play so superb that, as he watched it from beside the mound, Burnett put his hands on his head in appreciative disbelief.

Can this guy do no wrong? It so much fun to watch a player on a hot streak as hot as this one that Cano is on. Who cares that Teix isn’t swinging with the right end of the bat when Cano is off to an MVP-worthy start to this season. How is he doing it? Good question. His BAPIP is much higher than at any point in his career, an almost-silly .385, although his batting average is even higher at .407!

So what’s different about his 2010 campaign so far? How about more line drives, more fly balls and a very high HR rate…

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For those unaware, I can get pretty animated if pushed far enough, as evidenced by my Vote For Manny “shenanigans” last summer. The constant tweaking and messing with the All Star Game is just making me crazy. The game was fine as it was, even when it ended it a tie way back in 2002. So what, it was an exhibition! I was OK with that. Still am. Except that MLB keeps pushing and pulling this thing like saltwater taffy, trying to make it all things to all people. It’s officially preposterous.

Changes announced yesterday:

• DH will be used in every ballpark. [If you don't see this as a harbinger of what's to come with the DH within the next 10 years, you're not paying attention.]
• Rosters expand, again, to 34 players:

There were 28 players per team from 1969-97, and the size increased to 30 with expansion in 1998.

After the infamous 7-7, 11-inning tie in Milwaukee in 2002, when both teams ran out of pitchers, rosters expanded to 32 players, including 12 pitchers, the following year, when the game first started counting for World Series home-field advantage.

The size increased to 33 players, including 13 pitchers, last summer and will now be 34 players, with 13 pitchers per team.

• Starting pitchers who pitch the Sunday leading up to the ASG will be replaced on the roster:

Another change is that a pitcher who starts on the final Sunday before the All-Star break will be ineligible to pitch in the All-Star Game and will be replaced on the roster, Major League Baseball said in a change announced Wednesday.

Let’s dig a bit deeper, shall we?

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New York snapped their losing streak by dominating the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night.  The offense that had appeared to be napping on Tuesday showed some life right away last night, and even though CC Sabathia gave up eleven hits, he kept the damage to a minimum and went deep into the game, helping the Bronx Bombers secure an 8-3 victory over the Orioles.

Derek Jeter got the Yankees going right away with a lead off double.  Nick Johnson singled and got to second on an error by outfielder Lou Montanez, sending Jeter home for the first run of the game.  Mark Teixeira grounded out, moving Johnson to third and a sac fly by Alex Rodriguez gave the Yankees the early 2-0 lead.

The second inning was more of the same from New York.  Jeremy Guthrie started the inning by hitting Jorge Posada in the knee with a pitch (Posada would be replaced by Francisco Cervelli in the bottom of the inning).  Curtis Granderson connected with a single and Nick Swisher cleared the bases with his second triple of the young season.  Jeter’s sac fly to right field sent Swisher across the plate and the Bronx Bombers were out in front 5-0.  A solo homer by Robinson Cano in the third inning gave the Yankees even more insurance.

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Well, not really, but according to some fancy algorithm spit out by Nielsen, the Indians are the most hated MLB team. The Yanks, “only” the fifth most hated team. And the RedSox? How’s #2 grab ya?

Kudos to Ben Kabak of RAB for a clutch quote:

The Mets finished four spots higher, making them the ninth most-hated team. “Even Yankee fans don’t hate the Mets these days,” says Benjamin Kabak, a writer for the River Avenue Blues Yankees blog. “We just feel bad for them.”

That’s so true, even if the Mets are white-hot right now.

This topic isn’t new. It’s been talked about since Pedroia made his little (can I say that?) push for the AL MVP back in 2008. The Post started talking about it a bit the other day, and Rob Neyer and TYU have since picked up on it. Ultimately, as you’ll see and as they’ve seen, the two players are very valuable, and they actually appear to be similarly valuable. One area, however, that I haven’t seen covered all that often (at least in this debate) are the differences (real or perceived) in their work ethic—or (GASP!) intangibles. So stick around for that part, but first, we have to wave through the nitty-gritty statistical stuff.

Offensively, the two are actually pretty similar in terms of value, but they do it in different ways. Cano’s career OBP is .341 (about average), and Pedroia’s is .369 (pretty good but not elite). Cano gains the edge in SLG, however, by topping Pedroia’s .460 with his own .484. If you take these career marks and wiggle them through some math I don’t understand, Cano’s wOBA is .351 (this is made to appear like OBP, so this is a bit above average), but Pedroia beats that fairly handily with his .365. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Cano had that horrendous 2008 with his .305 wOBA due to a .283 BABIP that was 40 points below his career mark, but his LD% had actually increased from the year before while his K rate dropped a bit. His problems stemmed from a low HR/FB rate (3.5% below his career mark) when he decided to hit quite a few more fly balls (30.9 to 33.2 FB%). I consider 2008 more of a fluke, but there’s considerable debate as to what that season means and how it should be weighed against his other seasons (I tend to favor the three good ones over the one bad. Stuff happens). Otherwise, Cano has actually been a bit better offensively than Pedroia, but not by much. Looking at offensive runs, Cano has been worth 20, 15.5, (-10), and 23.9 runs while Pedroia has been worth 14.3, 29.9, and 15.7. When taking a look at this, I like to look more at trends, and if we do so, Cano is a low +20 player while Pedroia is a mid to upper teens player. Edge to Cano.

