Bittersweet Victory

As fun as it is to see a guy like Nick Swisher pick up the team and crack a walk off homer to end a fairly successful homestand, Wednesday's victory over the Orioles was more of a relief than a satisfying win. The Yankees avoided embarrassment at the hands of Buck Showalter and the pathetic Baltimore Orioles' pitching staff. They dodged a potential four game losing streak before heading to Texas with three great arms scheduled to pitch: Vazquez, Moseley, and Burnett. If you're not thankful enough for Nick Swisher's homer, just check out the recent statistics on these guys.

Had Swisher not hit that big blast, we'd be talking about how atrocious the Yankees offense has been for four days. Well on The Inside Corner, we still talk about that stuff. Derek Jeter stinks. I hate to say it, and I hate to pick on the greatest shortstop in the history of the franchise, but maybe it's time. I'm not sure how the Yankees can really justify re-signing this guy with Eduardo Nunez waiting in the wings. Another 0 for 4 performance by "The Captain" has dropped his average to .262, and he also contributed a poor throwing error during Wednesday's game. If Jeter steps it up in the playoffs, he's guaranteed to be back next season. If it's more of the same for Derek, who knows where he ends up?

The 2010 Yankees are one of the streakiest offensive teams I can remember. When they're hot the whole team is hot. And then when one guy gets cold, the rest of the team can't hit. The lineup is just full of guys who have not hit for average this season: Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Jorge Posada (once in a while), Lance Berkman, and Curtis Granderson. When Jorge's not playing, which may start happening more frequently, we have Francisco Cervelli, who probably hasn't driven in a run since the beginning of May.

Ivan Nova seems like the real deal. He's had four starts, and he's done fairly well in all of them. The Yankees have won three of his starts, and his other start was lost by David Robertson after a 2-2 tie score. Why Cashman and Girardi don't consider him for the playoff rotation is beyond me. Who cares about experience? You can have a young kid in the game, or you can deal with the ineffectiveness of Javier Vazquez or AJ Burnett. You make the call.

On a side note, congratulations to Trevor Hoffman on his 600th save. That's an impressive accomplishment, but let's just think about how many saves Mariano Rivera would have accumulated by now if he played on a team that did not win a lot of blow out games, like the Padres or the Brewers. By the way, if you're keeping track at home, Trevor has posted a whopping 4 career saves in the playoffs. It could have been more, but he's pretty famous for blowing Game 3 of the '98 series against the Bombers, and coughing up a 2 run lead in a 2007 one game playoff at Coors Field. So congrats Trevor, but you'll never hold a candle to Mariano.