Players age. Sad but true. The day of long term mega-dollar contracts, even for players signed in their prime (e.g., C.C., Tex) should be over. The Yankees just haven’t figured that out yet. I’m not sure Yankee fans understand that either. Most believe that the fix to this years problems is another 8 to 10 year free agent deal for Joe Mauer or Grady Sizemore or Matt Holiday or Roy Halladay or whomever when they hit free agency. That’s the way you win video game baseball but it’s not the way you win real baseball. Whoever said that it’s better to trade a player a year too early than a year too late meant that Rivera should have been converted into young prospects a year or two ago. The fact that the Yankees are in a unique position to be able to throw this money around with impunity is beside the point. It’s just not smart baseball.

I’m not saying that all long term contracts are bad. A 7 year deal to a budding super star when he is 23 or 24 years old (e.g., Longoria) is probably a good bet. Then as that player’s contract expires in his prime (age 30 or 31) you don’t re-up him for another 7 years at a ridiculous number, you either trade him at the deadline (to the Yankees) of his contract expiration or you let him walk and collect the draft picks. The Yankees will probably have a crummy 2009 draft with the lost draft picks and an already mediocre farm system (at least according to Baseball America) will get a little more mediocre. To maintain the hope of a winning team every season under this scenario the Yankees are forced into the free agent market every year. It’s a vicious cycle and not a smart way of developing a team, in my opinion.

Im still holding out hope on Rivera, Wednesday showed him hes still got it, and i still dont know how Crawford got that pitch it def was off the plate.

However… i agree i see no heart in this years yankees. No desire to win, only a hope to win. Sure its only May, just like last month was ONLY april, and next month will ONLY be June. Lets face it, this team is going to DREAD playing at home which makes for a long season. The players see a half full stadium if they are lucky and they feel as though no one has faith in them, its a vicous cycle.

The pitching needs no words to describe it.

Our best starting ERA is Chamberlain with 3.77, while i love the guy, hes getting paid the least and yet has the most controversy over his role. He also has the lead in team strikeouts, with 27. Again, love the guy, but hello CC, AJ??? Wheres your Ks? No starting pitcher has 3 wins yet. ITS MAY, the rotation has gone through a solid 5 times now.

With the exception of RISP, i think our offense has done pretty well considering its age, 6th best average in the majors, 2nd best HRs (thanks to the stadium of course),

I personally dont think Arod is going to help. I dont think Tex is going to be THAT much better than if he didnt have Arod. You look at the pitches he swings at, hes just not there yet. You know why the yankees did so well in spring training? Arod was there to take everyone attention away, even after the surgery and whatnot.

I think the problem comes from the top in the view of how to win a championship… Its not the right view anymore. The right players and pieces arent in place to automatically focus on the WS, maybe not even the playoffs. The view should be on how to get the players to have the desire to win, because no one seems to have it right now.

As someone who lived through what author Robert Cohen gently termed the "Lean Years of the Yankees", I note that there are a number of similarities between what the Yankees are going through now and what they experienced during those years. A combination of age, injury, arrogance, ultraconservatism, and unwillingness to try anything different resulted in the team going from a pennant in 1964 to 6th place in 1965 to 10th place in 1966. To answer your question, I do not think they have hit bottom yet. But if the current ownership recognizes that it can’t continue past practices, i.e., signing free agents for top dollar who are on the "back 9" of their careers, then there is hope for the future. But do not expect miracles within the next 5 years.

Watching that ninth inning and the looks of disbelief on the people in the Stadium is what really got me. I was there Wednesday night when Mo struck out the side, and he’s spoiled us for 14 years. He had to become mortal eventually.
 Now do I think he’s going to breakdown completely, no, but psychologically, there’s doubt in the back of everyone’s mind now. He is 39, he has surpassed all the great relievers in terms of effectiveness and longeivity, and as a Yankee fan, you know he can’t last forever. If this had been a bad outing in the midst of a little winning streak, it may not cause such great alarm, but they had lost 4 in a row, they’re no hitting in the clutch and if we can’t trust Mo? Is nothing sacred?
 Lost in all of this is the feeble bottom of the 9th we got from Matsui, Cano and Swisher, 2 tap backs to the mound and a K looking. Way to go down fighting guys.

I’m going to say this for the umpteenth time in the past month: weird things happen, but it’s a long season, and the best teams on paper usually wind up being the best teams on the field when 162 games are over with.

I know a lot of you shun sabermetrics, but this is exactly the time to give them a good look.

What’s wrong with Mariano Rivera? Absolutely nothing. He’s struck out 17 batters and walked none in 11 1/3 innings. He’s utterly dominating the opposition. The real problem is his BABIP is .393, and 22% of the flyballs he’s allowed have left the yard.

Think about it. Rivera’s stuff is so filthy he’s striking out every third batter he faces – yet when the opposing hitter manages to make contact, he’s second coming of Ty Cobb, and when he puts it in the air he’s Babe Ruth. It’s bad luck, nothing more.

