New York Yankees: two players take the lead
The New York Yankees, being the most equipped club of Major League Baseball, has always been under extra pressure than any other franchise in the game. Veterans like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera have unlimited support from their fans,
but it sometimes also turns into inevitable pressure.
‘More demands break more hearts’ the quote might be associated with the Yankees’ veterans after their disappointing performance in the 2011 season. How can fans imagine seeing the show only from two players in the presence of the All-Stars, American League
MVPs, Major League heroes, but they have to witness it.
Whatever the reason may have restricted the veterans, but Curtis Granderson and Carsten Charles Sabathia did not succumb to any team, any player and any pressure. Dividing the entire standing table just into two categories, batting and the pitching, brings
to us in-negligible brilliance of these two.
A birds-eye view of the batting stats can easily help us to distinguish Curtis Granderson among batting giants. First position holder in American League in runs, the left-hander crushed the pitchers from every Major League franchise. He launched against
Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson and many others without any exception.
With his batting brilliance, Granderson led the club in AL with 119 RBIs and 136 runs. Besides this, the lefty also launched 41 home-runs to lead the club and secured the second position in AL after Jose Bautista. He was also the leader of the club with
a .302 batting average and .916 OPS.
Brilliancy in batting was witnessed in the month of August in which he batted .286 with a .423 on base percentage and launched 10 home-runs to earn 29 RBIs and 29 scores. It made him the winner of the American League Player of the Month for August 2011.
Looking at his batting brilliance, the experts have placed him in the front players ready to take the MVP award of the 2011 season.
Every other day a new speculation hit the headlines about Carsten Charles Sabathia’s decision to take an opt-out clause of his contract and his decision is being associated with his dictating performance in the 2011 season.
Sabathia had led the club in all categories associated with starters. The left-hander gargantuan pitcher has won 19 games with an ERA of 3.00 in 33 starts. He closed down the season holding second position in AL in wins after the Detroit Tigers’ Jered Weaver.
Sabathia was nominated AL Pitcher of the Month in July, in which he went 4-1 with a 0.92 ERA record and struck-out 50 batters in 39 innings.
Sabathia managed to beat Phil Hughes, Bartolo Colon and Ivan Nova in every category. He made 230 strike-outs and had a 1.23 WHIP, the most by any pitcher in the Yankees franchise. As the Yankees were entered the post-season, Sabathia started two shaky outings
but his overall season did not get affected.
Now the Major League Baseball experts are raising questions about the Yankees’ veterans that include Jeter and Rodriguez. Both scored only at the time when the club was in good position. Jeter, who is known for his post-season brilliance, seemed like a new
comer and struggled against somewhat easy pitchers. Whatever the reason was, the Yankees had to receive a serious blow in the American League Divisional Series against the Detroit Tigers. The club now has started reassembling the entire roaster for the upcoming
2012 season.
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