WELL, AROD REALLY IS BACK,

LAUNCHING THE MEANINGLESS 2 RUN HOMER WITH THE TEAM DOWN 10-0 IN THE SIXTH.

I hit the pause on blogging for the past week or so since the Yankees were so completely vindicating The Yankees Suck post as to make further comment redundant. But now they've sunk a couple of more layers into the quagmire of complacency and defeatism, and Michael seems to think things are not as bad as they seem, that AROD will actually make a difference, and that Cashman is not a candidate for feckless and incompetent baseball executive of the decade (see comments on last post). So I have decided to declare war on whatever continuing state of denial might exist among the Yankees faithful (lest they begin to appear Yankees cultists or, worse, Yankees dupes).

My contention is that the Yankees of 2008, unlike the Yankees of 2007, are not underperforming. They're just horrible. That is why a) there will be no comeback this year, at least none that will get them into the playoffs, b) they stand a very good chance of finishing behind the Rays (who have better starting pitching, better middle relief, better team speed, better fielding, better situational hitting--hey, I guess they're just plain better!) and c) Hank is right, the blame lies not with the manager but the GM.

Let us clear out the first line of excuse the Yankees have essayed: the injuries. Well, first of all the injuries are merely a symptom of why this team is so bad. When my 90 year old Grandmom in law was lying fatally ill in the hospital, my father-in law--a great guy by the way--listened to her bemoan her fate for about twenty minutes before bursting out, "Well your old, that's what happens when you get old, you die." So true. And that's what happens when you get baseball old, you get hurt. The Yankees rely on a team that is filled with people over 30, over 35, and they will come down with injuries. The Yankees are not bad because they are hurt; they are hurt because, as team composition goes, they are bad. I mean if you think losing a 36 year old catcher to injury is a rough break, then I guess you think losing a 12 year old car to transmission problems is terrible luck.

Will the yankees dramatically improve with the return of AROD and Posada? No, they won't. Tonight told us all we need to know about AROD. He'll put up spectacular numbers while they're in last place--look at all he did for the Rangers in this regard--but the hits, homers and RBI's will be insufficiently meaningful (he's the master, after all, of the insufficiently meaningful) to transform their destiny. As for Posada, he was hitting a solid 270 with pop when he went down, and that's probably what he'll do when he returns. That is the offensive player Posada has, with the exception of last year, always been. Anyone who doesn't understand that last year was an outlier would be really stupid, and might do something really stupid, like I don't know, giving him a huge 3 year contract that begins at the very age when Mike Piazza, the greatest offensive catcher in MLB history was hanging them up. Posada will be fine, but he won't be transcendent and so he won't be able to bring this crew back to the top. Let's face it, when they were both in the lineup, the Yankees were a 500 team, with just AROD they're a game under 500, and without both of them, they were 4 games under 500. Not a game changer as Hillary would say. Yes, the Yankees looked significantly worse without these two, but that's only because Brian Cashman has used his record breaking payroll to assemble perhaps the worst bench in the history of supposedly elite teams. As the comments section below proves, Molina is one of the worst, if not the worst offensive back-up catchers in the game today. Letting the Sox get O'Casey for nothing, when we needed a first baseman and settled for the pathetic third sackers Betemit and Ensburg, is in itself a firing offense. When healthy, the Yankees have no pinch hitters worthy of the name; when injured they have no replacements that should even be in the major leagues. Evaluating talent, especially second line talent, and then acquiring it, this is what you pay a GM to do. That Cashman has so utterly failed, despite having the resources other teams can only envy, means that he should no longer be drawing a paycheck.

