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?
17 Comments:
This guy clearly has a bias against the Yankees, but you're giving him exactly what he wants - attention!
He was going to get attention with or without me or my little blog here.
He's already got 40 comments on his article, from Twins and Yankees fans.
I just figured I'd let some more Yanks fans know about his stupid article, maybe some of them could go over a leave a comment or two.
Articles like this would never fly at a major New York newspaper.
I remember when the Yankees went to San Francisco last year, a writer wrote a similar article about the Yankees. It's ridiculous.
I'm a yankee fan first off. But other than crying about an anti-yankee bias, can one of you other yankee fans comment on what this man said that was false about our team? I mean really. And what do we have to be happy about in our farm system? And as far as Carlos Gomez...Yankees WISH they had a player with that kind of potential.
Andrew,
I know, you're absolutely right.
JMiller,
Well he's doing what everyone did last year, and that is defining the Yankees by the first month or two of a season. Everybody knows a baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint.
The Yankees were dead last June and made the playoffs. The Yanks were dead in '05 in May and made the playoffs. Which is more than can be said about Mr. Souhan's Twinkies.
Also, the overpaid, aging players like Giambi, Abreu, Damon, Matsui, etc, that he mentioned happen to be playing very well right now.
The farm system is loaded with talent. Baseball America ranked the Yankees with the 5th best system in baseball this year.
If Gomez hits .290 the rest of his career yes, if he doesn't that a whole other story.
Is he wrong? Looks mostly like facts, though a little harsh at times. I'd love to see the Yanks become more like the Twins. They traded away Santana and Torii Hunter - and got better. So I can understand when an MN wonk looks at the Yankees and sees a tired overpaid team of superstars.
Not that I'm hating on the Yanks - I just don't see what Souhan is wrong about.
Miller are you even a Yankee fan?
What are you doing defending this bum from Minnesota?
Like Greg said this is the same crap that happened last year, and the year before, and the year before that. Everyone loves to count the Yankees out. They've grown up hating us, and they'll die hating us.
Can we wait until august or maybe september before coming to any conclusions about this team?
If you have ever spent a minute over the last three years looking into the system you'd know how strong it is. Unless you are basing your entire opinion on the slow starts of Kennedy and Hughes this season. Which would be foolish.
However, I do agree with you about Gomez. I think he's going to be great.
Joel,
JMiller is a personal friend of mine and I can say for a fact that he is a Yankees fan. I may not agree with what he's saying, but he is certainly a Yankees fan.
Jeff B.,
"I'd love to see the Yanks become more like the Twins."
No you wouldn't. I promise you.
"They traded away Santana and Torii Hunter - and got better."
For the first 50 games yes, but the season is 162 games, so let's see how it all turns out.
"So I can understand when an MN wonk looks at the Yankees and sees a tired overpaid team of superstars."
But it's not the "superstars" that have cost the Yanks games this year. It's low paid vets like Hawkins, lower paid rookies like Ohlendorf and Duncan, and barely legal guys like Hughes and Kennedy.
So his argument is totally flawed. If the Yankees got anything from Kennedy and Hughes this year, they'd be 3-5 games over .500 and in pretty damn good shape.
Also the injuries that have hit this team haven't helped either. Jeter, A-Rod and Posada have all spent much time recovering from injuries.
I dunno Greg, he seems like a fake fan to me.
Greg,
Agreed that we will have to wait and see how MN and NY turn out over the course of 162 games. I guess seeing the Yanks become younger and healthier isn't a popular idea. "Barely legal guys" that have been scouted and developed (ie Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, Francisco Liriano) have a huge bearing on the outcome of games - just look at Hughes and Kennedy.
All I'm saying is that the MN fans and writers are used to seeing young developed talent - and I'd like to the Yankees adopt some of those principles.
Joel I promise you he's a real Yankees fan. I've known him for years, he's a Yankees fan.
Sorry - I'm the "anonymous above"
anonymous,
The Yanks are adopting that philosophy. The problem is fans here don't have the patience to see it through.
A month of bad starts and the whole town is ready to give up on them.
Okay Greg, if you say so, but I'm still skeptical.
Joel, I'm a Yankee fan, although i admit to not loving a lot of the guys they have on this team. Furthermore, I long for the day when they change around their brand of baseball. I get frustrated with Yankee fans who think non-yankee fans have no right to state the obvious deficencies our club has sometimes.
Miller, what you and Souhan fail to realize is that the Yankees aren't losing games because they're old, they're losing because they've changed their philosophy to be more like the Twins, and have gone more towards homegrown young talent as opposed to signing, or trading for high-priced talent, like trading for Santana for example. And it's hurt them a bit so far.
Hughes and Kennedy have hurt this team a lot so far this year. That tends to happen with young pitchers. Sometimes things don't go as planned. Look at Liriano.
If you want them to change their "brand of baseball" then it takes some growing pains.
By the way, I'm still confident the Yanks will be fine this year.
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