yankees228

Oh you cannot make that up lol.

Well, they're a mess, but at least they have a ton of money coming off the books next year. Have to hope they start to take things in a new direction. It's an all too common mistake to overstate the scope of a problem, but I really do believe the Yanks model has run its course.

Ah they suck lol. 3-0 to Cano. 3-1 to Wells. Doesn't matter at all. Just nothing going right.

And Vernon chases ball four. Dammit.

Oh man that 3-0 wow. EDIT: Part of that is on Robbie for missing the 3-1, but the call on 3-0 was terrible.

Well, either Robbie does something big or they'll have to hope for a couple soft hits from the guys after him.

CJ Wilson wasn't all that great today. Neither was Jarrod Parker yesterday. But it just doesn't really matter. All pitchers need to do these days against the Yankees is throw the ball over the plate. The rest tends to take care of itself.

Lots of things going wrong.

I mean, it's all just so simple, right? Should've done this, should've done that. These discussions always amuse me. Most of us are pretty good at identifying the problem, because generally, that's pretty easy. The Yankees can't hit. Agreed. But the second step, which is the assessment of blame and the discussion of alternatives, is the one most of us really struggle with, often myself included.

And decimate their already lacking farm system for a quick fix that would still leave the team flawed? Isn't that what got them in this mess in the first place ... a lack of young players in the system capable of filling holes on the roster? I'm not sure that's the best use of assets.

Ichiro was an atrocious move, I don't disagree with that for a second. They should've just stuck with someone like Chris Dickerson, who's much cheaper and likely would have put up better numbers than Ichiro, especially vs RHPing. But that wouldn't have made them substantially better, and people like Mike Axisa would still be complaining. Swisher is a different story. A case could be made that they should have resigned him, but an equal, or better case could be made that they were right to let him go. It's not a slam dunk that giving a 32 year old outfielder four years and fourteen million per year is a good move. And we have no idea what the next 3.5 years will hold, nor do we know how he would have done in 2013 with the Yankees, but Swisher has not been good so far this year and that is worth noting. And Stephen Drew? I mean, the moment someone starts criticizing the Yankees for not being more aggressive in going after Stephen Drew is the moment your argument has reached the point where you're just splitting hairs. Would Stephen Drew have made them better? It's possible, at least defensively. But is it a non-move worthy of excessive criticism? Absolutely not.

I read that rant that Mike Axisa posted last night ... I mean, I understand his frustration with how the team is playing. This is the worst offense they've had in over two decades. But when the discussion turns to the offseason and the apparent failures of the front office, that's when it loses a little bit of credibility. The obvious question, the one that is rarely answered over the course of those sorts of critiques, is what should they have done differently? Yes, many of the moves they made didn't work out, and I'm not sure they expected a lot of them to work out. But at the time, what better alternatives were there?

Also, tempted to start pulling for Boston during these games against the Rays and the Orioles. Might be in the Yankees best interest. And I'm not the kind of fan that has any problem pulling for Boston if I feel the Yankees would benefit from them winning.

Not that the Yankees deserved to win that game by any stretch of the imagination, but those two hits off Mo were frustrating to say the least.

Here are the adjusted runs created figures for the Yankees starting lineup today. 116 69 127 66 119 87 82 66 92 EDIT: And while Hafner's wRC+ looks good on the whole, here is how it breaks down by month: 194 62 71

I don't know if most people realize how bad the Yanks position players are, although I'm sure y'all do lol. Here are the fWARs for some of the Yankees regulars coming into today. Hafner: 0.5 Wells: 0.1 Ichiro: 0 Nix: 0.2 Youk: -0.3 Tex (in limited time): -0.2 That's insane.

Solid last 3 innings from Kuroda, albeit with a lack of missed bats/Ks, which has become the norm lately.

It's funny saying these things because they're nine games over .500, but this has got to be the worst team since 1992. In other years when they were struggling around this time you could say 'well, they just need underperforming players to perform up to par'. There's not really much of that this year.

Kuroda really struggling as of late.

Oh sure, it's not just about the velocity, but it's certainly part of the equation.

Yeah, and I see no reason to doubt that. But sitting 92 and topping out at 94 is a big difference than sitting at 90 and topping out at 92. We all saw the difference it made during his past two starts.

They can live with Overbay's defense in the outfielder considering how great he has been on offense this year. I mean what's his wRC these days? 140? 130? Oh, about that ... And tonight is pretty disappointing, mainly because of CC. Got to check after the game, but it seems like his velocity is back to where it was before the previous two games.

I'd be shocked if he gets any playing time, even in blowouts (I suspect that'll go to Mallett). In my mind it's pretty clear that this is a project for the future.

The Yankees play Seattle in three separate series every year (this is the second one this year), and they haven't missed Felix in any series since 2009.

Yup.