The Halos Heaven (the Pinstripe Alley for the Angels) has just released a position by position argument for why the Angels are better than the Yankees. Instead of commenting in the enemy's territory I would like to show my reasons for why the Yankees by position will destroy the Angels using the same EXACT categories used by shiftyeyedgoat (the author). The link to their post... ANGELS SUCK.

Offense

Catching: Posada/Molina vs. Napoli/Mathis. Let's take a look at the numbers. .285 average with 22 homers and 81 RBIs for Posada compared to Napoli's .272 average, 20 home runs, and 56 RBIs. Jeff Mathis also has 5 homers and 28 RBIs to go along with his dismal .211 average. Jorge also missed a substantial amount of time due to injury after coming off an injury that ended his season last year. EDGE: YANKEES

First: Ahhhh. Mark Teixeira. The power hitting machine. MVP candidate. Gold Glove defender (we will get to that later). American League HR leader and RBI leader. He has 39 and 122 respectively. Then there is Kendry Morales having an excellent season. I will not take anything away from him as he nearly equaled Teix in power categories as well as having a better batting average. They are both switch hitters. Tex is an offensive machine and Morales had a mini slump at the end of the year. EDGE: YANKEES

Second: The Yankees have the MVP with no one on. His name is Robinson Cano and his .320 average, 25 HR, and 85 RBIs put him as one the top offensive second basemen in all of baseball. If he was able to hit with RISP then those 85 RBIs could easily have been 105. Howie Kendrick has a respectable .291 average to go along with his 10 homers and 61 RBIs. Obviously, this does not match Cano's production. Maicer Izturis has also played some second base for the Angels. He has hit a clean .300, 8 HRs, and 65 RBIs. EDGE: YANKEES (if there are no men on the bases)

Shortstop: Let me talk about Jeter's 2009 regular season. 2nd in the AL with hits. Consistent, MVP, 18 homeruns this year. Now we all loved his season to this point... but lets take a look at some of his postseason credentials. El Capitan holds the postseason mark for hits and games. He is the author of the famous flip play in 2001 and was named the 2000 World Series MVP. Moreover, he is Mr. Novemeber. Now Erik Aybar in 137 games this year has hit 312 to Jeter's 334. 5 Hr to Jeter's 18. 58 RBIs to Jete's 66. And a measly 70 runs scored to an exceptional 107 runs scored. EDGE: YANKEES (especially in the playoffs)

Third: As the only A-Rod fan in my entire family and school I am happy to say that the new and improved Alex and Kate Hudson is now the most formidable player in the Yankee lineup... in October. A-Rod hits A bombs. Nothing can get cooler than that. So he automatically  wins because of that. Moreover, he has helped every other  hitter up  and down the lineup. Mark, when A-Rod returned, found his stroke and belted home runs. Matsui has been a complete monster (Godzilla) as our DH. But we will get to that later. Moreover, after missing a large part of the season A-Rod hit 100 RBIs and 30 HRs thanks in large part to a 7 RBI inning against the Rays. Figgins as Halos Heaven correctly points out is a polar opposite of Alex. He stole 42 bases and hit for a .298 average. His power numbers are terrible though. 5 homeruns with 54 RBIs. There is no comparison to each other especially when A-Rod is not in a slump. EDGE: YANKEES

Outfield: Left: Damon sucks. He just sucks. His poor play recently has probably forced  the Yankees to not sign him  in the off season. Rivera on the other hand is good. EDGE: ANGELS BREAK THROUGH.

Right: Nice to see Abreu back. I always liked him when he was with  the Yankees. And I'm sure that the Angels love that he is with them too. .293 hitter, 15 HR, and 103 RBIs for Abreu leads to a helluva season. Then there is Swisher, a .250 hitter with 29 HRs and 82 RBIs. While the stats look a little better for Abreu I  could not see the Yankees without Nick. He has been our  catalyst. And I take back a previous article where I said he sucks. Because he does not. EDGE: ANGELS.

