The State of the Yankees

If the Yankees lose tonight, I'm pretty sure there's going to be a revolt in New York, with everyone demanding Girardi's head on a platter. I'm not even close to that stage yet. While it was embarrassing for the Yankees to get swept this past weekend, there's still a ton of season left. Nobody could predict Mariano giving up a 2-run homerun in the 9th on Friday, nor could they predict that two bad no-call strikes could lead to Burnett imploding, or that Jacoby Ellsbury would steal home with the bases loaded and 2 outs in a tie game. But that's baseball. The good thing? It's only April. If this was happening in August, Yankee fans would be a little worried.

The Negatives:

-The Yankees' rotation's ERA is the AL - 6.26. However, CMW's ERA is 34.50, CC's is 4.81, and Burnett's shot up to 5.47 after Saturday. Andy's is only 2.96 and Joba's is only 3.94. If CC brings that down, you take CMW out of the mix, and Burnett's goes down after the next start, their pitching isn't that terrible. I know a lot of people say "don't exclude CMW, he is part of this team" but seriously? Mechanical issues for a sinker pitcher = gruesome ERA.
-Like last year, the team forgets how to hit with RISP some games. Usually with 2 outs, too.
-Brian Bruney, CMW, ARod, Cody Ransom, and Nady are all on the DL. Brian Bruney was our 8th inning set-up man who was doing very well = MAJOR blow to the team. He should be back in 2 weeks or so. Ransom was playing 3rd base for Arod and his injury appears to be serious. He's very athletic and good defensively, so now we're stuck with Berroa/Pena. Nady means our bench is a player short, but Swisher has stepped up.
-The Yankees forget to hit against rookie pitchers and need to learn to take pitches against them. Also, when a pitcher's struggling, they need to hit them hard, not just get 2 runs out of them and give up.

The Positives:

-The Yankees are 18 games into the season. There's still time for this team to get its act together, get healthy, and play well.
-Robinson Cano is HOT! He has a .373 batting average. Nick Swisher knows how to get on base, even if his batting avg has dropped drastically. (.400 OBS). Jeter still knows how to hit, too. (.299 batting avg, 23 hits, five behind Cano)
-ARod will be back in a few weeks, bringing more offense to this team and better defense at 3rd.
-Tex is a notoriously slow starter, let's give him a little time. Besides, isn't he SO much better at 1st base than Giambi?
-Matsui, after getting fluid drained from his knees, is doing much better at the plate/running the bases.

While it's hard to deal with injuries, this team has absolutely no excuse for not trying to win games. With their lineup, they can score a lot of runs and they need to back up their pitchers who are pitching well (like Andy last night). CC, Burnett, and Joba are not going to pitch horribly every game.

LET'S GO YANKEES!