Defensively, there isn’t much of a contest. Sorry ladies and gentlemen of Yankee Universe, but Cano isn’t a good defensive player (that’s all relative of course—he might be one of the best defensive second basemen on the planet, but when you’re compared against the best 30, standards are a bit higher). Cano’s UZR has been worth -7.8, 7.3, -10.8, and -2.2 runs on defense, and Pedroia has been worth 3.0, 10.9, and 7.5. Again, we like trends (especially in defensive statistics like this where 3-year samples are best). Therefore, let’s call Cano a -5 defender while Pedroia is about +7. Clear advantage to Pedroia.

On the bases, they are fairly even as well with both grading out around average despite Pedroia’s clear advantage in stolen bases (though getting thrown out 8 times in 28 chances will hurt your stock a bit).

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Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports has a good “interview” with Posada, where he gets Posada’s “bests” on a number of categories. Fun stuff:

Scariest guy when he went to the mound

“David Cone. I was just intimidated. I would not even go to the mound. I was, like, scared, you know? He was the nicest guy in the world, but when he pitched, oof, don’t get near him. He was scary. He gave up a home run to Ken Griffey Jr. in Seattle once. I wanted him to come in and he didn’t want to. He gave up a home run on a split. Probably hung in there and Griffey hit a home run. So, I go out there and he says, ‘How the hell would you pitch him?’ I said, ‘I think we gotta come in.’ Next time, Griffey comes up, we go in and he hits a double.’ I go back out and Cone says, ‘How the hell you gonna pitch him now?’ ”

Smartest pitcher

“Mariano’s pretty smart. El Duque was very smart. So was Clemens. Reading batters, El Duque was special because he didn’t know anybody. He came in and they threw him into the fire. He would read their stance. He’d know if he was a low-ball hitter or high-ball hitter, just from the stance. That’s how good he was. He’d read the swing of the bat, foul balls, stuff like that. Clemens was pretty good at that, too.”

And this last one (actually the first one in the interview) had me laughing about the unintended comedy behind Posada’s comment:

Best fastball

“Kyle Farnsworth or Scott Proctor. Proctor would throw 98, 99, 100. Farnsworth is 100-plus. That’s based on straight velocity.”

All Farnsworthless threw was straight stuff. And as we all know, MLB hitters can hit 100mph straight stuff.

The Yankees headed to Baltimore for their first series against the struggling Orioles, but turned in a completely lackluster performance.  A comeback in the ninth innings gave New York fans some hope, but instead the Bombers came up just short and the Orioles won 5-4.

Phil Hughes did not have his good stuff working for him Tuesday night.  Despite not having his fastball and throwing a lot of pitches, Hughes was able to hold the Orioles to two hits over 5.2 innings.  Baltimore was the first to score when Hughes gave up back to back singles to start the second inning.  After getting Rhyne Hughes to fly out, Phil Hughes walked the Nolan Reimold to load the bases and then Cesar Izturis giving the Orioles their first run of the game.

The Yankees got the run back in the top of the third when Nick Swisher and Randy Winn hit back-to-back singles.  Derek Jeter grounded out, moving the runners over.  Brett Gardner then reached on an error by Miguel Tejada, sending Swisher across the plate to tie the score.   A homerun by Jorge Posada to start the fourth inning gave the Yankees the lead, 2-1.

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Friends, Yankees, countrymen, lend me your eyes. I come here not to praise the ’98 Yankees, but to bury them. After all, Will says they were crap. And Will is an honorable man.

Will would have you believe that it’s a simple equation. “2009’s offense (.366 wOBA) was better than 1998’s (.361 wOBA), and 2010 is very likely to be better than 2009.” Also, Will believes that the 2010 rotation outclasses the ’98 version, and that the two pitching staffs are roughly comparable, despite the fact that the only spot where the ’10 Yankees have a clear advantage is at the #4 starter. Also, since we don’t have advanced defensive stats, Will wants to basically ignore them and call the clubs even.

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“For less than $5.00 per bat, the problem could be solved.“

Phil Rauso, Jr., BatGlove

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I’m tired of this, but it scares the bejesus outta me (via Craig at HBT):

In the bottom of the fourth, Alcides Escobar’s bat shattered when he grounded out to end the inning. A sharp piece of the barrel flew into the Miller Park stands about 10 rows behind the Pirates’ on-deck circle, careering off several fans and hitting the boy in the head.

After being tended to by ushers and medical personnel, the boy, holding a baseball, walked up the stairs under his own power and was cheered by other fans in his section.

Seriously? We have the solution in sight but there’s some high-level politics acting as a major roadblock. It’s time to put capitalistic rationale to the backburner and simply do the right thing. Yes, sometimes it’s not about the money.

Wanna read more? We’ve been covering this for a while:

• “Some day somebody is going to get killed or impaled” *UPDATED*
• Additional chatter on the maple bats and a possible solution
• Finally! Maple bats face ban
• Broken bats, again. This time, Price pays the price
• Finally, the cry to ban maple bats is getting louder
• Maple bat maker goes batty
• Maple bats and minus 3.5
• Seriously, can we do SOMETHING about these bats already?
• A solution to broken bats, aluminum bats
• It’s about the wood, stupid
• Dunn switches to ash from maple

The Yankees’ bring their roadtrip back east today, as they meet AL East rival, the Baltimore Orioles.  Baltimore is coming off a win against the Boston Red Sox, but they have struggled this season.  While the Yankees sit at 12-6, the Orioles are 3-16 in large part to an anemic offense and ineffective bullpen.

Pitching Matchups:
April 27:Phil Hughes (02-0, 2.19) v. Kevin Millwood (0-3, 3.38)

April 28: CC Sabathia (2-1, 3.00) v. Jeremy Guthrie (0-2, 3.46)

April 29: A.J. Burnett (2-0, 3.20) v. Brian Matusz (2-0, 4.38)

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