New Guys Help New York Yankees Collect Number 27

C.C. Sabathia helped in leading the Yankees to a title in his first year with the team.

With last nights victory, the New York Yankees captured their record 27th World Series Title with a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Philles. The Yankees won the series 4-2 with the final game being at home in the new Yankee Stadium, finished before the season.

Yankees Designated Hitter, Hideki Matsui, won the series MVP award, marking the first time a full time DH has won the award. The award came on a night when Matsui went 3-4 at the plate with a two-run single, double, and home run, totaling six RBIs in the game. Matsui had a .615 batting average on the series with three home runs and eight RBIs.

The series win last night was the first Yankees World Series title since 2000, a long drought for the year-in and year-out expectations of the Yankees and their fans. The reason that the drought finally ended this year, after eight playoff appearances without a World Series Title, was a returned focus to pitching.

The Yankees Dynasty of the late 1990s was built around pitching and defense. A stout rotation and an ice cold bullpen led the charge for the Yankees’ four titles in five years from 1996 to 2000. The pitching staff was comprised of all time greats such as Mariano Rivera, David Cone, Andy Pettitte, David Wells, Orlando Hernandez, and later Roger Clemens as well as solid set up man Jeff Nelson along with relievers Ramiro Mendoza and Mike Stanton. The rotation worked late into games and bullpen closed them out.

After the loss in the 2001 World Series, the Yankees’ Front Office’s Priorities, i.e. George Steinbrenner’s priorities, changed to a strategy of buying the best offensive players they could find with no focus on pitching. Coming from this came the signing of Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui, and Gary Sheffield, and the trade of Alfonso Soriano for Alex Rodriguez. This plan proved to fail over the last decade.

But with the change from fall to winter, the 2008-09 offseason brought a change in direction to the Yankees front office. With the “Boss” retired, General Manager Brian Cashman was given more control over personnel and with that he acted. Last offseason, Cashman made it a point to improve pitching, and that he did, while adding some more offense as well.

With the addition of C.C. Sebathia and A.J. Burnett to the starting rotation, the Yankees improved their starting pitching to a place among the best in the league. In addition, the Yankees added the stellar bat and glove of first baseman Mark Teixiera as well as the 28 year old journeyman, Nick Swisher, both defensive improvements over their predecessors.

This new nucleus proved their worth through the season.On the offensive side of the ball, Mark Teixiera put up MVP caliber numbers, hitting .292 with 39 home runs and 122 RBIs. His bat in the middle of the order added to the strength that was already there with Rodriguez, Matsui, and Posada. Swisher added 29 home runs and 82 RBIs with a .983 fielding percentage.

Though the new offense was a nice addition, the pitching additions are what made the difference. Sabathia posted Cy Young caliber numbers (19-8 with a 3.37 ERA and 197 strike outs) and Burnett adding 13 wins of his own.

Along with the new additions to the rotation, Andy Pettitte finished with numbers of old (14-8 with a 4.16 ERA). Joba Chamberlain rounded out the four man rotation and Mariano Rivera had another great season posting an ERA of 1.76, collecting 44 saves.

With depth in the bullpen and front loaded rotation, the pitching staff did what it needed to do to keep the Yankees in games and the offense took care of the rest.

Led by a new pitching staff, the 2009 Yankees proved, for the first time since 200o, that they are the best team in baseball.

Congratulations to the 2009 New York Yankees, the winners of the World Series.