tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Pinstripe Ship Sinking

The season series is 1-8.  0-6 at Yankee Stadium.  Those are the numbers that tell the story of the 2011 Yankee-Red Sox saga with the Beantowners smugly leaving the Bronx with a 2 game lead over their rival.  While being two games out of first on June 10th isn't that big of a deal, the current state of the New York Yankees is a very big deal.  Simply put: unless some type of changes occur this team is going nowhere.

With the news that Joba Chamberlain is done for the year, the Yankee bullpen is a joke.  Unless someone can be called up from the farm and catch lightning in a bottle, similar to what Joba did in his Yankee debut, a deal will have to be made and dealing from a position of weakness is never a good thing.

What compounds the bullpen issues is the starting rotation.  But for CC Sabathia (in spite of last night) the Yankee rotation is a joke when you consider that their number 2 is Bartolo Colon.  AJ Burnett is in a long line of free agent pitchers the Yankees have spent gobs of money on only to get burned badly.  I never was a big AJ Burnett fan going back to his days with the Blue Jays.  Quite frankly, I think he's a head case.  As Mike Francesca said yesterday," they spent $82.5 million for a guy to throw pies".  Great line, Mike.

Freddy Garcia has looked awful, particularly against good hitting teams and Ivan Nova doesn't have it.  I admire Nova's toughness and his desire to be a Yankee but he doesn't appear to have it.  Hopefully, its a question of needing more seasoning.  But I'm not sure he can be counted on down the stretch.  As far as Colon goes, not sure how long he's going to last but if he falters all your left with is Sabathia.

Bottom line is that this team's pitching staff is terrible and we know that in October it's pitching that wins.  But why should I be talking about October, this team as it currently is constructed will be lucky to be playing then. 

Offensively, this team has the talent to score enough runs to win games but as we know good pitching beats good hitting and the top teams have good pitching.  The problem that I have is that when you are struggling you need to do the little things to get a spark going.  Hit and run, bunt, steal a base.  Your best base stealer can't steal bases anymore.  In fact, Brett Gardner doesn't seem to be able to run the bases anymore.

In an earlier post, I advocated that the Yanks needed to bring up some kids from the farm.  If it doesn't happen now it never well.  That includes bringing up any of the prized pitching prospects that Brian Cashman is so proud of.  But based on what I read in the NY Post, that's not going to happen. 

As a Yankee fan, and I will be in the minority here, I would respect and appreciate it if Brian Cashman came out a said, " we are going to go with some youth here and see what happens."  In essence, bring the kids up push some of the old guys aside and if you finish out of the playoffs so be it.  We know that won't happen but Cashman is not going to make enough trades to right this ship.  A ship that is sinking fast.

At the top of this blog you see that I am a Yankee, Browns and Maple Leaf fan.  Of those 3 teams the Yankees have had the most success.  However, right now I would take the management team of both the Browns and Leafs over Cashman and Company.  The blame lies there.  It lies with the Steinbrenner boys, the stooges around them and Cashman.  This team so eerily reminds me of those 80's teams that had the big names but never won a thing.

Yankee management knew that the day was coming for the Core 4 to no longer perform at a level that we were accustomed to.  They have not been able to replace Andy Pettitte.  They did not have the courage to bring up one of their supposed catching prospects to begin the process of replacing Jorge Posada.  If Eduardo Nunez is the replacement for Derek Jeter, somehow I don't see it right now but quite frankly the kid needs to play more.  And what is going to happen when Mariano calls it quits???  Rafael Soriano?? Please!!!!

The Yankees will not allow the kids to play because they need to present the illusion that they are in the hunt for a championship when in reality they are nowhere near one, not with a pitching staff that they have right now.  With the Indians coming to town for the weekend, you are going to see youth versus age.  Should be interesting.