A look at the standings

Taking a look at the standings a couple things stand out.

First off, no one put the Yankees away when they had the chance. The AL has been a dogfight up until this point, and really only Boston and LA have put any distance between themselves and the rest of the league. Tampa Bay is hanging in there (as is Oakland), but would you bet on them keeping up their current pace? I think they have a bright future, but I’d be surprised to see them make the playoffs this year (ditto, Oakland again).

Keep in mind that the wild card winner this year could very well get in with 90 wins. That’s 9 games over .500. The Yankees are 4 games over right now and have played poor for the most part and dealt with a slew of unfortunate injuries. This team should still win more than 90 games.

The Yankees record on the road? A very respectable 19-18. Boston’s record on the road? 16-21. Why the Red Sox are allowed to play in that sorry excuse for a ballpark (where they are 28-7) is beyond me. It’s the biggest home field advantage in baseball and probably in sports. Brought this up to my Dad who made a good point: why aren’t field dimensions regulated in some way? You don’t see an NFL team say “well, we have a lot of fast receivers, so we’re going to make our field bigger.” I know the Yankees have the short porch in left, but still.

The prescription: The NL

Just what the Yankees needed: some games against the National League. Good performances all around, even from Kyle Farnsworth, who collected his first save of the season.

• Speaking of Farnsworth: Joe Girardi is not going to give up on him. Everyone knows he is inconsistent and frustrating, but Girardi is determined to keep the Farns’ confidence high. So while we may see Veras start pitching the 8th inning from time to time, Farnsworth will keep getting his chances too.
• And speaking of Veras: great effort by him the other night, striking out 3 in a perfect 2 innings. When he can throw that breaking ball for a strike, he is tough (though I guess you could say that about quite a few pitchers).
• If Chien-Ming Wang is gone for an extended period of time, it will obviously be a big blow to the Yankees. However, I still don’t see them getting into the C.C. Sabathia sweepstakes. Why would Cleveland trade Sabathia unless they get 3 very good prospects back? And the Yankees are too committed now to player development to give up that much youth.
• Having A-Rod and Posada back completely changes the Yankee lineup. It’s about time they put together a win where they just pummel their opponent.
• It is definitely not the third base coach’s fault for sending Chien-Ming Wang home; Wang made it easily even hopping on one leg. Even if the game was 10-0 at that point (which it wasn’t, it was still close), you don’t simply refuse to take easy runs.
• It is absolutely a joke that the NL does not play with a DH. It is the only professional league that doesn’t, including all of the minors. I want to see the best baseball players do what they do best; now one of the game’s best pitchers may be out for an extended period of time because he was forced to run the bases. I don’t want to hear any “it adds more strategy arguments” either. You know what, if you made every NFL team use their running backs as quarterbacks on third down it would add strategy too, but I don’t want to watch Brandon Jacobs throw the ball.