MLB

Yankees will be less reliant on long balls next season

BRONX BURNERS: The Yankees will need their team speed,from players such as Ichiro Suzuki (bottom left), Brett Gardner (top left) and Eduardo Nunez, to make up for the loss of some power. (
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You know that Yankees team so many of their fans screamed for last season, one less reliant on homers and more capable of building runs with items such as sacrifices and speed?

Well, be careful what you wish for …

I wonder if the same folks who were so full throated against the Yankees’ homer-centric offense of 2012 represent the majority of those now demanding an open-wallet policy to obtain players who, well, hit home runs.

The Yankees do have a history of pulling late-winter stunners (think Roger Clemens, Alex Rodriguez and Michael Pineda). However, with their fixation on restricting current and future payrolls, it is possible that aside from a righty-hitting outfielder, what you see is what you get.

So brace for many days when nearly half the lineup consists of Brett Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, Eduardo Nunez and a catcher who might not be able to even reach the warning track in batting practice. It means the Yankees are going to be forced to play a different offensive game out of necessity, not desire.

The Yankees scored 804 runs last year, second in the majors, mainly because they hit a team-record 245 homers — 31 more than any other club. No team hit fewer homers than the Giants’ 103. That provides the anti-homer brigade quite a weapon since San Francisco won that little thing called the World Series.

But when asked for reasons why his team has captured two of the past three titles, Giants GM Brian Sabean cited first and foremost assembling a roster that can succeed at home. Sabean has emphasized pitching and defense to capitalize on spacious AT&T Park. The Yankees have a short right-field porch, so they build around power, notably lefty power.

Over the past four years, the Yankees (212-112) have the majors’ best home record, San Francisco (195-129) has the NL’s best and St. Louis (193-131) has the NL’s second-best. Ladies and gentlemen, we introduce you to the last four World Series winners. Detroit (203-121) and Texas (201-123) are right behind the Yankees in this category and your past four AL champs are: Yankees, Rangers, Rangers and Tigers.

To the Yankees’ credit, they also have the majors’ second-best road record in that time, but at 178-146 that is 34 games worse than their home mark, or an average of 8 1⁄2 games’

difference per season. San Francisco (165-159) and Texas (165-159) barely were above .500 on the road, St. Louis was .500 (162-162) and Detroit (147-178) was considerably below .500.

Translation: The shortest distance from pitchers and catchers to a parade is to build a team that thrives at home. For the Yankees that means hitting homers — lots of them. And at this moment 112 homers have walked out the door or toward an operating room in Nick Swisher, Russell Martin, Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez, Andruw Jones and Alex Rodriguez.

Kevin Youkilis should counter some of the loss, and adding that righty-hitting outfielder also will help. But no matter how you do the math, the Yankees are not getting to 245 again — or anywhere close unless Giancarlo Stanton is the January surprise. But the Marlins have shown no inclination to trade him and, even if they did, teams with deeper systems such as the Rangers would push ahead of the Yankees to land the right fielder.

So the issue becomes: If the Yankees do not get near the 245 homers, can they get near the 804 runs, stay near the top of that chart. Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira hit 100 homers combined last year — or almost as many as the Giants. So the Yankees still will have power. But diversity will be needed to compensate for subtracted long balls.

Now here is an item that sneaks beneath the radar: The Yankees generally have stolen bases efficiently and at a good clip. They have been 2-to-9 percent better than the AL success rate in steals every season since 2000 (thanks to smart baserunners such as Derek Jeter and Rodriguez) and, in that time frame, they have ranked among the top dozen in the majors in total steals every season but 2004 (17th) and last year (22nd).

The drop in 2012 came because Jeter got another year older and dealt with leg issues, Gardner missed most of the season, Nunez struggled and had to be demoted, and Ichiro was not acquired until late July. Jeter’s advancing age and recovery from a left ankle fracture should further slow his game. But his need to rest/DH more should open playing time for Nunez.

Can Nunez field adequately enough to avoid another demotion? Can the oft-injured Gardner stay healthy? Can Ichiro remain fleet at 39? If so, the Nunez/Gardner/Ichiro trio can balance the 100-ish homers of Cano/Granderson/Teixeira with 100-ish steals, a year after the Yankees had 93 in total.

As Yankees manager, Joe Girardi has favored the high-percentage steal, but otherwise has tried to avoid giving away outs on the bases to let his power hitters get chances to swing with men on. The Girardi Yankees generally have ranked mid-pack in the AL in hit-and-run and sacrifice attempts and — quirky stat alert — have not tried a single squeeze play (all data from baseballprospectus.com). But last year, when the need demanded, Girardi deployed pinch-hitters more than ever — a sign he will adapt to the offense he is presented.

Thus, I suspect he will pinch-hit frequently again in 2013, particularly for his catchers, who I believe he also will call upon to sacrifice and, possibly, hit-and-run more regularly.

But keep this in mind: The top five AL teams in steals and hit-and-run attempts last year did not make the playoffs, nor did the top two in sacrifice bunts. But the top two in homers did, and so did three of the top four. The manufacture game looks and feels great when it is working, but the best way to score is to hit the ball out of the park. The Yankees are going to do less of that next year. Can they really stay among the run-scoring elite by better deploying small ball?

joel.sherman@nypost.com