OVERATED!!!!! Rivera has sucked ever since the redsox came from behind in 2004 he really hasn’t been the same since. Jonthan Papelbon has replaced him as the best closer and is the best closer. Time for the dinosaurs to retire and the young guns to rise up. Maybe if your pathetic yankees actually spent some of that 400 million in drafting, scouting, and the farm system you would have some sort of a team. But no instead you continue to buy old washed up superstars. and the ones you buy that aren’t old (a-fraud, tex) have got there money and no longer care. the yankees problem is no team chemistry you know why there is no chemistry? because its a bunch of over-paid, me-first, gimme gimme additude players they no nothing about what being a TEAM player means. Get over it your glory days are over the redsox have become what you once were and your going to miss the playoffs again. NO team with that horrible of pitching will ever make the playoffs i mean shit your best pitcher has been NICK SWISHER!!!

Have a Happy Baseball Season!

Now it is time to put Joba in the bullpen!!!! If Mo is hurt we have no other choice, it has to happen!!!

I think even the most optimistic of Yankees fans have to step back and examine what is going on. Mo is either gonna go on the DL or at least miss a few games not to mention he just blew up last night. We have no catchers either. It just got worse last night. I have no idea whether the worse has come yet or not. Every time I start to think it has, something like last night happens. O and if Mo’s shoulder was bothering him I would have thought that they might have done something about it by now. And there ain’t no way they’re gonna put Joba back in the ’pen even though that would be smart. So on top of all the other issues we now have a hurt catching corps and no closer, Outstanding. Makes me think the worst is yet to come.
O and Ed thank you I tried to make that point about the contracts but everyone ripped me. Great point.
And Dragon if you are reading this quit picking on the 19 year old with Autism and a brain tumor. Your comments about made me do something really bad last night. No joke. Read my medical reports

You you piece of crap. You attacked me the other day in the recap of the loss form Wednesday. That’s what I’m referring to. I have no problme with you attacking my post but when you personally attack me you know what I got a right to come back and say something. Come on here and say something constructive and make a point but don’t come attacking other people

ME.. I must say they paid way too much money for Igawa to have him in the Minors.. I don’t know how well he is doing in the minors… but i know he can be a guy who can play at least 3 or 4 innings better than Robertson or edward ramirez.. Like someone said in the next couple weeks i see then sending Rivera to the DL…bring back wang or someone who can last a few innings and put JOBA in the bullpen.. to close 8 and 9th innings.. Hopefully Arod makes an impact in the lineup and the yankees come back to life… If Not Get rid of Girardi to shakeup the team..

No, the last vestiges of the great Yankee teams of yesteryear left with Torre, and if not then, then definitely when we left the old ballpark.

This is a new era. And I’m not certain it’s gonna be a good one … with all the backloaded contracts we have – ARod, Jeter, Posada.

Is Cervilli any good? I haven’t seen him in a game yet. I know he played last night or the night before.

If we could DFA A-Rod, I would, so we can put Jeter at 3rd, and Pena at SS, and start the post-ARod era. I know A-Rod brings a lot of offense, but I don’t think he’s destined to win a championship ever.

Mr. Valentine’s article has some good points to it. Because so many players, and not just old ones, are hurt, it’s hard to say what we’re presently watching. We might turn it around. However this is not Yankee Stadium, and it never will be. We did not need a new stadium and the fans were not even clamoring for one. The Mets did, cause Shea has been a dump for about 25 years now. The renovation of the “Old” Yankee Stadium in 1974-75 was necessary. That stadium was outdated, there were seats whose views were obstructed, the neighborhood was much more of an eyesore then that it is now, and the stadium’s reopening coincided with a return to glory that beckoned an updated version. This new stadium is a testament to greed and excess. And the fact that there are empty seats in the front is great news because it shows that the fans are not sheep, which is exactly what management thinks they are. I never sat in a field box seat once in my life, and not because I could not afford it, but because I did not need to spend that much to enjoy a game. Now I could fly to Europe three times for what it costs in some sections. I hate to say this, but Yankee management do not deserve a winner. We, the fans do. The thought of the two Steinbrenner sons, Cashman, Lonn Trust, Levine (especially him. He’s the most odious of the bunch and an outsider) and other front office types who were jealous of Torre (proving once again that as long as any Steinbrenner is involved with the Yankees being Yankee manager is in many way a no-win proposition. If you lose you’re gone, which is as it should be, but if you win too much you become almost untouchable and so they then try to undermine, underappreciate, minimize and bother you until the day you finally decide it’s not worth the aggravation), felt Joe Torre was “just” a manager and far from extremely relevant, staring out at a half-empty stadium in mid September with the team 15 games out, wondering “What the fuck happened”, is simply priceless. I’d like the front office to get royally fucked like that but it would mean we’d get fucked too, and that I do not want.

If A-Rod is healthy, and the Red Sox and Rays beat each other up over the weekend. Like him or not, Alex, if comes out hot and takes the pressure off the other guys in the line up would also make the pitchers relax.
 They are not a playoff caliber team right now, but ,( stating the obvious) it’s early.
  All the starters have to do a better job. CC has to have a quality start tonight. Being on the road may help them too.

I too am a long time fan. Longer than I care to think about. I remember Scooter, Coleman, Bauer, Woodling, you get the idea. I have been a fan through good and bad and always will be. Cashman has put together a great bunch of athletics. But if there is no chemistry and emotion you get heartless baseball. Ohh they try. But there is no guts left. Jeter is great and will give it all that he has. Posada is a blood and guts player as is Riveria. But what do the have left now. We need a farm system. One that produced Williams, Jeter, Posada, Pettit and, well, you get te idea again. The Yankees were sad last year and they are sad this year and so am I.