My Plan to Fix the Offense & Win the Division

The New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays are in an absolute dogfight now for the American League East Division and then dog the Yankees are backing is losing. The offense is struggling, the pitching has been good but has had to be perfect, the bullpen is overworked and the team is losing. This team can be fixed and it can be fixed without trading away the team’s top prospects for bulky contracts and aging veterans. Brian Cashman sent a statement to the rest of the league, the Yankees team and their fans this July by standing pat and holding into the team’s prospects but that only works if the team now utilizes them. Have no fear Mr. Cashman, as I know you’re reading, for I have a plan to fix this offense, win some games and win the division. Will you comply?

You know where I’m starting this off with, the same place I always start it off with. Robert Refsnyder is such a superior hitter to both Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan that the offense could only go up with him in the 8^th or 9^th position in the lineup. Adding Refsnyder to the bottom of the order with a  red hot Didi Gregorius leaves runners on base for the table setters and the big boppers in the middle of the lineup giving the Yankees plenty of RBI chances. At worst some of these solo home runs turn into two and three run home runs.

The second move you make to fix the offense is to move Alex Rodriguez out of the #3 hole. I’m not saying you drop the guy back to #7 or so just because he hasn’t hit a home run in a couple weeks but I am suggesting you mix and match in the lineup depending on who is hot and who fits the bill. Carlos Beltran has been hot lately and is quietly having a nice bounce back season in 2015 and right now batting him 3^rd and batting Alex 5^th or even 6^th just makes sense right now. Alex is trying to hit home runs, you can tell by his body language and you can tell by the way he swings, and that is never a good sign for a guess hitter.

The final adjustment needed is to fix Jacoby Ellsbury by any means necessary. The YES Network had a nice image of his batting stance post-DL and his stance prior to the DL and it has changed just enough to affect him. Whether Ellsbury closed off his stance a bit to help protect against a foul ball off his knee or is it’s a simple mechanical adjustment that the hitting coach needs to catch remains to be seen but whatever it is, fix it now. As Ellsbury and Brett Gardner go, so do the Yankees.

Fix Ellsbury, add Refsnyder to the bottom of the order and switch A-Rod and Beltran. It sounds simple, maybe too simple, but it could mean another run or two a night and another win or two a week and every run and every win means so much at this point in the season. Make the change Cash or you’re essentially pulling the trigger on the 2015 season.