New York Yankees
Overview
The Yankees showed just how far it is possible to go with pitching alone. Their 2.24 team ERA was just 7 points off of the 3rd-best mark produced by the St. Louis Browns during the dead-ball era (1908 to be exact) and they ended up allowing more than 100 fewer runs than the 2nd best team in the league at doing so, the Chicago White Sox. Of course, those Sox ended up edging them by a single game, in large part because the Yanks just could not generate enough offense. Each of their important offense numbers - runs scored, batting average, homeruns, slugging average - were decidedly average. That's not going to win you a pennant except in extraordinary circumstances. It's a testament to the pitching and defense that they got as close as they did.
To make matters worse, their free spending ways the last couple of years have made the rest of the league reticent to deal with them. It shouldn't matter too much, as this team isn't particularly old and is pretty well stocked where they need to be, but they might be hurt by a lack of ability to plug holes. We guess time will tell on that.
One area where the team dipped deep into its pocketbook last year was in its acquisition of Dan Elder from the Cincinnati Reds, where he'd just finished coaching that club to a 2nd place finish. It's hard to think of a squad as diametrically opposed to the communist doctrines of the Reds than the Yankees but perhaps that was what led Elder to arrive in this locale in the first place. In any case, whatever other issues the Yanks had, their manager wasn't really part of that.
Pitching
An argument could be made that
Bob Meyers was really the pitcher of the year for the AL last year. Hey, we're not actually going to make that argument - when a guy wins 32 games, you give him the award no matter whatever else might be the case - but look at the numbers. "Eeyore" finished just ahead of Bob Hinman in the ERA race (both were beaten out by Eeyore's teammate
Steve Krug), had fewer walks, struck out almost 50 more batters, and threw 16 more innings. In the end, it really was the victories that made the difference - Eeyore's constant moaning caused his teammates to underperform, giving Hinman the edge.
Behind Meyers, the Yankees sported 2 other 20-game winners. In addition to the dean of Yankee pitchers Steve Krug (245 victories in pinstripes), the club also featured
Alan Hack, who wasn't quite as awesome as last year (10-1, 2.46) but who nonetheless would be a #1 man on any other team in the AL save the White Sox. No team stays completely injury free, and it's not really newsworthy that a 42 year old man can't play the whole year, but
Elvin Gram did what he could in the first half and when he did go down the Yanks were rather pleased with what former St. Louis Cardinal
Carl Parham brought them. Parham's game is suited to the team's park as well as any pitcher on the squad.
Code:
Player Age W L Pct G GS SV IP H ER HR BB SO ERA
Bob Meyers 27 28 14 0.667 43 43 0 375 283 69 15 30 233 1.66
Alan Hack 33 20 16 0.556 39 39 0 309 286 88 13 75 127 2.56
Steve Krug 33 21 7 0.750 33 33 0 264.2 216 47 1 59 78 1.60
Elvin Gram 42 9 6 0.600 18 18 0 127 146 50 4 37 33 3.54
*Carl Parham 25 6 6 0.500 16 14 0 103.2 92 35 3 34 42 3.04
*Philip Williams 34 3 4 0.429 40 0 17 61.2 54 17 4 27 18 2.48
Johnny Watson 26 4 1 0.800 28 0 2 57 37 12 2 22 27 1.89
Barry Ruth 29 2 2 0.500 16 4 0 49.2 37 17 1 20 6 3.08
*Juan Hernández 29 1 1 0.500 16 0 0 25.2 16 3 0 9 8 1.05
Jeff Olson 25 0 3 0.000 3 3 0 20 27 10 0 15 12 4.50
Tim Bunker 24 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0.00
*Lowell May 24 0 0 0.000 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 0 0.00
Team Totals 29.3 94 60 0.610 254 154 19 1395.1 1197 348 43 331 585 2.24
Catchers
Things got so hectic last year that at the end of the season
Phil Foster was hitting 3rd for this ballclub. Nothing against Foster, but when your best pure hitter is a 37 year old catcher clearly on the decline, you're probably not going to score a lot of runs. What Foster did do was stay healthy, which meant that longtime backup
Jesus Vasquez didn't play much. It was just as well; although he hit .297 with 12 homeruns when he did get a chance to start in 1931, he was offensively anemic last year.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
C Phil Foster 37 134 134 542 57 152 29 0 2 68 0 1 35 38 0.280 0.324 0.345
C *Jesús Vásquez 30 44 20 100 7 21 0 1 2 16 0 0 5 3 0.210 0.243 0.290
Infield
Michael Taylor won the AL Rookie of the Year Award and still managed to be a disappointment for the Yankees. After he hit .375 in 96 at-bats at the end of 1932 and followed it up with a 6-15 performance in that year's World Series, the Yankees expected him to go into the middle of the lineup and mash. He slumped badly in the first two months and didn't really get his swing fixed until Dan Elder decided to platoon him with
Ken Flake. Flake was a bit of a disappointment himself, as he did not provide them with anything approaching the power he had the year before in Boston, when he hit 25 homeruns for the Red Sox. Flake's powerful arm is better suited for the outfield anyway, so it's likely Taylor's job to lose again. Time is running out on him, though.
