Why Cano cannot…

The Yankees second baseman has less hits in this young season than there are pictures of Lindsay Lohan with underwear on. So why is the American League’s reigning on-the-road batting average leader over the past two seasons not hitting? There are several schools of thought when it comes to slumps: a new approach that seemed to work during spring training isn’t working now; or it’s a mental thing– the scoreboard reflects an abysmal batting average and then all that the batter does it try to get a hit and thinks only about that rather than reading the ball’s release from the pitcher’s hand, etc.; or there’s always the “they just might not be ’seeing’ the ball” thing (this terminology annoys me because, well, it’s white and it’s usually against a background of green and a dark outfield fence, very tough to miss); and, of course, there’s whatever other genius excuse the media comes up with (except for us here in SC Nation, because well, the writers grew up playing sports and readers live and breathe them, so we know a thing or two about it, unlike your favorite writer in the Post or Daily News).

My personal opinion is that Robbie is finally feeling the pressure of playing in New York, especially since other young stars are stepping up. For example, Melky Cabrera is 3 homeruns away from his TOTAL from last season, and his play in the outfield has been somewhat tremendous… and the fact that he has a cannon just makes him more of an obvious choice to be our starting CF for a while now. And then you’ve got Shelley Duncan, who hits the ball a mile-and-a-half (when he gets wood on it) and saved The Captain from an E6 the yesterday day, which makes him a strong contender to start at first, especially since the lack of hits that have been forthcoming with runners in scoring position/poor defense seems to be what is keeping the Yankees’ floating around .500. Then there are Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, who are not pitching like the phenoms that they have been proclaimed to be, but then again, this isn’t their third season in the bigs so we’ll cut them some slack. And then there is, of course, Joba– he exemplifies a true love of the game and his passion is evidenced in his intensity after a strikeout (and after C.C. Sabathia verbally raped his glove and the ground near the pitcher’s mound after a big strikeout in his loss to WANG, [Jeter is great with the purposeful mispronunciation of Wang], the other day, Joba can do an Irish jig and no one better say jack).

Robbie may be feeling like he needs to step it up, especially after signing a pretty decent contract. My advice? He needs to just play baseball and not worry about the hype that is given to all the other young-uns and not try and compete with his teammates for the NY spotlight, where it really shines only for the preceding day’s hero (which is something that everyone knows when donning the Pinstripes). If Cano can just go up there and think about playing a game that he loves, rather than doing a job, he can get back to form and start jumping up and down with Melky in the dugout. And that kind of youthful enthusiasm is contagious, and it would be a very good thing to catch in the Bronx right about now.