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

Yankee Troubles Mount & New MLB Alignment

The Good Ship Pinstripe took another hit yesterday afternoon when Bartolo Colon limped off the field at the end of the top of the 7th with what appears as a hamstring injury that will probably have him on the disabled list.  Colon has been the Yankees second best starting pitcher this year.  The battered rotation is now left with Sabathia, the young Ivan Nova, the incredibly inconsistent AJ Burnett and the up and down, soft tossing Freddy Garcia.  Hardly a rotation that can win a playoff series, let alone one that can win a division.

There is no deal that's going to be made at this point so the Yankees will have to go to the minors and bring up someone to fill Colon's spot.  What compounds the problem is that the Yankee bullpen is a mess.  They cannot rely on getting just 5 innings out of the starter and turning it over to the bullpen.  The pressure will really be on the positional players.  They are going to have to avoid prolonged hitting slumps, run smartly on the base paths and provide steady defensive play. 

I guess we will find out a lot about this team now.  Past teams have been able to dig down deep and weather the storm.  They are going to need an Aaron Small like performance from someone.  If they don't get one, turn out the lights the party's over.

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ESPN is reporting that MLB and the Players Union is talking about a new realignment that would create two 15 team leagues and 5 teams from each league making the playoffs.  It's an interesting idea and would certainly give hope to teams like Toronto or anyone else not named the Yankees or Red Sox.  It would eliminate the current ridiculous unbalanced schedule.  A stumbling block could be how they deal with interleague play.  This shouldn't be insurmountable in my opinion.  I think it's something worth exploring.  Baseball needs some new energy and this could be just what it needs.