"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?"

When things get frustrating, I can usually distance myself from it all...temporarily of course.  Truth be told, I write a Yankees blog and my Yankees were losing. Let's face it, I hate writing about losing, especially when it's my team doing the losing.  But that being said, I will take a moment, step back, think about other things and then get my groove again and get back into it.  “What do you want from me?” will usually come out of my mouth, like Joe Pesci describing the guy with the gray bread his mother’s painting in Goodfellas “One dog goes one way, the other dog goes the other way and the guys saying what do you want from me?" he said and that sets the tone for me, because as fans, there is really nothing we can do to "make" our team win, we just need to keep believing and root for our team...no matter what. Last night, they did win.
 
We kept rooting for our Yankees in the hopes that they can turn the series around and the season as well.  So I say, a few loses... yeah well "What do you want from me?" this is just a hiccup I thought and they won last night and life is good for the moment.

There is no doubt the Yankees have very obvious problems though, much bigger than Michael Pineda and Mariano Rivera missing the entire season.  So here I go, I’ll list what I consider real problems and feel free to comment as you see fit, after all, Bleeding Yankee Blue is a rant site as well as a fan site and we need every voice heard....just keep it clean.

Runners in Scoring Position: You got to be kidding me with this RISP situation, seriously.  The Yankees cannot get the runner over, let alone score, unless they hit a home run, do you notice that? Jack Curry from YES posted a stat on Twitter last night before our win and it was really interesting to me.  He said that since Robinson Cano's Grand Slam on May 6th, the Yankees were 1-28 with bases loaded with 4 walks, 1 HB and 3 sacrifice flies. Whoa.  That's embarrassing.  Last year BYB had a piece titled YANKS ARE DUCKS ON THE POND, ironically, it was written in the same month, May.  The Yankees couldn't move runners over then and they damn sure can't do it now.  Why? What happened to situational baseball? What happened to small ball? The Yankees have a bad habit of not moving runners over unless they're homering and usually even that’s a solo shot.  I could see if we were knocking out 3 run homers, being clutch when we needed it, but let’s face it, it’s not happening.  We are not playing situational baseball. We’re not using our heads, seeing who’s on base and where they are in regards to the outs we have or dare I say using a sacrifice hit once in a while. Just to get the base runner closer to home. It’s basic and it's baseball. Luckily, Nick Swisher did exactly that last night sacrificing the go ahead run. Can we learn from that? Damn I hope so.

Phil Hughes: Hughes stumbled out of the gate, then after a few starts recently, he appeared to have turned the corner. Then, he un-turned the corner in his last start in Anaheim. Phil Hughes has become a thorn in my side. Why? Because we all want him to be the "guy" he was hyped up as and for the love of God…it ain’t happening. I have to realize that his 18 game season is long gone, we need Hughes now, not yesterday. Now, I’m not writing off Hughes, but as I’ve stated here a ton of times, if 2012 is not Phil Hughes’ year, he should probably be alittle concerned about being shipped off.  I believe that. Sooner or later the Yankees will be forced to cut bait, after all, they've invested enough time and energy into this guy and it's clear they have got to start feeling like they've wasted too much time and energy waiting for a "sure thing" that's not going to happen.

Speed:  For everyone that has not use for Brett Gardner, I think it’s clear we’re seeing a Yankee team that’s sluggish...much more sluggish than if Brett’s speed and energy was there in the lineup every night.  I love him in our outfield and I like him on base and  I feel like it’s important that having him there assures us runs that we're not getting now with he and, dare I say, Eduardo Nunez absent.  No speed in the Yankees lineup is hurting them. If you don't agree with me, think about what Mike Trout did for the Angels the past 3 games, speed in the outfield, speed on the base paths, he energized that ball club. You can disagree and I’ll tell you you’re wrong. Bottom Line…we need him and we need to be aggressive on the base paths.  We're flat and it's obvious. 

Extra Pitching...fast: If the Yankees don’t do anything to improve their New York Yankees in 2012 and instead insist that they are building for a fantastic 2013 and 2014 and beyond with pitching featuring Michael Pineda, Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos, we are doomed.  The Yankees need to play for the now and it has everything to do with our pitching.  We don’t have it and we need it.  CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and Ivan Nova can’t do it alone and to be honest, while those 3 are perfect for any post-season series, we have to get there first and we’re nowhere close.  Pitching stability needs to happen 1 through 5, so let’s start looking around.

(In Photo: Jack Cust)
Depth: Yeah that's right, we need to think about what pieces aren't working and replace them or back them up.  Sure, in May the quick fix for replacing Brett Gardner in the outfield was a potpourri of DeWayne Wise, Raul Ibanez and Jayson Nix, an infielder, but down the stretch, we need depth.  Is someone like David DeJesus available for instance? He's an outfielder with the last place Cubs? What's to say the Cubs won't be sellers, plus both Theo and Brian Cashman have a nice relationship and are no longer rivals.  It makes sense. How about the Yankees recent signing of Ryota Igarashi, a righty pitcher that they sent right to AAA.  Igarashi adds some depth in the pen and George King III of the New York Post has that story HERE.  And how about Andruw Jones? He's the guy the Yankees want to his lefties...except, he can't hit lefties and is only batting .205 against them. Could he be replaced by the July deadline? The Yanks need to put together their list, check it twice and get the ball rolling.  Sure, guys like Jack Cust and Russell Branyan are down in the minors, but will we see them and do they have what it takes? Let's hope our depth is locked and loaded come the All-Star break.

So yeah, I can sit here and tell you what's wrong with my Yankees...after I take a deep breath, walk around the block and eliminate all my frustration from my Yankees recent losing streak, because at the end of the day, I don't run the team, I'm just a fan, and as Sterling says, you can't predict baseball..."What do you want from me?"

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