Minnesota Writer Jim Souhan is Talkin' Trash

Jim Souhan is a sports writer for the Star Tribute over in Minnesota, and he didn't have many (any) nice things to say about our Yankees in today's paper in an article titled Last-place Yankees showing their age.

The Yankees come to town today, sweeping in with all the grandeur of an off-Broadway show playing one of the Twin Cities' nicer bowling alleys.

This graying 2008 edition is the reincarnation of the mid-'70s Yankees of Horace Clarke and the early '90s Yankees of Danny Tartabull, who represented poorly-spent riches and who played with such lifelessness that the East Coast media elite was fooled into thinking that the entire sport was dying, when in fact it was only Yankee Pride going dormant.

Is he talking about when attendance was down all across the league (besides maybe Minnesota cause they were a good team then) and it took Cal Ripken's streak, and the '98 HR chase to bring the fans back?

I guess that was all made up by the "East Coast media elite."

Joe Torre's calm is gone, replaced by Joe Girardi, last seen playing egomaniac in Florida. George Steinbrenner is gone, replaced by his excitable son, Hankerin' Hank, who declared Red Sox Nation fraudulent even as his Rome burns.

Girardi playing egomaniac in Florida? Was that the year he won the NL Manager of the year?

The real problem for these last-place Yankees is who remains. Only four players on the roster have won World Series titles with the Yankees -- Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, the injured Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte. The rest are a testament to what happens when you substitute Geritol for steroids in your daily regimen.

A couple of the rest that Souhan speaks of:

Hideki Matsui leads the AL with a .330 batting average.

Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano (who is just 25 yr old) have turned their season's around since their bad Aprils. Giambi is hitting .339 with 6 HR and 14 RBI in May, and Cano is hitting .302 with 2 HR, 12 RBI, and 7 doubles in May.

Bobby Abreu is leading the team in RBI.

Johnny Damon has his average back up to .288.

Melky Cabrera may not be hitting right now, but he's just 23 years old and certainly not using Geritol.

Oh, and that A-Rod fellow, who still happens to be pretty good.

He ignores how many of the older/overpaid players contracts run out after this year and next, and he also completely ignores the Yankees farm system, which happens to be very good. But what would someone from a small market, with a team that has relied so heavily on homegrown talent know about the minor leagues?

With an old, overpaid roster that will become only more ancient and overpaid each year, the Yankees should be trying to win this year. And while Santana is helping keep the struggling team in Queens afloat, the Yankees have suffered while trying to force-feed Kennedy and Hughes into the starting rotation.

Does this idiot know the Mets are just a half game better than the Yankees?

He also calls Carlos Gomez, "one of the most electrifying players in Twins history." And that instead of electrifying, the Yankees are more "stultifying."

Gomez has been very good so far, but slow down. What happens if he hits .220 the rest of the way? You should wait a while before anointing someone the most/best/greatest anything. And maybe you should also wait a while before burying the Yankees, or was last year too long ago for you to remember?