Is the Sky Falling for the New York Yankees?

It is very early in the season to panic but another storied franchise out of the gate slowly this year is the New York Yankees.

They continue to spend money on free agent players who fail to produce or contribute to team chemistry. Carl Pavano was a big disaster and during the off season the team went out and spent over $250 million dollars to recruit two other free agent pitchers, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. For that type of money these players and others such as Alex Rodriguez are expected to win and produce. That is just the reality when they play for the Yankees.

Yankee haters are just having a field day.

Their pitching is terrible and currently the worst in the major leagues; and that is being kind. Their combined ERA is higher than the zip code to their new stadium. Defensively they are challenged with no arms in the outfield and no speed in injury prone Hideki Matsui and Johnny Damon. Teams are running and scoring at will. Utility players like Angel Berroa, Ramiro Pena and Brett Gardner are not going take them to the World Series. Even when ARod returns the Bronx Bombers will not scare anyone because their lineup and power is just not formidable anymore.

Oh how fans pine for the days when the Yankees had chemistry players like Scott Brosius, Bernie Williams, Paul O.Neil and if you want to go back further Chris Chambliss, Graig Nettles, and further yet, Bill Skowron, Joe Pepitone, Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek. None of these players were all stars; just team players who brought spirit and timely production to some great winning teams. As much as it is painful to admit, they need players much like the Boston Red Sox have of late.

In the opening season series in the Yankees’ brand new stadium against the Cleveland Indians they give up ten runs. They followed that up with a 22 run debacle. Admittedly a lot of things had to go right for the Indians in that game including some favorable winds and some old fashioned good hitting but the bottom line was that the Yankees allowed it to happen. Joe Girardi has this annoying habit of leaving his starters in too long to get shelled partly because he has no one to go to in the bullpen except Nick Swisher.

To his credit, although he was very sensitive about pulling Chen Ming Wang in that game, it was obvious his pitcher was up in the strike zone and having release problems well before exiting the game.

This past weekend the Yankees were swept in a three game series by their hated rivals, the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. In the first game the Yankees were leading 4-2 in the top of the 9th inning and they had the bases loaded but fail to add insurance runs. Mariano Rivera, usually reliable and still one of the better closers in the game, gives up a two run tying homer in the bottom of the 9th and then the Sox promptly go on to win in extra innings.

In the second game, AJ Burnett had a 6-0 lead. Girardi again leaves his pitcher in too long and Burnett gives up eight runs! How demoralizing is it for a pitcher to have a comfortable six run lead and give up eight runs. Up until that point Burnett was one of the few bright spots in the rotation. The Yankees go on to lose the game 16-11. In the three games mentioned above, the Yankees have surrendered 48 runs!

Yes, it is early but the Yankees have some serious problems. Fans can only hope it’s not another long season.