Mike Lupica seems to think so, as does Joe Torre:
The Yankees lost another one-run game on Sunday, this one to the Mariners, another team in the American League with a better record right now than Cashman's, a team that played seven games over the past 10 days with the Yankees and won four of them. After Sunday's game, Joe Torre talked about how the Yankees need to get their "swagger" back.Yesterday, I asked Cashman what swagger, at least as it relates to this particular Yankee team, one that hasn't made it past the first round of the playoffs since 2004, meant to him.
"Swagger is confidence," he said.
There is still the idea around here, of course, that the universe is completely out of whack if the Yankees aren't dominating everybody and everything, simply because they're the Yankees. It means the Yankees are still living off the four World Series in five years they won under Torre, and the 22 World Series they won in all the baseball seasons before Torre got to the Stadium.
So Have the Yanks lost their swagger? I'm interested to know what people think. I think they swag on and off these days myself. Certainly Jeter has it, as does Posada. Hell, Proctor doesn't just have swagger, he's got a fastball with your name written on it.
While there is no doubt that in certain obvious cases, like Bobby Abreu, we need a "swagger injection" (different from the kind Barry likes), Mo doesn't seem to be mentally affected by what has befallen him. And, if Clemens ain't got swagger, who does? So that should help.
Ok, I have now used that word more than anyone should be allowed? .025 seconds of A-ROD's salary for your thoughts...