i see the new york yankees 'vaulted' into second place last night, only 11 games behind the division leading boston red sox..

good job yankees!

now let's try to get your record over .500

renny the red sox fan

I'm loving watching the reaction of Yankees fans this year (with sincere apologies to Yankees fans on this list). Murray Chass had a column in the NY Times a couple of weeks ago predicting that the Yankees would pass the Sox today. LOL! Yesterday, he had a follow-up suggesting that it would have happened had the Yankees done their job, since the Sox suck (paraphrasing here). Apparently he didn't notice that the Sox still have the best record in baseball.

And nearly a quarter of their remaining games are against the Devil Rays! There are so many great things about this season: Coco Crisp starting to look like the player he was supposed to be; Becket and Matzusaka emerging; Papelbon; Pedroia looking like a potential star. Maybe the best thing though is that they have run away from the Yankees in spite of the fact that Manny and Ortiz are having sub-par seasons and the Sox have had a much tougher schedule than the Yankees (and have an easier schedule the rest of the way).

We could finish with a 25 game lead. This has to be the best summer evaaaaaaaaah.

i keep waiting for cashman to pull the plug.

i think he knows they are not going to contend this year, (7 1/2 out for the wild card even).

will cashman:

A - take the dump road. trade high priced players (abreau, a-rod, posada, mussina, matsui, giambi) for prospects and try to rebuild the totally depleted yankee farm system

B - deplete what little prospects they have left, actually thinking the have a chance this year.

nice article on yahoo sports this morning about a-rod going to san francisco next year when bonds is done and vizquel admits he is done also. a-rod can play short in frisco, hit a ton of home runs and have fun again out of the bronx zoo.

Interesting question Renny. Steinbrenner is running out of time, and I can't see him allowing Cashman to begin a rebuilding process. I can imagine that Cashman desperately wants to clean house though. He has some very crappy contracts on his hand: Damon, Abreau, Giambi. But I can't see them bringing much in return. It seems to me that the only player who could bring something valuable is A-Rod, and he's walking after this year anyway.

On the other side of the coin, I can't imagine that Cashman would willingly trade prospects to try to save a season that is obviously lost. The only way that happens is if Steinbrenner panics because the end is near and demands one last run.

This is very juicy.

It is an interesting dilemma as Renny has pointed out. This is the first time since 1996 that the Yankees may have to concede the season and start anew.

But its not in the Yankees nature to do this, so they may further mortgage the future and try to re-tool now. They are certainly at a crossroads. A wrong move could doom the next few years ala a 1965.

"In the last 12 months there's been a perceptible change," says the business associate, who was particularly struck by the decline of Steinbrenner's formerly steel-trap memory. "He's not as mentally sharp."

That's from http://www.espn.com. I'm among the baseball fans who think that 2004 was the beginning of the end for the Yanks. $200 million can buy their way into the playoffs, but it can't win the big one for them. This year they won't even make the playoffs, and if they don't do any serious rebuilding, they could turn into the Knicks: a crappy team loaded down with expensive players who don't produce.

Even though I'm a Sox fan (and a Yankees hater), I have a lot of respect for Brian Cashman. If he's permitted to dump some of those salaries, I think he can turn around the Yanks, like the Henry team turned around the Red Sox.

As a 7 year old, living in Connecticut in 1960 I had one choice to make, Yankees or Red Sox (Mets were not yet an option yet). Since Roger Maris was in the first pack of baseball cards I purchased, I thank the Gods that I made the right choice.
I haven't given up yet - there is still a long way to go. Even true fans understand that you can't win every year - but wouldn't it be sweet to pass the Red Sox on the last day of the sason?

No desperate moves please - I like the young arms we got. This temporary warp in the alignment of the planets will right itself.

It made me realize however, how much I hate that team from Boston in that falling down small little league field. The only three Red Sox I ever liked were Jimmy Piersall. Tony C and Jim (he really belongs in the Hall of Fame) Rice. All the others...

Renny - I respect all your opinions and I wish you luck with your team - I just have a feeling that they will fold.

been there, done that, so i wouldn't die of disappointment if they did.

however, this year, should they do the old el foldo, i don't think it will be the yankees who pass them, the blue jays: yes, the very old, very tired, very overated new york yankees...no way

renny

p.s. all yankee fans know that cashman is going to pull the trigger and trade away the farm system for dontrell willis or mark buerle. they just won't give up, it's not in them. even though this year, it is the most prudent thing to do.

let a-rod, giambi, abreu, johnny demon, matsui, pettite, and mussina leave of their own accord after the season and bring up the kids next year. and use all of that money to buy good "young" players who will hang around for a while.

Rats - Just as I read your post that Yanks let up a 2 run homer - we are now down 4 - 2 to Santana

I read somewhere the Yankees would have to win over 56 games from here on out to have a shot at a 95 win season (to have a shot at the playoffs).

They haven't shown that kind of consistency.

Also many forget already the Yankees already made a big $$$ move this season by signing Clemens. At least that didn't cost them their farm system (thank goodness).

yankees lost today 6 - 2

red sox won today 7 - 5.

sox have a 12 game lead over the yankees on july 4 and the yankees are 3 games under .500.

who'd have thunk it!

i don't know about other sox fans, but i certainly wasn't expecting this.

renny

And that is essentially the Yankees problem. They are unable to gain ground and are spinning their wheels even if they are in 2nd place.

Each loss is another nail. And a win doesn't count if Boston wins or Detroit or Seatle.

What was it this year...$195M+ and that was BEFORE the Clemens signing. Wow...what a bust. It looked like they might make a bit of a run there, for a brief time, but they've slid back to their old ways again. The correct thing at this point would be to pull the plug, get rid of some big contracts and try to restock the depleted farm system a bit. Do I think King George will allow that to happen? I doubt it.

True, the smart thing would be to pull the plug and begin re-tooling right now but the Yankee fan would never allow it. I'm sure most think they still have a shot.

I don't a Jeremy Dye is the answer. If thats the case they should have just kept Sheffield.

Lets face it, the Yankees got old all of a sudden. Their outfield (if Damon plays) looks like an outfield you see at your local softball field,

The scary thing is the Yankees will change by next year. Probably no more Posada or Rivera or A-Rod. Even Mussina and Clemens will be gone.