The Yankees traded away 1932's ROY winner Earl Race to make room for
Mike Kennedy, who had a fantastic season with the stick that year (.324, 116 RBIs) but who was no longer able to effectively field shortstop. Kennedy never quite got used to the position (24 errors in 122 games started out there) and to make matters worse didn't really hit much after April. He missed the last month of the season with a sprained thumb, but his replacements (
Arlen Bopp and
Paul McVey) didn't exactly impress.
Quincy Hudson lost 80 points off his batting average in making the transition from part-time to full-time play. He didn't really field at the hot corner well enough to merit his lack of hitting either. He should expect competition in spring training from Bopp, McVey, and 21-year-old
Harry Lund, who hit .347 with 51 doubles with the Minneapolis Millers in 1932.
With all the turmoil elsewhere, the Yankees really appreciated
Gilbert Nelson, who contributed a solid veteran presence, good defense at short, and a great eye. He's really an unsung hero, although he's also at an age where the team can't count on him to provide these skills day in and day out.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
1B Michael Taylor 25 120 105 431 53 119 27 2 7 53 0 0 37 30 0.276 0.333 0.397
1B *Ken Flake 29 96 75 287 38 71 12 7 6 47 4 2 47 35 0.247 0.357 0.401
1B Willis Collins 30 41 8 56 4 11 0 0 0 3 0 0 12 5 0.196 0.333 0.196
2B #Mike Kennedy 29 122 122 493 64 128 20 3 7 55 0 1 53 15 0.260 0.325 0.355
3B *Quincy Hudson 28 144 144 552 59 133 17 3 10 66 0 1 48 48 0.241 0.299 0.337
3B Paul McVey 32 43 15 73 5 19 1 1 0 4 0 0 3 15 0.260 0.299 0.301
SS Gilbert Nelson 35 122 118 393 59 105 30 2 0 41 0 1 77 47 0.267 0.386 0.354
SS Arlen Bopp 27 101 63 258 25 69 14 0 1 28 0 1 12 22 0.267 0.299 0.333
Outfield
As
Carter Keeton went, so did the Yankees. He missed the first 24 games of the season with the same broken elbow that laid him up at the end of 1932. The team went just 13-11 in those games. When he did play, he was so awesome that even with his not suiting up until May 9, he still took home the league MVP award. The one knock on him that we've heard is that he's unwilling to change his game to meet the situations he's put in: last year, for example, he hit .350 when it was close and late, which is fantastic until you see that he also drew 26 walks in those instances. Yes, that means he reached base almost half the time (.480 OBP) but the Yankees, more often than not, needed him to drive in runs himself, not cede that responsiblity to the next man up.
One strategy this team had going into last year was that
Eric Luther was going to protect Keeton and force pitchers to throw their main man more strikes. Luther, who'd hit .312, .370, and .336 in his previous three seasons with the Boston Braves, hit .252 in his first year as a Yankee. He's a great defender but that may not be enough to keep him in the lineup given the presence of Ken Flake. Unfortunately, both men hit from the left side so a platoon situation is not possible.
Nathan Behnke just produces every year, no doubt about it. He's now won 2 straight Gold Gloves in center field, and in his 6 year career already holds a .310 average and almost 1,000 hits (982). Although last year was a bit of a down season for him, thanks in large part to a strained back that worked against him for the better part of the first half before he finally went on the disabled list with it on the 25th of June, he still managed to get on base at a .359 clip that matched his career totals and led all AL CFs with 10 triples.
Code:
Pos Player Age G GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO AVG OBP SLG
LF *Carter Keeton 27 126 125 455 87 148 22 17 17 75 2 4 102 50 0.325 0.449 0.560
LF *Roberto Silva 25 42 21 96 10 20 4 0 1 5 3 1 8 5 0.208 0.274 0.281
LF Oscar Nickel 25 33 19 86 7 20 2 1 0 8 2 0 4 4 0.233 0.264 0.279
CF Nathan Behnke 26 115 115 507 68 153 29 10 3 55 13 7 42 20 0.302 0.359 0.416
RF *Eric Luther 30 138 128 492 71 124 21 11 9 70 9 5 62 52 0.252 0.340 0.394
RF Bill Gwaltney 25 23 10 50 11 16 4 1 0 5 3 0 4 5 0.320 0.370 0.440
RF *John Faber 23 19 10 42 7 13 1 2 4 8 0 2 6 1 0.310 0.396 0.714
Team Totals 28.8 1717 1386 5367 667 1395 247 62 69 642 36 26 573 459 0.260 0.331 0.368