Yankees Look Lost

Well the talk of the town for the last few weeks has been the trade deadline and which teams appear to be winners and losers. The Yankees were seemingly one of the biggest winners, acquiring Austin Kearns, Kerry Wood, and Lance Berkman. This looked to sure up the Yankees bench with Berkman and Kearns and it helps the pen with Wood. Other than the bull pen and the bench the Yankees are set. The offense and starting pitching are the best in the game.

The Rays on the other hand made almost no deadline moves and looked like a team that couldn't get any deals completed. Their pitching is great but their offense is suspect and not making a move may cost them in the end, or so we think.

Since the trades have all gone through, the Yankees have not faired well. They lost 2/3 to the rays and have now dropped 2 straight at home to the Blue Jays. Alex Rodriguez's search for 600 home runs has left him batting a meager .190 in his 40+ abs between 599 and 600 and 0 for his last 17. Andy Pettitte's injury has proven to be a big loss because both Moseley and Mitre struggled in their replacement starts (6 ER and 5ER). Hughes and CC have been ok, AJ has been all over the place, and Javy is probably the most consistent starter. The pen has looked sharper of late, but that is the only bright spot.

With the Rays likely to win tonight, that will put them in sole possession of first place. The Rays have been hot and the Yankees...not. The Yankees funk is both with the bats and the starting pitching. The pitchers have not been able to get big outs when they need to and the hitters the same, few clutch hits. Tonight Ricky Romero retired 26 of the last 27 batters on his way to a dominant CG victory. It seems like no matter which starter the Yankees offense faces, the batters are jumping on the first few pitches and looking for bombs instead of singles and rallys.

The new acquisitions have hardly helped the Yankee lineup. Berkman has struggled early on offense and at 1B. Kearns has yet to get a hit and made an error in the field to top it off. Kerry Wood has been ok but gave up a homer in his first Yankee Stadium debut.

All things considered the Yankees better shake off this rust or whatever the fuck is going on and start playing better, plain and simple. Arod needs to just hit a god damn home run already and get the monkey off his back. Once he's back and he's Arod he'll give Tex more protection. Girardi needs to stop fiddling with the Yankee lineups and just run out Jeter-Swisher-Tex-Arod-Cano-Posada-Berkman-Granderson-Gardner every day and tell Austin Kearns, Cervelli, and Thames what we all know....you guys are bench players. You'll get in when ever the hell we need you and that won't be often. Let's stop rearranging the lineup and stop getting Kearns and Thames in vs Lefties and giving Berkman and Granderson days off. Posada needs to go back to good ol posada and get in 4/5 games instead of this 2 or 3 bull crap. CC needs to return to being our ace and throw us 8 innings and give the pen a day off. Hughes needs to go after hitters and get strike outs and stop letting 0-2 counts runs full. Javy needs to be Javy, the way he has been. Moseley needs to do what he did tonight, just give us a chance to win. AJ needs to find himself because it's the worst time with Andy hurt for him to be struggling.

If we can get the offense to wake up (starting with Alex) and get our starters who we know are good to just right themselves, all will be good in Yankee land. This team is still the best in the majors and is definitely playoff bound, but let's not squeak in as a wildcard, lets own the division and play to our capabilities. 4 losses in 5 days is not the worst thing in the world, but with Boston in town this weekend if we don't step our game up we might be looking way up in the division soon. Let's not dig ourselves a hole and let's start playing better baseball.

Yankees play a matinee to finish the series vs Toronto tomorrow, lets go Bronx Bombers!