WE SHOULDN'T THINK THIS WAY, CASHMAN, BUT WE ARE

"I put this roster together and it is my responsibility. We have five more months to show what they are really capable of." 
- Brian Cashman

We all have traits that we admire and strive to live up to and one of those for me, is accountability. It's easy to make excuses for things that go wrong or try and justify them. It's easy to point fingers at people and assign blame. I know one individual I would like to hold partially responsible for this train wreck so far....but that's a different story. As much as I hate the circumstance, I do appreciate hearing that Brian Cashman is taking accountability for our under performing team.

I would hate to be in Cashman's shoes right now. I am sure his meeting with Hal Steinbrenner was far from comfortable but I do like that he is reacting to all of this, you can read that HERE. The last time the Yankees started the season like this was back in 2007. I can only hope that we recover the same way we did back then, because at least we made the playoffs. But this is not 2007, we are not a team of walking dead baseball players.

Aside from Alex Rodriguez we are healthy and rested. This isn't a case of bad luck and injuries.....the Yankees just suck. Plain and simple. They are under performing and they are in control of their own destiny for now. Right now, we are playing like the entire team is on the disabled list.

So Cashman accepts responsibility for this disaster of a season so far, but the question is how does he fix it? He's crafty, and the man can make a shocking trade as we have seen in the past. But how do you make players hit and pitch effectively? This is not his job. It's the job of all of these coaches. He claims everyone else is safe and this is his mess to clean up. But if you can't make these trained professionals do their job and the coaches don't take the fall what is the next move?

It's time for Cashman to start doing what he does best....get crafty. Sure, it may be early to start pulling some back door trades but he needs to start keeping score a little more here. A spot in the post season may not be earned in May....but it certainly can slip away. The Yankees are seven games under .500 and are six games behind the Orioles so I'm sorry Cashman....but we don't have five months to wait and see what this team is capable of. By then, it will be far too late.

If Chase Headley continues to struggle then the Yankees need to take action. We cannot continue to bat him in the middle of the Yankees lineup and not hit or drive in runs! What is the answer for this if things don't improve? I don't know. The Yankees were not impressed with Rob Refsnyder at third base during spring training so internal options look to be unrealistic. A trade before June also looks unrealistic but then again this is Cashman we are talking about. He has a poker face that no one can crack.

Not to single out Headley here because he is only one small piece to the puzzle, but if things don't correct themselves as Cashman hopes they will then he is also going to have to look at the top of the lineup too.  As table setters Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner need to be doing more than what they are. They set the tone, and if they can't do it then we need to find someone who can. It's okay to think about other opportunities in fact that is called being strategic.

"The talent level we have in the clubhouse is good enough. We shouldn't have to be thinking this way." 
- Brian Cashman

While I agree with the above statement, the fans and the Steinbrenners are clearly not satisfied with the performance we have had so far. The wrong thing to do here would be to ignore the problem and hope that it fixes itself if the Yankees continue to lose. We cannot continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting different results because that is just insanity. Not only that, we are Yankee fans so patience is not our strong suit but our ability to voice our opinion most definitely is.

We have the talent on our team but we also have to stop the bleeding. It is time for someone besides Cashman and Joe Girardi to step up on this team and make us believe that this is a good, competitive team. We've said this before, but it is worth saying again because it is true....I miss the days when Derek Jeter or Jorge Posada were in the clubhouse because we clearly need that spark again. Let the naysayers call us a bad team, but use that for motivation. Stop making us think about the moves we need to make this a winning team again and just win. That's all it takes. If the Yankees want to change the behavior then they need to change the results. Until then, yes myself and others included are going to continue to consider other possibilities.

Prove us wrong.


   
--Jeana Bellezza, 
BYB Senior Writer and Editor
Twitter: @NyPrincessJ 
 





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