From Mike Puma:
Hip, hip, hooray! Six to nine weeks without Alex Rodriguez doesn't sound so bad to Derek Jeter.
"It's good, better than the other story I heard that he was going to miss a longer time," Jeter said last night before Team USA faced Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic. "It's good he gets taken care of and will be back with us soon enough.
"We were hit pretty hard last year," Jeter said. "You're talking about the combination of Jorge and Hideki, that's a pretty big chunk right there, two guys in the middle of your lineup.
"But hopefully Al is not going to be gone for long. I don't know the timetable, but you hope he's back sooner rather than later."
Can the Yankees survive without A-Rod?
"We have no choice," Jeter said. "But we have enough guys on our team that we'll be all right."
Am I the only one that thinks if A-Rod had made similar comments about Jeter, the media would be twisting it around and making it seem like he was saying they don't need him, and that Posada and Matsui are more important? Just a thought.
Anyway, Jeter is right, the Yankees should be fine. No, they won't be better without A-Rod, as some writers have tried to suggest, but this shouldn't cripple them either. The 2003 Yankees were without Jeter for the first six weeks of the season with a lineup that on paper looks a lot worse than this year's team and were able to go 25-11 in his absence.
Why? Because they had great starting pitching.
The front four of that 2003 rotation was great—Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, and David Wells, and they all had great starts to the season. In April, Clemens went 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA, Wells went 3-0 with a 2.77 ERA, Mussina went 5-0 with a 1.70 ERA, and Pettitte went 4-1 with a 3.96 ERA. That's why they were able to go 25-11 with Erick Almonte playing SS.
If the Yankees can get good starting pitching, like Jeter said, they'll be fine. If not, then, like the last few seasons, they will have a rough start and be playing catch-up for much of the year.
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