April 24 at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY
YES Network
I was going to make this more of a eulogy to Carlos Beltran's offensive skills; how they've passed on to a better place and how we should remember the good at bats. But too many good things are happening with the Yankees lately.
1. Mark Teixeira's ability to drive the ball appears to be fully back.
Teixeira was one of the team's top run producers from 2009-2012, but wrist injuries drained his power and really seemed to make his baseball life miserable. It's only April 24, but Teixeira has a .673 slugging percentage and 11 of his 12 hits have gone for extra bases, including his 6th and 7th home runs, both towering, two-run shots off Mets' starter Jacob deGrom in a 6-1 win.
Another thing that is back is my ability to type Teixeira without misspelling it three times and then checking Baseball Reference for the correct spelling and then still misspelling it. I need a Mark Teixeira poster on the wall so I can just refer to it whenever I need to.
2. Michael Pineda is quite good.
It's an odd thing to look at the Yankees' starting rotation and see three pitchers 26-years old or younger (Pineda, Masahiro Tanaka and Nathan Eovaldi) and they're actually good pitchers (my apologies to Jeff Johnson, Wade Taylor and Dave Eiland). Pineda may be the best of the bunch. He probably had his best start as a Yankee on Friday (7 2/3 IP, 1 ER), mixing in a filthy slider with his usual good fast ball and a change up that seems to get better each start.
3. The Jacoby Ellsbury/Brett Gardner tandem at the top of the order has the potential to be really, really good.
For this team, Ellsbury is the perfect lead off hitter and I think Gardner is the perfect No. 2 hitter. I really wouldn't want either of them in any other spot in the lineup.
If they continue their hot starts (Ellsbury has a .294 AVG and .395 OBP after a 2-for-5 night and Gardner's at .304/.396 after his two-hit night), there should be plenty of opportunities to drive in runs for Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Brian McCann as soon as I finish my time machine and travel back to 2010 and bring Brian McCann back with me to 2015.
Michael Kay: I don't like listening to you speak
It wouldn't be a Yankees broadcast on the YES Network without Kay making me long for the days of Phil Rizzuto talking about cannolis and the bridge and his wife, Cora. Those were simpler times; Kayless times.
Kay not only said "Subway Series" 11 times, but also:
"Just a tour de force for Ellsbury"
"The flags are flopping every which way"
"Injuries have really bedeviled him the last couple years"
"Buzzworthy"
"Shell-shocked"
"That says something about the stomach of this team"
"Major League debut on the Broadway stage"
"It gives it a little sexiness"
"That ball's ticketed for the right field corner"
"Wheeling and dealing"
"Pushed the envelope"
"Baptism by fire"
I can't begin to describe the euphoric feeling I get when Yankee games end and Michael Kay leaves me alone for the rest of the night.
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