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MLB

A Few Yankees Have Something to Prove

Posted Sep 28, 2009 5:00PM By Ed Price (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Yankees, MLB Playoffs, American League Division Series

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CC SabathiaNEW YORK -- Can a team win the World Series with an ace sporting a 7.92 ERA and a cleanup hitter with one RBI in his past 59 at-bats in the playoffs?

The Yankees hope so.

For every Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte with a history of success in the October, the Yankees seem to have a player who has to prove himself in this coming one.

You'll hear all about from now until those players redeem themselves -- or the Yankees are eliminated.

"It's going to be a huge deal," said CC Sabathia, who will take a 7.92 ERA from his five playoff starts into Game 1 of this year's Division Series.

Rotation-mate A.J. Burnett has never thrown a postseason pitch -- he was recovering from Tommy John surgery during the Marlins' 2003 World Series run. Center fielder Melky Cabrera is 3-for-19 in his six playoff games. Second baseman Robinson Cano has hit .245 in three Division Series. Right fielder Nick Swisher is 5-for-24 with one RBI in 10 playoff games. And, surprisingly, catcher Jorge Posada has a .236 average in 96 postseason games.

General manager Brian Cashman -- whose team will open this year's playoffs on Oct. 7 or 8 against the Tigers, Twins or Rangers -- professed no concern.

"Short sample size, I don't trust," he said.

Which is a fair point.

But Rodriguez's sample size keeps going up.

Since the start of the Yankees' infamous 2004 ALCS collapse, A-Rod has gone 9-for-61 (.148) with a .262 slugging percentage and three RBI.

And the Yankees are 4-13 in those 17 games.

Rodriguez's overall postseason numbers aren't horrible -- .279 average, .361 on-base percentage, seven homers in 167 at-bats -- but they aren't up to his standards. And with the Yankees, they have been putrid.

When Rodriguez hit a solo homer in the seventh inning of the Yankees' last postseason game, Game 4 of the 2007 American League Division Series against Cleveland, it snapped a streak of 57 postseason at-bats without an RBI.

Sabathia's October stats stand up a little better to scrutiny.

In his first two starts, in the 2001 and 2007 AL Division Series, he allowed five runs on 10 hits in 11 innings. Then the Red Sox hammered him in Game 1 of the '07 ALCS and got him for four runs on 10 hits over six innings in Game 5.

Then last year, after making his final three regular season starts on three days of rest to help push the Brewers into the playoffs (and having a 0.83 ERA in those games), he lasted just 3 2/3 innings against the Phillies in the Division Series.

"CC pitched the way he did last year in October-like pressure to get his team to the postseason last September," Cashman said. "He doesn't have to prove anything to me."

Most alarming is Sabathia's 22 walks in 25 playoff innings.

"It is what it is," Sabathia said. "I had bad games. I don't know if it's because I was tired or whatever they say. I just had bad games at the wrong time.

"So we'll see what happens this year, but I feel pretty good and I've been throwing the ball great, so we'll see."

Tags: a.j.burnett, alex+rodriguez, AlexRodriguez, brian+cashman, BrianCashman, cc+sabathia, CcSabathia, jorge+posada, JorgePosada, melky+cabrera, MelkyCabrera, nick+swisher, NickSwisher, robinson+cano, RobinsonCano

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