Center: Halos Heaven incorrectly refers to our center fielder as Miguel Cabrera. His name is Melky and he is the MELK MAN and he delivers.  He has been great in split time with speedy Brett Gardner but he is not Torri Hunter. EDGE: ANGELS.

Defense:

Catching: Let's just put it out there, Jeff Mathis sucks. Mike Napoli sucks. Jorge Posada sucks. Jose Molina is good. EDGE: NEUTRAL (when Molilna is not catching)

First: Mark is the best first baseman  in baseball. He is amazing. He has amazing reflexes and can actually throw. (Unlike a former Yankee first baseman). Morales is good but not great. EDGE: YANKEES

Second: Halos Heaven is mistaken when they call Cano's fielding garbage. Cano  is so fluid with his motions. He looks so good trying for those balls. He has a 984 fielding percentage which is worse than Kendricks and Izturis. While Cano is very good he is not, yet, as good. EDGE: ANGELS

Third: A-Rod shows signs of his amazing defensive ability. He is not fully there though. Figgins is great. He gobbles those balls up. He has only committed 14 errors in 154 games at third for a 968 percentage. EDGE: ANGELS

OF: Left: Again Damon just sucks. Rivera=good. EDGE: ANGELS

Center: Cabrera is a good defensive outfielder and will make plays but Torii Hunter  is better. EDGE: ANGELS.

Right: This is  why I got angry at Abreu when he was a Yankee. HE CANNOT PLAY THE WALL. HE SUCKS. Swisher makes bad plays as well though. But he does make some web gems though. EDGE:  YANKEES

Benches: I think the benches are unimportant in playoff games. Only Molina and Gardner will actually see real playing time for the Yankees. And frankly I do not care for the Angel's bench. EDGE: WHO THE F CARES.

Base running: Angels steal more bases. Yankees have more long ball. EDGE: ANGELS.

Team Pitching: CC SABATHIA, AJ Burnett, and Andy Pettite make up a dirty 1,2,3 punch. CC being CC will give you a 7 inning gem. AJ pitching well will give you filthy stuff. And Andy is just Andy in the playoffs. Compare that to John Lackey and Jered Weaver and Scott Kazmir. Lackey is good but is not an ace like our big boy. Weaver is pretty good but when AJ has his stuff then nobody can hit him. If AJ doesn't have his stuff than anyone can beat him. And then Andy. Andy is very good especially in the playoffs. He is a better pitcher than Kazmir. Moreover our bullpen is amazing. Let's start with our back end relievers. David Robertson is a strikeout machine. He walks too much though. Then Alfredo Aceves. ACE. He is our do everything man with 10 wins and a save out of the pen. Then Joba and Phil Hughes. All the starters need to do is get through the fifth inning because 6th belongs to Ace. 7th to Joba. 8th to Phil Hughes and 9th to the Savior. For the Angels Darren Oliver is their best reliver not named Brian Fuentes. He has very good stuff and a sub-3 ERA. Still not as good as Phil Hughes. Matt Palmer is pretty good too and its a tossup between him and Alfredo. EDGE: YANKEES

Closers: Mariano Rivera. Enough said. EDGE: YANKEES

Managers: Both are very capable managers. I will give the edge to the Angels though because Sciocia does deserve Manager of the Year for pulling out such a great team out of all the injuries and set backs. Moreover, our skipper has not managed in a playoff prior to the 2009 season. EDGE: ANGELS

History: The Angels are the only team with a winning record against the Yankees this decade. They have our  number. BUT... 26 World Series championships is pretty good. EDGE: YANKEES

I predict that the Yankees  will win in 6 games. What do you guys think.

After watching Cano and a little of the post game I decided to look at my favorite web site: pinstripealley.com. Perhaps you've heard of it. After reading Travis G's recap I went to the baseball section of ESPN.com and read an article about what would happen to baseball if Derek Jeter tested positive to steroids.

