Yanks Lefty Heavy Lineup Hurting Them

It seems as though with every new day, the Yankees are facing a new left-hander. Whether it’s Garrett Olson, Brian Burres (the Yanks will face him today), or Scott Kazmir, it seems like the lefty dominant Yankee lineup is getting neutralized by an assortment of lefties. The problem has become a glaring weakness for the Yanks, especially with an extremely ineffective group of bench players.

Steven Goldman of the NY Sun writes the following:

Joe Girardi’s team hasn’t shown anything akin to the ability that could sustain that kind of pace. One small reason is their vulnerability to left-handed pitchers. Going into yesterday’s game, the Yankees were hitting just .245 AVG/.318 OBA/.354 SLG against left-handers, and three hits in seven innings against Garrett Olson didn’t help those numbers any. The return of Jorge Posada to the lineup, presumably in a couple of weeks, should help this a bit, as Posada is a career .301/.383/.500 hitter against southpaws. But he won’t solve the problem alone, as the Yankees have a number of players who need to step up to southpaws, including Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, and, emphatically, Melky Cabrera, a supposed switch-hitter who is a career .254/.324/.340 hitter against port-siders — but is batting only .190/.262/.328 against them this season. Shelley Duncan and Morgan Ensberg were supposed to be part of the solution here as well, but neither has performed to date, one reason why the Yankees are just 8-10 when the opposing starter is left-handed.

It appears as though the Yankees could use another big right-handed bat, or at least they could use a good platoon-mate for Jason Giambi. This weakness has been exposed as it is now a glaring problem and, outside of Posada’s return, there’s no definitive way for the Yankees to address it without a trade of some sort, unless Shelley Duncan or Morgan Ensberg finally demonstrate some level of reliability. It’ll be up to Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi to think of a solution, but what could they possibly do?

There are some interesting rumors out there about the Indians and how they are supposedly talking to the Colorado Rockies about Matt Holliday (who could become available), so maybe the Yanks should jump headfirst into those talks, or is that too extreme at this point in time? What would you do if you were Brian Cashman?