Week In Review: The Shakes

Record for the Week: 3-4 (38 RA 28 RS)
Overall: 56-40 (2nd Place, 2.5 back)

Player of the Week: His catching of Sidney Ponson on Sunday put the "brew" in brutal, but Jorge Posada's bat (.391/.391/.696) made him the Yankee of the Week. Distant runner up is the Captain, maintaining his high batting average and OBP, but with absolutely no power. Has Jeter become the East Coast Ichiro?

On the pitching side, Randy Johnson had the best start of the week with three runs (two earned) seven hits, one walk, and 11 K's this week. He took a loss. Wang had one start that was as impressive (against Seattle) and another nowhere close (6 IP, 10 H, 4 ER) against the Jays. Two wins. But the real stars were in the bullpen. Ron Villone and Kyle Farnsworth pitched well last week, seven total scoreless innings, but the big welcome back goes out to Scott Proctor, finally having a good week after stinkin' up the joint for so long. In 4.7 innings, he had 9 strikeouts and only 2 hits allowed. Nice.

Dregs of the Week: The five errors made the news last week, but he also "hit" .154/.185/.346. Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Rodriguez! Lots of folks joining him on the dregs side, in this suckass offensive week: Andy Phillips (.148/.148/.333 in 27 AB), Miguel Cairo (.167/.200/.167). Melky and Bernie had sorry weeks, too.

The pitching staff dregs are just as concerning. What do Sidney Ponson, Kris Wilson, and Jaret Wright have in common? They're all guys who've been on the waiver wire in the past three years, and each helped the Yanks lose last week. All told, they pitched 15.3 innings, and allowed 20 runs.

Right now, Yankee Stadium's a multimillion dollar mansion, with furniture by IKEA. Make that K-Mart.

Story of the Week: I worry. In the comments, below, Zach from the Yankee Mania blog said he didn't think that Alex Rodriguez was developing a Chuck Knoblauch-type throwing problem, noting that everyone--even the Captain--has bad weeks. That's true, and I always preach patience with the boys.

But there was something about the way that Alex was throwing, that looked familiar. It was a delay, that looked familiar to anyone who remember's Knoblauch's throwing yips, or Mackey Sasser's adventures throwing back to the mound. It's that moment's hesitation as something which is for a player of Alex's caliber is natural and routine (almost instinctual) becomes something you have to think about. Shockingly, the same affliction has struck Alex's bat, to the point where he was swinging blindly on Saturday, with the bases loaded and the Yanks up a run.

Yeah, the team still won the game, but during that game you could see a giant hole in A-Rod's swing--basically, the inside part of the plate, from the navel to the crotch. Blue Jays pitchers kept going back there, and kept getting rewarded as Rodriguez blindly swung over their pitches.

It was ugly, it was worrisome, and hopefully, it was normal stuff that he'll get over. More on this in the next installment.