Yankees is serious injury trouble...again

[NYgiantsfan5689]

So right now, the Yankees have the following on the DL:
SP Chien-Ming Wang
MR Damaso Marte
MR Brian Bruney
RF Xavier Nady
3B Alex Rodriguez
3B Cody Ransom
C Jorge Posada

At the start of the season, those people were the #2 starter, the 2 set-up men, the starting RF, C, 3B, and backup 3B.

Here's a good way to think of the problem the Yankees face right now, courtesy of Peter Abraham:

If you take any team in the game and remove the catcher, third baseman, right fielder, No. 2 starter and top two set-up men, that’s trouble.


Look at it this way, there are roughly 16 important players on the team. Eight position players, five starters, three top relievers. The Yankees are down six of them. That’s nearly 40 percent of their core players.

They have got a lot of treading water to do for about a month until most of these guys come back. I hate it when a team has to tread water, especially in the AL East, it really puts you in a hole.

[cjkalt]

I'd actually argue the Red Sox could play .600 baseball without Varitek, Lowell, JD Drew, Dice-K, Okajima and Delcarmen.

The reason is simple, WE HAVE DEPTH to overcome injuries, this is something I talked about preseason and why I said the Yankees would be in trouble preseason. The Red Sox dealt with their depth issues preseason. Hypothetically this would be the Sox Lineup:

1) Ellsbury CF
2) Pedroia 2B
3) Ortiz DH
4) Youkilis 3B
5) Bay LF
6) Carter/Bailey 1B (Not including our true backup 1B Mark Kotsay who is on DL now)
7) Baldell RF
8) Kottaras C
9) Nick Green SS (although I should have Lowrie but we'll lose our SS too)

Our bullpen would still have the great arms of Saito, Ramirez, Masterson, Jones and Bowden.

Obviously this team would be a downgrade, but it would not be the disaster that the Yankees are in. When you have an aging team you have to have the depth to support it otherwise you end up in the shape they are in.

[NYgiantsfan5689]

You have to take away Youkilis too, cuz you lose your backup 3B, plus losing Lowell isn't nearly the blow losing A-Rod is.

How would you still have Saito in the pen? He's absolutely one of your set-up men. Your team would be in almost just as much trouble.

[BuckFoston]

Yeah this definitely sucks. A-rod is set to return soon though, maybe as soon as Friday but who knows how long it will take him to come back and get into the groove of things and start producing like we know he can. Today he hit 2 HR's in an extended spring training game which is a good sing.

Getting Wang and Bruney back will be a big boost though. Bruney was pitching well coming out of the pen but Wang, not so much. I still think he'll come around so we'll see. It would be nice to see Wang and Hughes give us the quality outings that we need so that we could then send Joba out to the pen where we definitely need the help.

Losing Posada is a huge blow though. I hope his hammy isn't very bad but thankfully its just not his shoulder. Molina doesn't offer nearly the threat Posada does at the plate and he made two mistakes last night behind the plate where he could have caught two balls in foul territory but shyed away from the fence.

As we all know losing these players is tough and a huge blow but we've seen in the past that the Yankees can still go out and battle and win. We've done it before and we can do it again. I think we'll be fine but once we get all our pieces back in place we'll be a very very good team.

[cjkalt]

You have to take away Youkilis too, cuz you lose your backup 3B, plus losing Lowell isn't nearly the blow losing A-Rod is.

How would you still have Saito in the pen? He's absolutely one of your set-up men. Your team would be in almost just as much trouble.

I don't have to lose my starting 1B who happens to have the versitility of moving to 3B. I'll lose our backup 3B who is Julio Lugo. and I'll take Saito out, our bullpen is so amazing i'll take out any 2 MR but we'd still be amazing.

And don't be dismissing the AL-Leader in RBI's in Mike Lowell. Sure A-Rod is a bigger loss, but losing our 2 bullpen guys are much better than your top 2 so its all about the same anyways.

[The Smoo]

Whatever team has a rash of injuries like the Yankees and Angels they are going to struggle. I see both these teams in the pennant race at the end. The key is for both of these clubs is to get these players healthy and keep them healthy. The problem I see with such players and Posada for the Yankees is he is aging and injuries are harder to comeback from at 100% like when he was in his 20's.

[love_that_reefer]

Most of us saw this coming and its the reason why I don't have the Yankees making the postseason. Weird thing is I didn't see Arod and Nady being part of the injured. Yankees are going to be in trouble all year long but this is overkill on the DL.

[nyjunc]

I'd actually argue the Red Sox could play .600 baseball without Varitek, Lowell, JD Drew, Dice-K, Okajima and Delcarmen.

The reason is simple, WE HAVE DEPTH to overcome injuries, this is something I talked about preseason and why I said the Yankees would be in trouble preseason. The Red Sox dealt with their depth issues preseason. Hypothetically this would be the Sox Lineup:

1) Ellsbury CF
2) Pedroia 2B
3) Ortiz DH
4) Youkilis 3B
5) Bay LF
6) Carter/Bailey 1B (Not including our true backup 1B Mark Kotsay who is on DL now)
7) Baldell RF
8) Kottaras C
9) Nick Green SS (although I should have Lowrie but we'll lose our SS too)

Our bullpen would still have the great arms of Saito, Ramirez, Masterson, Jones and Bowden.

Obviously this team would be a downgrade, but it would not be the disaster that the Yankees are in. When you have an aging team you have to have the depth to support it otherwise you end up in the shape they are in.

The Yanks have enough depth to withstand injuries, we haven't been medicore b/c of injuries it's b/c the pitching has been inconsistent.