The Rockies beat the Yankees 3-1 at Coors Field last night behind Josh Fogg, of all people. The game was a harsh reminder that, despite the Yankees' recent hot streak, their roster is poorly constructed and their lineup is a sieve. The offense, not the pitching, was the problem through most of May, and it still has the potential to be inconsistent and occasionally inept.
Josh Fogg's career (spent almost entirely in the National League): 53-56, 4.68 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, 1.59 K/BB. And he shut the Yankees down in high elevation. Yuck.
That's what happens when you start a rotting corpse at catcher, a replacement level center fielder, and carry the likes of Miguel Cairo, Andy Phillips and Chris Basak on your bench.
The Yankees' bench is among the worst in baseball. Basak is just wasting space, and is redundant as long as Cairo's on the roster. First base has just become a clusterfuck, because Brian Cashman didn't properly address the issue in the off-season. Andy Phillips is probably a downgrade over Josh Phelps, and Cairo should never, eevvvvvvvver play first base again. But he probably will.
Finding an adequate first baseman (or first basewoman, with apologies to Sweet Lou) should be one of the easiest jobs for a major league general manager. Cashman dropped the ball with Minky, and he's dropping it again now.
The Yankees are 9 games back now...the division remains a pipe dream. The Wild Card remains slightly more realistic, but still a long-shot. And for the second straight series, the Yankees have dropped the opener, forcing them to win two in a row to capture the three-game set..
