As I write this, the Yankees are well on their way to winning their ninth straight game.
If you're a fan of any other team, figure you've died and gone to heaven. If you're a Yankees fan, though, a nine-game winning streak is just another excuse to schvitz. To wit: Steven Goldman's latest piece in the New York Sun is headlined, "Streak or Not, Yanks Need Reinforcements".
I don't disagree with Goldman (I never do). As he writes, the bullpen remains a concern …
The Yankees need help in that area, but they have internal options, including the porcine but productive Chris Britton and the indie league find, Edwar Ramirez (the changeup artist has struck out 62 double- and triple-A hitters in 34.1 innings). On the other hand, the Yankees may or may not have the will to try those options and cut bait on familiar but pointless vets such as Luis Vizcaino, Ron Villone, and the exasperating Kyle Farnsworth. A hallmark of the [Brian] Cashman/[Joe] Torre administration is to accept poor but predictable performances rather than risk failure by chasing improvements -- despotic rulers rarely have innovative subordinates -- and no one wants to stick their neck out for a policy if it means getting your head chopped off.
The other problem is first base, of course. If you listen to the Yankees' broadcasters, you'll "learn" that Miguel Cairo has been fantastic in his time there, and I certainly wouldn't care to argue. On the other hand, Cairo's been around for 12 seasons now, and you'd think that if he was good enough to play first base (or anything else) regularly, somebody would have figured that out before now.
So yes, the Yankees have some holes. But doesn't everybody? Two things worth mentioning now, while we wonder how good the Yankees really are: (1) three months ago, everybody thought they were good enough to win roughly 95 games; and (2) at the moment, they have the third-best run differential in the league. They still face an uphill climb, obviously; they're still eight games behind the Red Sox, and there's going to be stiff competition for the Crazy Card.
But people say the Yankees are back? I say they never really left.
Rob Neyer
