Yankees' 2008 Season Not Up to Expectations

If someone had run down a checklist of all the possible things that could go wrong for the New York Yankees this season, even biggest pessimists could not imagine the way 2008 ended up.
A almost season long injury to its most durable starter. Check. Alex Rodriguez reverting back to his late-inning choke artist heyday of 2005. Check. Robinson Cano taking a season off after a large offs-season contract. Check. Derek Jeter finally showing signs of age. Check. Jorge Posada getting  seriously hurt in the first of a four-year contract. Check. Even ever-steady Hideki Matsui managed to miss half of the season.
By now, the point is clear. It was a season mired by problems that only Murphy’s Law could have predicted. And that’s without even mentioning the disaster that was the combined performance of Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy.
Despite all of that, the Yankees still managed to win 89 games, one more regular season win than whichever team comes out of the AL Central. Ironically enough, that could be attributed to some events that Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman were probably not counting on when outlining this season.
Mike Mussina won 20 games, remarkably for the first time in his career at age 39. Mussina came into spring training unsure of even a spot in the starting rotation. He followed by having a rocky April, going 3-3 with a 4.73 ERA. But it was all uphill from there for Mussina as he went 17-6 from May on with a 3.11 ERA. Moose found a way to re-establish himself, changing speeds more efficiently to make up for decreased zip on his fastball.
Jason Giambi also managed to rejuvenate himself, bringing back a lighter form of his Oakland self (this time supposedly without the help of steroids). While his average was still below .250 and he got on base at his usual .370 clip, almost no one could have predicted 32 homeruns and 96 RBI for a player coming off a season with 14 and 39.
But despite unforeseen efforts from Moose and Giambi, along with a bullpen that proved to be unexpectedly above average, the downfall of the Yankees was their inability to overcome all the disappoints they did not hedge on.
Losing Chien Ming-Wang halfway through June put too much pressure on the starting staff to produce quality starts and created holes in the rotation that would turn out to be filled by Darrell Rasner and, gulp, Sidney Ponson. Both managed to hold the fort at first but reverted back to their true-selves down the stretch.
Joba Chamberlain seemed to be on his way of taking over as staff ace, after being finishing his prolonged conversion into starter and hitting his stride shortly after Wang went down. But an injury took down Chamberlain as well, giving no respite in between the days Mussina pitched. An uncharacteristically bad second-half by Andy Pettite shot down any kind of consistency Girardi hoped for from his starting staff.
This all could have been avoided if Hughes and Kennedy had fulfilled pre-season predictions. Instead the duo combined for a 7.45 ERA and a stunningly incompetent zero wins in 17 starts.
As badly as the rotation was hit by injury and inefficiency, it along with the bullpen managed to keep the team afloat in the dog days while the offense sputtered.
Rodriguez put up his usual solid, if not stellar numbers, but was unable to come through in the clutch. His .271 average with runners in scoring position and .257 hitting in close and late situation continuously put the Yankees in a bind. Cano seemed to take a large contract as an impetus to show up only when he wanted, as he saw his average fall 35 points. Even worse, the second basemen was continuously criticized and ultimately benched for his lack of effort in the field.
The Yankee captain was not absolved of any of the credit for the Yankees missing the postseason for the first time in 15 years either. A .300 average belied the fact that his OPS fell 70 points from last year and a staggering 130 points from 2006. Along with only 93 games from Matsui and 100 games from Jose Molina, it was too much for the offense to overcome despite the comeback seasons from Giambi and Johnny Damon. Even Bobby Abreu’s 20/100 year was not enough to hold the offense up to expectations.
Now the Yankees will head into the winter with many holes to fill and questions to answer. Should they bring back Abreu? Is signing enough starting pitchers out of the group of CC Sabathia, Ben Sheets, Ryan Dempster, A.J. Burnett and Oliver Perez the answer to ail the rotation and will it be the option over giving Hughes, Kennedy, and late season stud Alfredo Aceves another crack in the starting five?
Only time will tell where the Yankees head. But fans can only hope that it won’t lead to another step back, like 2008 ended up becoming.