What is wrong with the Yankees is not just who is missing from the order, but who is out there in the field. And not just individually, as an interactive unit. The Yankees have few contact hitters, which is why they are so bad with men on base. AROD strikes out too much and pops up too much. He doesn't make quality outs and he doesn't deliver key singles and doubles. Giambi cannot hit at all with two outs. Over last year and this year Damon has ceased to be a lead off man of any credibilty: his on base percentage is dismal for that spot in the line-up. But beyond the individual deficiencies, this is not a batting line-up with a plan or strategy. Are they patient, are they aggressive? Whatever they are they should be so as a team. Abreu never puts the ball in play until he has a full count; Cano swings at the first pitch every time. Are they a team that will pressure you with speed: Damon seems to want to, Jeter maybe a little bit as well but after that nothing.

But of course they don't have a plan because the line-up hasn't been assembled to produce a coordinated effort, that blend of contact hitters, walk-takers, power properly placed, that gives you an offensive machine. Right now the Yankees are the Denver Nuggets of baseball: a collection of big names that don't have a clue how to work together, how to do the little things, how to become more than the sum of their parts. To the contrary, I don't know if I have ever seen a team so much less than the sum of its parts. And here again, it is the role of the GM, to evalute talent with an eye to its interrelation, its mutually reinforcing properties. Mike Lowell is not really a great hitter, but he is a dogged one, and after a pitcher has gotten through the meat grinder of Ortiz and Ramirez, whether scathed or unscathed, Lowell's doggedness is a much more dangerous proposition than the greater talents of another hitter (say a Soriano or Ryan Howard) would be. That is what constructing a line-up is about. Epstein has done it, Gene Michaels did it, and Cashman has decidedly not.

Nowhere is the failure of compostion more striking than in the field. Listen, the Yankees planned a rotation with 4 pitchers who pitch to contact (Pettite, Wang, Kennedy, and Mussina--who pitches to really good contact) yet they have assembled perhaps the most porous infield in the league, virtually guaranteeing that this type of pitcher will have limited success. Not one of their infielders is above average: Giambi is a disaster, he can't go right, can't charge the bunt, can't throw to any base accurately, and rarely saves the errant throw; Cano spaces out regularly, fails to cover bases, blows routine plays even while making spectacular ones; Jeter has no range at all anymore, his arm has become increasingly erratic, he makes more than his share of errors, and he has even started blowing the routine plays. AROD doesn't have an accurate enough arm to play third and is an error machine as a result. Bottom line, when these pitchers induce the grounders you are asking them to induce, the chances of the ball getting through or being bobbled, or throws going awry are far too high. Rallies start; the unfortunate pitcher is asked to throw more pitches, to keep hitting his spots, increasing the statistical probability of a mistake, a long ball, a gapper, a big inning. And no middle relief in sight. It is the business of the GM to assemble the team so that the tendencies of its pitchers coincide with its defensive strengths. Cashman has not done this; I'm not even sure Cashman knows he is supposed to do this.

These are just some of the nuts and bolts of the Frankenstein machine that Dr. Cashman has perpetrated upon an increasingly desperate fan base. Just think, the first 207 million dollar payroll in the history of baseball, exceeding the nearest payroll by more money than the entire payroll of several teams, and the team is not only in last place but deserves to be there, really is ineffective and ill-assorted enough to be there. This is a team that awards one player, one world class choke artist more money than the entire Marlins franchise, which by the way is in first place in a division that includes the Mets, Phillies and Braves, all with winning records. What can one say of the stewardship that would pay 200 plus million to construct a team this bad, a team without one power starting pitcher, a team with one starter clearly over the hill, a team without a middle relief corps, a team whose fifth place hitter, sixth place hitter, and ninth place hitter are all at or below the mendoza line, a team without any real speed, without any superior infielders, with only one player hitting over 300, and a lead off man below 250? Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you, isn't this simply the worst management dollar for dollar in the history of the game? It has to be.

To leave the cathedral of baseball, home to the most successful franchise in the recorded histroy of sport, on such an extravagantly dismal note can only be expiated with blood. And since we are not allowed to fire at Brian Cashman, though his crimes against baseball and Yankeedom are clearly capital, then we must at least demand that he be fired. Soemthing tells me Hankus will be happy to oblige.