THE YANKEES NEED TO BE PERFECT NOW

There are 2 weeks left to go in the 2012 basbeall season. This is when we see what teams are truly made of. Can we hold on, pushing ourselves to the playoffs with solid play, timely hitting and momentum, or will we play sloppy, strand runners and appear sluggish?  I turn my back on the latter, but can I really?

What happened in that final game of the Yankees/A's game Sunday was aggravating. Read HERE. I hate errors and 3 in one game for the Yankees is not only wrong, it's not acceptable for a pro team to fall apart like that while in the middle of a pennant race.

I am no fan of Eduardo Nunez's fielding abilities. I don't think he should be playing shortstop, ever. Any scout would tell you that, and I've chatted with a few former scouts about exactly that.  I am a firm believer that if they truly needed him in the future, he could be hidden in left field and trained properly in the minor leagues until he's ready. I also believe that this final run with 2 weeks left in the season is no time to put a novice like Nunez in the Captain's spot. The Yankees are forcing a square peg in a round hole and if errors are the reason this ball club doesn't win the American League East division, I'll be all over Yankee brass for keeping this guy around, trust me.

Now sure, the Yankees had a 10 game lead on the rest of the division and then the wheels came off. That's not a collapse, that's baseball. Let's face it, the Orioles are a great, energized club. The Yankees slumped, the stars aligned the right way in Baltimore.  What can you do? Bottom line, the Yankees had injury, they had struggle and they lost that lead, but they're still in first place now through it all, but again, if errors are the deciding factor in these 2 weeks of the season and we lose... Well, let's just say, changes must be made.

Errors can and will kill a team's momentum. Players start to over think, much like they do in a hitting slump. They second guess their ability, and before you know it, it spreads like a cancer throughout a ball club. My solution is simple, don't let it get there. Kill it.  Use other guys to put in the shortstop role, use Nunez as a DH on days Derek Jeter plays shortstop and throw him on the bases in late innings to run his ass off. Make him a pinch hitter and pinch runner late innings, nothing more.  Putting him in the field now is toxic to the ball club and in my opinion, a stupid move. Why? I'll tell you, it's a guessing game with Nunez in the field, you have no idea he'll respond on the field, but meanwhile, if you put money on him in Vegas, you're a guaranteed winner if you put it all on him "screwing up." This isn't Little League, it's the pros.  It's an eye test with me, watching a grounder to him, I literally cringe, that should never happen when watching a pro team. Why? Because they're professionals.

So the final result this season is obvious to me, enough with the mistakes, enough with the errors.  Let's play like the Yankees. Seriously.

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