Get used to it. This is the culmination of years of over-spending and trading away young talent. Instead of building from within like they did in the 1990s, todays Yankees try to spend their way to a championship and this season is the end result. Limping out of the gates in April, the Bronx Bums haven't recovered and never will, at least not this season.
Just look at this past month. They started almost thirteen games back of the division leading Red Sox, won fifteen of seventeen at one point but never got any closer then eight games back and the Bo-Sox haven't even been playing their best baseball yet. To make matters worse, even that impressive winning streak is almost meaningless when you look at who they played.
They started a streak of winning eight of nine with a sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Take Jason Bay out of that line-up and it qualifies as a AAA squad. Next up were the Arizona Diamondbacks, a team with a winning record but made up of young and relatively inexperienced players. Follow that up with a series against a Mets team that has been just as horrible as their cross town rivals. If that wasn't enough, they played all nine of those games within the cozy confines of Yankee stadium, where home field advantage takes on a whole new meaning.
Seriously, they played three weak National League teams, lost only one game and still couldn't gain any meaningful ground. Need further proof of how bad this years pin strippers are? Check out that sweep by the Colorado Rockies. Not only did they lose to a team with a vastly smaller pay-roll and talent pool, but they were held to five runs in three games inside that launching pad known as Coors Field. The last time New York played there they ran up forty-one runs in three games. Worse, their three big guns, Pettite, Mussina and Clemens, were the starters. Clemens only lasted four and a third innings and Pettite gave up two clutch home runs late in the game.
Perhaps even more telling is the bats. Alex Rodriguez started the season off putting up MLB 2K type numbers but has cooled off. His average and production are still incredible, but he's not driving in runs or hitting the longs ball with any of the consistency he did at the beginning of the season. Jorge Posada was the league leader in batting average, but has since come back to earth, Bobby Abreu is forty points under career batting average, as is Johnny Damon. Jeter has been his old self, but he can't carry the team.
This weekend the Yankees get to play the San Fransisco Giants, another soft team for them to feast on. They'll likely sweep the series, but what does that matter? After all this they won't be any closer to Boston and the real trouble will start sooner then some New York fans think. Next month they face the Twins the Angels in back to back series. They also face the Blue Jays in a four game series. The rest of July is relatively easy, but August 6 to the 30 they face Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit, Anaheim, Detroit again then Boston.
Fact is the Yankees have enjoyed a rather light schedule until now and still managed to stink it up. At this rate their season will be over before the summer is out, and frankly it couldn't have happened to a more deserving team.
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