If you missed the Yankees game today, good for you because you don’t want to know they have the third-worst record in MLB and no answers.
The Yankees suck right now, and if you are one of those die-hard, the cup is always full; stop reading now because you haven’t been paying attention.
The Yankees sank further in the AL East cellar courtesy of another loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, who must have missed the news from Las Vegas. They are playing the team projected to win the division and the team that is the odds on favorite to meet the Dodgers in the World Series.
Teams win games, and they lose games, but good teams do not lose them like the Yankees are doing.
For the third game in a row, a costly error, this time by Aaron Hicks, resulted in an unearned run during the course of yet another splendid outing by Gerrit Cole, who was charged with the loss in a 4-2 win by Tampa Bay.
Three hits were all the Bombers could muster against – not the departed Ray’s former aces Charlie Morton or Blake Snell – but instead a team of four pitchers whose names you will not recognize or remember.
This Yankees loss comes a day following Aaron Boone‘s supposed reading of the riot act to his team after watching baseballs flying from the hands of frustrated fans at Yankee Stadium.
Giancarlo Stanton found the long ball again for his third home run and 12th RBI, but his batting average stands at .176. Draw your own conclusions.
The Yankees Have It Backwards
The trouble with the Yankees is they begin their season as though the Core Five is still here, and Derek Jeter is pronouncing the upcoming season as a failure if they don’t win another ring – before they show anything on the field that qualifies them to be making those statements.
Set the bar that high, and you are setting yourself up for one thing – and it’s happening to the Yankees now – failure!
Las Vegas knows better, and every year they steal money from the pockets of Yankees fans who buy into their robust forecasts. Las Vegas is not stupid.
The Yankees are a good team, and somewhere along the line, they’ll bounce back from this dismal beginning to the 2021 season, and chances are it’ll be good enough to win the AL East and maybe a couple of games in the playoffs.
But that’s it, pretend all you want; this team is not a championship team as currently constructed.
They strike out too much, make too many costly errors in the field, do not hit with men on base, and they have a lackluster nonchalant front office and owner who doesn’t really seem to give a s__t about anything other than padding the portfolios of Yankee’s shareholders.
Yankees: You Are What Your Record Says You Are
As Joe Maddon likes to say, a team is no better than their record says they are, and as of today, the Yankees have lost two of every three games they have played.
Across the river, there’s a team who also sent their ace to the hill, and for a while, it looked like Jacob deGrom would be a Gerrit Cole like a victim of another loss despite a Cy Young-like performance.
Except that this time, The Mets came back yesterday to save deGrom’s 14 strikeout effort over six innings to register three runs in the final two innings – without the benefit of a home run.
The Yankees have fielded the same team they did last year, and we know the results.
The Yankees still insist there is no need for more left-handed bats in a lineup where they play half their games with a short porch in the right field at Yankee Stadium.
This, even though Yankees fans can recall Mark Teixeira, Didi Gregorius, Tino Martinez, et al. peppering the stands almost at will.
The players are trying, as are the coaches and manager – give them that.
But there is no support coming from Hal Steinbrenner, New York City’s new version of Fred Wilpon.
The Yankees: Same O Same O
This Yankees team will continue to sputter until the front office decides to make some bold, though not necessarily wanted, changes to the team’s makeup – and that, unfortunately, will mean exceeding the luxury tax limit.
The Yankees have chosen to suck up the $29 million afforded to Giancarlo Stanton’s contract, even though it means sucking up a good portion of the team’s payroll.
Stanton gives the Yankees no choice, most will say, but that hardly places a limit on the overall spending the Yankees can absorb as a team worth $5 billion on the open market.
Whether you believe it or not, I’m a fan of the Yankees and have been so for more than a half-century.
But when I smell a ruse coming from Steinbrenner and Co. I know it because I’ve seen it over the eleven seasons since the Yankees’ last world title when George said enough is enough in 2009.
And so have you.
Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal.
