The more and more you watch this version of the Yankees, the more and more you see elements of the San Antonio Spurs.
Think of Robinson Cano as the Yanks’ Tony Parker, a prime-aged star who stands apart in current skill from his mates. Then the rest of the roster is filled with role players and the Tim Duncan/Manu Ginobili-esque aging stars.
Remember how Ginobili, at age 35, reached into his past to offer the type of clutch all-around brilliance of his prime in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, pushing San Antonio to the brink of a championship. That sapped him and he played poorly as the Spurs lost Games 6, 7 and the title to Miami.
Don’t we now kind of see similar stuff in, for example, Alex Rodriguez?
He can have a time-machine game like he did two Sundays ago at Fenway Park, but then look old and clunky in subsequent games. The consistency of genius is gone.
You witness flashes of virtuosity from an A-Rod or an Ichiro Suzuki or an Andy Pettitte. But what made them stand out — unwavering brilliance — has been lost to wear and tear and time. Enough muscle memory, will and lingering talent remain to produce throwback performances. But not enough to evoke day after day of sustained excellence.
And like Gregg Popovich with his graying Spurs roster, Joe Girardi constantly is trying to rest and nurse his players through the long season, working to navigate decline and injury and just plain exhaustion. Even in a phase when there is desperation to win daily, Girardi has backed away from the oldest player in the majors, 43-year-old Mariano Rivera, in a few save situations.
On Sunday, with A-Rod in a 1-for-15 slow-motion slide and having played two straight games at third on turf at Tampa Bay, Girardi sat him. The reward came with A-Rod homering on Monday and Tuesday.
The same night Derek Jeter returned. Sure, it was good to have Jeter back. But for Girardi it meant integrating yet another veteran whose best games and physical condition already have come and gone. Jeter has had four major leg/foot issues in less than a calendar year.
Girardi is going to have to continue to be crafty in how he uses off days, rest days and the DH slot.
As opposed to Girardi, Popovich knew he had the playoffs made in preseason, what with eight teams in each conference qualifying. Thus, he could be judicious with court time the whole regular season. It was not until the postseason, particularly The Finals, that he pushed his aging squad to its point of collapse and simply hoped the season was finished before his players were.
Girardi has no such luxury. His margin for error to reach the postseason is thinner than Ginobili’s receding hairline. It was not long ago that the Knicks — also with a single prime-aged star in Carmelo Anthony and lots of age in the supporting cast — pushed longer and harder in the regular season, prioritizing an Atlantic Division title. By the playoffs that Yankee-esque group of older players was generally fatigued, injured or both. Jason Kidd, as an example, plummeted from useful to non-existent to retirement to joining Popovich and Girardi on the sidelines.
What makes the Spurs/Yankees analogy perhaps more apt is that both are blessed with so many veterans with championship DNA and warrior mentalities. There was nearly enough left in San Antonio’s tank to pull off a title run, when it was generally believed its expiration date for such a thing had gone the way of the mid-range jumper.
Now, with perhaps one last title chase as the bait, we will see if the Yankees’ Ginobilis and Duncans can spur their historic greatness one last time.
Rays’ rooks rewards of smart deals
The NL rookie class has glamour (Yasiel Puig and Jose Fernandez) and depth (Shelby Miller, Julio Teheran, Hyun-Jin Ryu). Defensive stalwarts Nolan Arenando and Juan Lagares probably will not even make it onto most five-spots NL Rookie of the Year ballots.
Meanwhile, the AL does not have a single rookie who has qualified yet for the ERA or batting titles. There is no clear-cut leader(s) for AL Rookie of the Year. But what stands out is that even in a down year for AL rookies, it is a superb class for the Rays — which bodes well for their near future and bad for their division rivals (are you listening, Yankees?). They just might have three of the top five in the Rookie voting.
Tampa’s trading acumen is expressed well here as it turned three high-profile starters into Chris Archer (Matt Garza), Alex Torres (Scott Kazmir) and Wil Myers (James Shields). Archer, Torres and Myers were all promoted with this season in progress and are helping the Rays’ postseason quest — and look as if they might do that for years to come.
Archer (7-5, 2.93) has particularly tortured the Yankees (3-0, 1.23). This is not a typo: Torres has permitted 17 hits in 42 2/3 innings. Thus, the lefty is holding opponents to a .119 average. Despite a recent slump, Myers is showing why he was viewed as one of the game’s best prospects entering this season, delivering nine homers and an .813 OPS in his first 240 plate appearances.
This is one key way you annually contend on a shoestring budget — you turn expensive commodities via trades into high-end, low-priced replacements. And you call them to the majors when they are ready to help a contending team.
Thus, a terrible year for AL rookies might, nevertheless, be one of the best ever for Tampa.
The deal on Dilson
THE METS traded Marlon Byrd and John Buck to the Pirates for infield prospect Dilson Herrera and a player to be named. So I asked four executives their feelings about Herrera. The responses:
Executive 1: “We liked him. Solid bat. They offered him all over the place and that concerned us. Pittsburgh never gives up much. When they start offering a guy without you asking for him … that is a red flag oftentimes.”
Executive 2: “I like Herrera. There is a chance to be a pretty good second baseman. He’s not a very fast guy, but he has a chance to hit for average with 10-12-homer power and solid plate discipline. He probably compares most similarly to somebody like a poor man’s Gordon Beckham [of the White Sox].”
Executive 3: “He’s a solid mid-range prospect. He has good — not great tools — and athleticism. Solid bat. Some positional questions. Reads to me like Josh Harrison, the utility guy for Pittsburgh.”
Executive 4: “He is a good-looking player. He has no tool that really stands out, but he has an idea of the strike zone, can run and field. Probably won’t be a power threat.”