Things Begin to Unravel

Things are pretty bad in the Yankee Universe right now. The team is losing. Competitive games are few and far between and now Jorge Posada is upset at the Yankees lack of faith in his .165 batting average and .621 OPS.

We'll start with Jorge first. It's easy to understand why Posada would have trouble adjusting from catching every game to just taking his four hacks a day, it's hard to understand why he would think the Yankees are in the wrong for handling his situation as they have.

It must be difficult for every aging veteran to look at young players doing what they used to be able to do and thinking that they still have the ability, but the fact of the matter is Jorge never had the defensive ability that Russell Martin has and the Yankees are clearly a better team with Martin as a receiver than Posada. And the fact of the matter is that Jorge can't hit then Jesus Montero is sitting in Scranton. Montero is unlikely to complain about batting ninth either.

It's a shame that things are going poorly for Posada. But when you hold out for the money and the years that he did after his fantastic 2007 season, you run the risk of embarrassing yourself at the tail end of the contract and your career. Posada will be 40 in August. New York is unlikely to bring him back after the year. Young cheaper players are waiting in the wings and older slower players are waiting for the DH spot in the Yankee lineup. It is tough to watch someone who was great for so long struggle at the end, but it's worse to watch him whining about the unfairness of the situation.

I'm sick of players and the media whining about teams owing players things. All the team owes them are the ridiculous salaries they get paid, especially in the case of aging Yankees. The deal is the get paid and then they play. That's what the two sides owe each other.

As for the rest of the Yankees, things don't look good and it's not for the reasons everyone was anticipating at the beginning of the season. The pitching has been good. Except for Rafael Soriano, the bullpen has been as strong as anticipated. The starting rotation has been far better than anyone could have reasonable expected. It is the hitting that has been a grand disappointment.

While the home runs have come as expected, the Yankees seem to lack the ability to hit with runners in scoring position. For a team that has the scored on average more runs than any other in baseball, they haven't done so lately. It has been almost a week since they have cracked the 5+ run barrier. And if you eliminate that Sunday affair in Texas, they haven't put up more than five runs in a game since April 29.

This extended dry spell has made me feel like I'm back in 2008 when the Yankees also had major inconsistencies at the plate. Maybe the whole Posada affair will give the Yankees an open door to make a tough decision and bring up Jesus Montero. It definitely feels like the Yankees will need some kind of spark to get this ship moving in the right direction. Right now it doesn't seem like that catalyst is on the Yankee roster.

Jeter Ties Gehrig, Yanks Continue to Roll

So after struggling for three straight games against the best and worse the Rays had to offer, Derek Jeter finally broke through against Jeff Neimann with three hits, tying the franchise record for hits held by Lou Gehrig since 1939.

It is remarkable when you think about the long line of great Yankee players; Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle, that they have never had a player collect 3,000 hits with the team. They all had their reasons for falling short. Ruth didn't play his entire career as a hitter or Yankee. Gehrig contracted ALS. DiMaggio fought injuries and a World War. Mantle walked a lot and never took care of his body.

Now, though, it seems inevitable that Jeter will total 3,000 hits and possibly even many more on top of that.

I'm glad Jeter took care of all three hits in one night to tie the record and hopefully he breaks the record in AB number one on Friday night.

I'm happy for the Captain and everything, and his accomplishments are second to none for any Yankee in this century or the second half of the 20th century, but this stuff weighs on me as a fan. The constant asking of the same questions that know they will get the same answers from the taciturn Captain.

After Jeter tied the record the Yankees seemed to remember that there was indeed a game to be won. A-Rod and Hideki Matsui led off the eighth with singles before an error scored a run. After a Robinson Cano strike out Jorge Posada deposited a 3-2 pitch into the right field seats.

This team has a lot of the late '90s Yanks in them. Very rarely do you get the impression the will lose a game. If it is a pitchers duel late you expect them to win in walk-off fashion. They can win one-run games and slugfests. Hell, they even have a winning record when Sergio Mitre starts a game.

This team is on an incredible roll in the second half of the season. Every part of the team is clicking (except Joba who had yet another clunker another post on him will come soon). Right now they seem unstoppable.