The Internet was abuzz this morning with rumors of Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner considering selling the team, so much so that I felt I had to address it and postpone my mostly-written story. New York Daily News columnist Bill Madden first reported that because the Los Angeles Dodgers recently fetched over $2 billion in a sale, some people in the Yankees' financial circles were wondering what the Yankees would sell for on the open market. Madden reported that these talks had been ongoing for several weeks now. Although it seems unlikely at first that the Steinbrenner family, which has owned the team for nearly 40 years now, would ever sell the team, it's hard not to think about the possibility. Numerous team officials, from Hal Steinbrenner to COO Lonn Trost, blasted Madden's report, stating that it was a "fabrication" and "pure fiction." But is it?

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Well, let's get right to the negatives. The Yankees are tied for last place in the AL East, have lost six of seven, and are on a 6-72 streak with runners in scoring position. That is not good, to say the least.

Pitching: The most surprising and disappointing of the group of problems that the Yankees have, in my opinion. I was more confident about this rotation going into Spring Training than I was about any rotation since 2009. Andy Pettitte essentially replaced Michael Pineda, which was disappointing, but not something I thought would make a huge difference. While it has not, the Yankees rotation as a whole has performed below expectations.

Ivan Nova and Hiroki Kuroda have given up more home runs than I could imagine, while Phil Hughes dealt with early season struggles. It seems like whenever one pitcher figures it out, another loses it.

The positive is that Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes have both improved, and Hiroki Kuroda is not throwing absolutely terrible games, just not quality starts. Ivan Nova struck out twelve in his last start, and was crushed by a Yankee Stadium special home run.The future does not look that ugly.

Offense: Once again I am surprised. I no longer want to hear about how crazy people are when they say Brett Gardner is one of the keys, if not the key to the Yankees offense. Alex Rodriguez cannot seem to hit a home run, but he has certainly come close. I'm expecting a power display soon from the centaur soon.

Meanwhile, Mark Teixeira is sick and struggling, Russell Martin is all kinds of awful, and players are taking turns having off nights. The Yankees need a complete game in which the team all gets to a pitcher and doesn't have to deal with "this player didn't produce" as usual.

I do not think moving Mark Teixeira to 7th in the lineup does anything at all, and I especially do not think it takes any pressure off of Teixeira. Teixeira is being paid a lot of money to get big hits and get on base, and he simply is not doing that. Just one of many players that really needs to step it up.

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Mood Music - Rain by The Seatbelts & Steve Conte

"If there is a hell, I'm sure this is how it smells. I wish this were a dream, but no it isn't!"

You've seen me post it or tweet it more times than you'd probably like to count, but here it is again. I miss Brett Gardner. I really miss Brett Gardner. I want Brett Gardner back in all his gritty gutty glory as soon as humanly possible. It really feels like it has been forever since I've seen him in left field making routine plays look as routine and harmless as they should look. How long has it actually bee...holy shit April 17th? I haven't seen Gardner play Yankee Baseball in over a month. Over a month without his patient bat at the bottom of the order. Over a month without him sliding into first trying to beat out a throw, even though I've repeatedly told him to cut that nonsense out. Over. A. Month.

Now that I've calmed down and taken a shower in between these paragraphs, my Old Spice Swagger smell is telling me to relax and remember that Brett Gardner will be back soon. Will he though, Old Spice? Gardner is scheduled for another MRI either Tuesday or Wednesday and if everything goes well he will head to Tampa later in the week to pick up a bat. To say that his recovery is my primary concern is clearly a vast understatement at this point. The Yankees really need him back. While Gardner-less for over a month, we have come to discover a glaring flaw in the Yankees so-called long term plans; the Yankees have absolutely no outfield depth at all. If this MRI on Tuesday or Wednesday shows that Gardner will need more time to recover, then the Yankees have a real problem.

Problems after the jump.

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As many of you have discussed here, this season the Yankees look a bit off. At 20-17, the Yankees are in third place in the AL East, only three games ahead of the Red Sox, who are in last place in the AL East.

Despite all of the panic going around, whether it be about the rotation, Mark Teixeira's lack of hitting, Alex Rodriguez' lack of power, or the injuries, I'm still confident about the future of this team offensively.

Let's first talk about the hitting. The Yankees are among the top ten teams in the MLB this season in batting average, runs, hits, home runs (obviously) RBI, OBP (!) and SLG.

The lineup may not look intimidating every night, but the Yankees work the count, get on base, and while they may mainly rely on home runs, they still get the job done. The offense will get a spark when (if) Mark Teixeira gets into his groove and gets healthy, and when (if) Russell Martin returns to his average self and Brett Gardner returns.

Meanwhile, the Yankees rotation is a problem right now. The Yankees are only in the top ten in walks allowed and strikeouts thrown, but the rotation simply is not doing their job right now. Hiroki Kuroda is wildly inconsistent, Ivan Nova regressed after a solid start to the season, and Andy Pettitte is a mystery right now.

The positives of the rotation are that CC Sabathia is, well, CC Sabathia, and Phil Hughes looks like he is improving. If Hughes can be an acceptable #4 or #5 starter, Andy Pettitte can pitch at least close to the Andy Pettitte of old, and Hiroki Kuroda can pitch like he did for the Dodgers, the Yankees rotation will be fine.

Still, that's a lot of ifs.

Russell Martin, the bane of many Yankee fans, is hitting .182/.314/.318 over 29 games, good for an 81 wRC+. Mark Teixeira, who's largely gone under the radar in 2012, is hitting .223/.275/.369, good (bad?) for a 71 wRC+. Not only has Tex been an inferior offensive player this year, but he's doing it from an offense-first position (1B) and getting paid thrice as much ($22.5M vs. $7.5M).

