by: Ben Embry
"Just everyone relax! If we panic, we die! Ok?! Ok, let's check the wind direction. No, no, no..shut up! Everyone shut up! We have some very tough decisions to make in the next couple of hours, maybe even months..."
- Will Ferrell from Anchorman, deleted scene
One month ago, it looked like the Yankees were in position to take off and have a special season. They were 28-16 and ready for their injured superstars to start rolling off the DL. Granderson was already back with Teixeira and Youkilis knocking on the door and Jeter and A-Rod off somewhere in the distance. That was then, and now the picture is much bleaker. The team went 11-17 in the month following and are just 6 games above .500. They fell from 1st in the AL East to 3rd, just 1.5 games up on Tampa and 3.5 games on last place Toronto. Grandy, Tex, and Youk are all back on the DL. If we ever get to see a lineup featuring Jeter-Grandy-Tex-Cano-Rodriguez-Youkilis it will be with just two or three weeks left in the season.
The players that had buoyed the team are now struggling. Vernon Wells is just 6-59 in June and appears lost at the plate. Hafner is 5-42 (.119). Overbay 7-32 (.219) with just 3 RBI. Cano 14-64 (.219). Ichiro still hasn't gotten going and has given us no reason to think he will. How about the pitchers? Sabathia: diminished. Andy: old. Hughes: overmatched. Chamberlain: lost. The offense is futile and the staff just isn't good enough to carry the team on their backs. In another month, we could easily be in last place.
The Yankee Universe is clamoring for change. "Trade, trade, trade!!!" But who? For what? Most of the guys struggling are un-tradeable. Wells, Hafner, and Ichiro have no trade value. Overbay little-to-none. The left side of our infield is as unspectacular as any in the league but Jeter is close to returning and we have almost $40 million worth of 3B that are due to come back at some point. Catcher? Chris Stewart has the second best batting average on the team.
We have some pitching depth. Hughes has been terrible but consensus thinking says he should fair better in a new environment and still has some value. We have Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova waiting in the wings who could take his place. But I'm never a fan of trading pitching. Not with aging starters who may need a DL stint. No one would be surprised if David Phelps falls apart and needed to be replaced. It's just not wise, in my opinion.
The best thing to do, which is seemingly what they're going to do, is nothing. Or at least nothing right now. Though Yankee fans don't want to hear this, it has to be said: this kind of season has been coming for a long time. Decline was inevitable. Giving mega contracts to aging stars results in the unavoidable situation of sharp decline. You either keep spending or you accept the fate. And despite the belief that Yankee pockets are bottomless, eventually the spending has to stop. We're lucky this didn't happen sooner, frankly. The only thing Cashman & co. can do is avoid totally bottoming out.
Now I don't want to give up on the season. No one does...not fans, management, or ownership. This year could still be salvaged, but mortgaging the future to further delay the inevitable would be foolish. If this is the part of the roller coaster ride that features sharp descent, the best we can do is hang on and wait for the course correction. Allow the ride to smoothen out, because it will. With intelligent management and efficient use of capital, the franchise can come back stronger than ever. We need to stockpile for the future instead of just living for today. I just ask this: let's stick with the team through the bad times, whether they're years away or have already started.
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