In George We Trust
A(nother) blog about the most storied franchise in sports
Friday, March 24, 2006
Crank preview

The Baseball Crank released his AL East preview:
(EWSL=Established Win Shares Levels)

Raw EWSL: 297.00 (99 W)
Adjusted: 317.17 (106 W)
Age-Adj.: 280.18 (93 W)

POSAgePLAYERRaw EWSLAge Adj
C34Jorge Posada2119
1B35Jason Giambi1914
2B23Robinson Cano*617
SS32Derek Jeter2522
3B30Alex Rodriguez3231
RF37Gary Sheffield3222
CF32Johnny Damon2421
LF32Hideki Matsui2522
DH37Bernie Williams139
C236Kelly Stinnett21
INF32Miguel Cairo76
OF29Bubba Crosby+16
1329Andy Phillips+06
SP142Randy Johnson1716
SP237Mike Mussina1211
SP330Carl Pavano108
SP426Chien-Ming Wang47
SP528Shawn Chacon78
RP136Mariano Rivera1815
RP230Kyle Farnsworth97
RP336Ron Villone65
RP434Aaron Small43
RP530Jaret Wright54

Other pitchers we are likely to see include Tanyan Sturtze and, if he gets healthy enough to pitch this season, Octavio Dotel. Carl Pavano is clearly the key guy on this team; a solid year from Pavano gives them three dependable starters, with a chance for 4 if Wang holds up (no, I don't expect the fairy godmother to give Chacon and Small a new set of ball gowns this season), and could take the pressure off a bullpen that yet again is shaky behind the sandman. On offense, the Yanks are 8 men and out once again, with the decrepit Bernie eating up at bats and minimal help from the bench. And, of course, this is an old, old team.

With Bonds ailing last season and Palmeiro having hung it up, we haven't yet had a test of a guy with the kind of steroids bullseye Sheffield now has painted on him; 2006 will be that test, and we'll see if Sheff proves that he's still impervious both to age and to the media. Long term, of course, if it turns out that a lot of the performances by mid/late-30s slugging of the past decade have been steroids-driven, and those performances don't hold up in the future under the new testing regimes (two big ifs), that could adversely impact Steinbrenner's business model of buying established over-30 veterans.

I'm not optimistic about Cano, who came into camp out of shape and isn't the most disciplined player to start with.

I think the Crank needs to take a look at the spring Chacon and Cano have had. And by God, if Robbie's out of shape, I don't wanna know what I am:

Written at 8:40 AM by Mike A.
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