 

If I ever see Jeter's name attached to the hip of performance enhancers, I'm done. I mean it -- I'll never watch another big league game again. Because if Captain Pinstripes could do the Vitamin S deed, then anybody can.

Jeter's name is where I draw the line in the PED sand. He is the absolute last guy I'd ever suspect of juicing. It seems so, well, beneath him. He is the one player who I actually think would walk away from the game if he thought he had to cheat to compete.

 

I could not agree more with Gene's statements. Jeter is the epitome of elegance and good behavior. Basically Jeter is baseball.

If you want to read this article the link is:  http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=4392903

Personally, I can not even think of Derek doing steroids. I idolize him and if he ever was found to be using PEDs baseball might not have a great meaning to me anymore. I love Jeter and would be crushed if he ever cheated.

Also to get this out there I DO NOT THINK JETER EVER CHEATED. This statement is directed to those people who were thinking about putting a hate speech comment saying that I am an idiot for thinking Jeter cheated. 

PAT VENDITTE

If two heads are better than one then why can't the same be said (more or less) about Yankees Class A pitcher Pat Venditte. The current Charleston Riverdogs closer, of course, does not have two heads but he does have two arms with which he pitches with. He is professional baseballs only ambidexterous pitcher.

When using his right arm he can top off at 91 mph and throw a curveball. As a lefty Venditte drops his arm angle to get more movement in his slider. He throws harder as a righty.

In 2007 the Yankees drafted him. However, he returned to Creighton for his senior year. He was drafted by the Yankees again in 2008 in the 20th round. He was assigned to the Staten Island Yankees where he put up some great numbers.

1-0 record.

.83 ERA.

42/10 strikeout to walk ratio.

23 saves.

As a member of the Riverdogs he has continued to impress.

2-2 record.

.94 ERA.

39/1 strikeout to walk ratio.

20 saves.

The thing that bothers me is why isn't Pat pitching at a higher level?

He obviously has the stuff to dominate. The answer is that the Yankees would rather give higher level innings to people with the Joba like stuff. This kind of annoys me because I would love to see this kid in the majors. How cool would it be. The guy could relieve himself. He's 24 and not getting any younger. The Yankees should promote this kid because he looks like the real deal.

And if you guys are wondering what happens when he faces a switch hitter. This actually happened and it confused the umpires. They created the Pat Venditte Laws in which they limit that amount of times that they could switch sides.

Pretty interesting guy I think so.

Many of you may think that Nick Swisher is a great guy. And he is. However, is he great at baseball? His stats tell another story...

After an amazing April in which he and Cano basically led the Yankees he has been on and off. It seems like he is just going to be very streaky this year. Terrible one time and great another. However his 2-4 game today really pissed me off. Not only was he too anxious to get a double he killed the Yankees rally with that double play. (Man i hate those). 

Not to mention his poor poor poor fielding. He makes the occasional wonder play. However he makes it look so good only because he cant get there in time. Take a Mike Cameron and he'll make those plays and make them look easy.

Lets take a look at his numbers:

12 Homers: Great stat.

35 RBIs: Pretty good.

And heres the ugly...

239 avg.

4 errors and countless plays he should have made. (One was changed today to an error.)

At best he is a 4th outfielder and a good backup first basemen. And possibly our best pitcher. 0.00 era.

I think the Yankees should try to trade for Matt Holiday. The guy is great. His power numbers have been was off this year because he is not hitting in Coors. 

Heres a look at Holliday's numbers:

8 Homers in an unfriendly hitting park. Take him to the New Coors Field

38 RBIs: bad year for him.

275 avg. Not good not 239 bad though. He could give us the power we need in the outfield.

And i know that Nady will be coming back soon. But could he hit well. Could he field well. He is coming back from missing a little over 2 months.

Holliday is having a terrible year but i think that it could easily be fixed if he comes to the Yankees. He isnt a perrinial All Star and possible MVP candidate mostly every season for no reason.