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New York Yankees Editorial/Analysis: Measuring Performance by Alex Rodriguez’s Standards

By Kat Frye

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Alex Rodriguez knows baseball. The veteran has played in a lot of games, 2620 of them as we approach tonight’s game v. the Halo’s. So, it is safe to say that no matter how you feel about his legacy in the game there is no doubt that he has a lot of baseball experience. Earlier this year he shared some of that experience with a group of reporters when he created a system to measure baseball performance with a tool he called “the four facets of the game.” These four facets are 1) Good pitching 2) Good defense 3) Timely hitting 4) Good base-running.

At the time, A-Rod said the 2015 Yankees had played well in some areas of his criteria, but not all. It is now the first week in June. It is around the 55 game mark and signals the time of the season when many teams and fans begin to pay more serious attention to standings and may even begin to think about the trade deadline and team needs. How do the Yankees measure up using Rodriguez’s assessment tools? Well, if you have been watching the Yankees consistently this year the answer is “it depends.” A-Rod does not include consistency in his criteria, but if he did, the Yankees would not fare well in that category.

The four facets allow for yet another way to measure performance in these 2015 Yankees.

1) Good pitching.

For the most part this has been a strength for the Yankees.  The bright spots for the Yankees have been incredibly bright. Starting pitching appearances by Michael Pineda (7-2 3.33) and Masahiro Tanaka (3-1 2.76) have been very, very good. Nathan Eovaldi has been good at times and Adam Warren has an argument for possibly being the most underrated Yankee on the team.  The stars in the relief core, Dellin Betances (0.00 ERA) and Andrew Miller (17-of-17 saves) have been excellent.

May 28, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; New York Yankees second baseman Stephen Drew (14) runs during the sixth inning against the Oakland Athletics at O.co Coliseum. The Athletics defeated the Yankees 5-4. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

2) Good defense.

This might be the area the Yankees need to improve most. The entire infield seems to have had its defensive struggles.  Chase Headley has a disconcerting 12 errors, Didi Gregorius adds 6, and Stephen Drew, 4.  So, in this facet the Yankees are not meeting even the minimum definition of “good.” The outfield is a different story as Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury have been excellent, but Carlos Beltran has had fielding troubles and looked quite shaky in right field and has added another 3 errors, to result in a team that is 13th in the American league in overall defense.

3) Timely hitting.

As the NJ Daily News points out, this is a tricky category to quantify.  Anecdotally this category feels as if recently the performances of Garrett Jones and Drew in Seattle may mean the Yankees are doing pretty well in this facet. A more objective measure is how well the Yankees have hit with runners on base and in scoring position. The Yankees are hitting just above .250 in both of those, which again puts them in the middle of the pack.

4.  Good base-running.

This, like pitching, is an area that is a contrast of the excellent and the terrible. Before Ellsbury went on the DL with a knee injury, he swiped 14 bases, and his partner in crime, Gardner has 13 stolen bases. That is the excellent news. According to UBR (ultimate base running) which measures how often players take extra bases or advance on batted balls the Yankees are just below average, but UBR does not include stolen bases. In what is becoming a familiar theme there is a disparity between the good (stolen bases) and the bad (UBR).

Overall, when looking at the team through A-Rod’s criteria of the Four Facets it is clear that this is a team that has to get better in several areas, and even in some of the areas they are doing well there are players that need to step up and improve. Luckily for the Yankees the rest of AL East isn’t playing well in those facets either and the Yankees have remained in first place for most of the season.

What do you think of A-Rod’s “Four Facets of the Game”? Do you think he missed anything? What do the Yankees need to do play better in these facets? Let us know in the comments below.

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