I was fairly confident Tex was going to have a solid season about three weeks ago. I'm not so sure anymore. At least Martin, though he's not hitting, is staying patient and drawing his fair share of walks. Tex is not. His OBP is the worst on the team among regulars. Last season he belted 39 homers and slugged .494. I'll be happy with 25 this year.

I intended to talk more about Martin and why he gets the brunt of the criticism, but I think it's all relative. Unfortunately for athletes, they often get compared to who preceded them; in Martin's case, it was Jorge Posada, who was not only one of the top offensive catchers of this era, but in Yankees history. On top of that, the Yanks had a top catching/hitting prospect (Jesus Montero) that they parted with in the offseason, probably due, at least somewhat, to Joe Girardi's preference for defense-first catchers (like Martin and himself).

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Mood Music - Back End by MF Doom

I like back ends and I cannot lie. You other fans just can't deny. That when a vet walks in with a really grizzled face and he gets a chump to chase, you get SPRUNG. Yeah he looks real old, but he might be in control. Deep in the count, he's staring. #46 he's still wearing. OH, ANDY! you're such a good pitcher. Can I get your picture? Some people tried to warn me, but that pickoff move makes me-me-me so...I'll let you decide whether I was going to type horny or happy. I think that's quite enough of that. Andy is Back, which is also the parody name of my insanity up above. He retired from baseball at the age of 38. Retiring at the age of 38 is definitely a feat I'd love to accomplish, but unless I win the lotto that's simply not going to happen. If it does somehow happen, I'm most certainly not coming out of retirement when I'm 39. A lot of people are already talking about how Andy did on his first day back in pinstripes and will look to see how well he pitches his next start. In other words, obvious facts are obvious.

What I would like to talk about in this IGYARticle is how long I possibly could've gone with my Andy is Back parody. What I will be talking about instead is how the back end of the rotation seems to be shaping up. With exercise and proper care, it seems to be firmer, tighter, and not as saggy and soggy as when Freddy Garcia was there. Freddy Garcia now mops in the bullpen, which for the most part he seems to be good at. David Phelps was given a chance to start while the Yankees not only awaited the return of Pettitte but awaited the outcome of our other back end starter, Phil Hughes. While Hughes' starts were not as bad as Garcia's, the lack of distance and the runs allowed stoked the fires of pen duty once again. He still might be destined for the pen. I could use a few more pens myself. Hughes has pitched very well his last two starts though, with Saturday easily nominated as his best start of the year. If he can continue this and if Andy can regain his former glory, our pitching staff might finally look like it use to. Well it should with Andy back on the mound.

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Mood Music - Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd

With a lot of the Yankees news out there still focusing on Mariano Rivera's injury, the surgery and everything that is coming along with it, I figured that I'd contribute to the other part of the Mo saga which is the closer role now in the hands of Pinstripe Alley's favorite "8th inning guy" David Robertson. D-Rob is now the Yankees closer. When we last talked about this, it was not officially stated by Yankees Manager and Binder Host Symbiote Joe Girardi that Robertson was going to be the closer due to the fact that Pinstripe Alley's least favorite "7th inning guy" Rafael Soriano offered experience in the closer role via his time with his previous team, the Tampa Bay Rays, so he was considered a legitimate candidate over D-Rob. Some still think he's the better choice for the job.

Before last night, there were questions whether Soriano's closer experience would beat out Robertson's "being really freakin' awesome at relief pitching" skills. As we saw last night, Robertson had the skills to pay the bills as he recorded his first save since the Mo tragedy, and the Yankees won. Afterwards, Girardi officially stated that D-Rob was the closer. So here we are, in the beginning of the Houdini era of closing out Yankee games. I say the beginning because according to all the reports and tweets and direct quotes from the man himself, Mo is planning to pitch again in 2013. If everything goes well for Mariano, and we all hope it does, he will reclaim the closer role in 2013 and Enter Sandman will play on the Yankees loudspeakers once again. However, even with Mo scheduled to return for 2013, a lot of fans were getting use to the fact that Mo could not pitch forever, that 2012 might have been his last year anyway, and that David Robertson would most likely be next in line for the job. For the time being, the job is his and it actually offers Yankees fans something unique to look at, something that some of them have actually never really seen or experienced before. It could actually be a blessing in disguise.

IGYARticles make you want to Jump Jump...

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Andy Pettitte pitched yesterday for the Scranton Empire State Yankees in their home ballpark Rochester (seriously, who would want to play for the Yankees AAA team right now?) and declared himself ready for the MLB. Pettitte threw 92 pitches, 59 of which were strikes, and surrendered three earned runs in five innings.

While Empire State's defense caused Pettitte to work longer and harder than he should have had to, 92 pitches in five innings isn't the most encouraging outing.

Phil Hughes and David Phelps both pitched well in their last starts, and both are deserving of one more chance to prove that they belong in the rotation when Pettitte comes to take a spot in the rotation.

There is no harm in allowing Pettitte another start in AAA to work on his pitch count and getting him to 100+ pitches, while having more time to make a final decision on who goes where.

While the decision that will likely happen is David Phelps back to the bullpen and Phil Hughes in the rotation, if Hughes pitches like he did earlier in the decision and Phelps throws a gem the Yankees will have a tough decision to make. Hughes pitched his best game in a very long time yesterday, so perhaps the competition is helping him.

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