It's Early...?

I'm trying to be optimistic about this team right now. It would be easy to join the chorus of Yankee fans screaming for Torre's head, and all manner of other drastic changes. In my gut, as a passionate fan, I want Torre gone, Guidry gone, and Mientkiewicz' head on a stick. As a reasonable person, I look at it this way. The Yankees have lost 7 games in a row. Is it the offense?

7 Game Losing Streak Runs Scored: 33 (4.71/game)

It's a bit deceptive with the shutout against the Blue Jays factored in, but it's there. Damon and Abreu are cold as ice and Mientkiewicz is a black hole in the lineup. Add Melky Cabrera in for a peppering of suckitude from the bench and you have a hard situation. The thing is, the team has scored more than 5 runs in half those games, which should buy you at least a win or two. Let's look at the cause of the length of this streak.

7 Game Losing Streak Runs Allowed: 54 (7.71/game)

When you look at those numbers, you see that the Yankees staff is turning every team into....well......the Yankees. The Pythagorean Win Projection in this RS/RA situation gives the Yankees a 1-7 record, so there you have it. You can't win when you give up almost 8 runs a game. What happens now? I can't see Torre being fired. Guidry is another story. I idolized Guidry when I was a boy, and you can't argue with his success as a player and a Yankee legend, but this team is putrid for some reason. These players, including Mariano, just don't turn into mush collectively for no reason. I say Guidry must go. Even if it's not his fault, you can't allow these results to go unpunished.

The other change that must happen from tomorrow is Phelps has to play everyday. If the offense has gone cold over the last few games, you have to remove to black hole. Mientkiewicz is now hitting .140 after his 0 for 4 today. His full line is .140/.218/.220 for an OPS of .438 over 50 at bats. Isn't that enough to tell you he is finished? Didn't we all see this coming into the season. Even a platoon is a ridiculous proposition at this point. Phelps could close his eyes and hold his bat upside down against righties and still hit them better than Mientkiewicz. That's a move that is not only overdue, but MUST come tomorrow without fail. The only reason you might wait another day is to throw Minky as a sacrificial lamb to the knuckleball Gods, before making the move.

6.5 games back in April is not unsurmountable. If we can get good pitching over a two week period we could easily put a huge dent in that number. Good pitching in front of the typical Yankees offense should be good for an 8-2 record, and even a 15-5 mark over the next several weeks. Doing that might buy us 3 of 4 games if the Red Sox slow down a bit. One thing you have to do at this point in the season is take your hat off to Theo Epstein. At least for now, his offseason moves are looking very good. We've yet to see Pineiro lose a game, and J.D. Drew is healthy at the moment. Lugo is fair, and while Pedroia has been largely awful at the plate, it hasn't hurt them. The pitching has been very good, especially the bullpen. I think you'll see a bit of regression among some of the players who have played over their heads, but Manny Ramirez and Ortiz also have some fireworks yet to come from their bats.

If the Yankees don't turn this around over the next 3 weeks, they might find themselves buried 10+ games behind 1st and perhaps in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in more than 10 years. That's one reason for all of us to eat humble pie when we celebrated the Sox 3rd place finish last year. We might be staring that in the face this year.....Keep the faith.