Leading Off

I'm not sure how many, if any, people will be reading this but welcome. I'll try to keep this up as much as possible with posts about anything from incredibly specific articles on the Yankees to just my general thoughts on baseball. A lot of the time, I won't have access to games since I go to UConn and their cable package doesn't carry YES. However, my wonderful girlfriend, Liz, has the Extra-Innings package and she gladly provides play-by-play for me when I can't watch games. She's gonna help out here, too, adding pre and post game thoughts with me. Anyway, here goes!

Some thoughts on the state of the team right now:

Things are bleak...very, very bleak. Obviously, making the playoffs is still possible...but realistically, I don't think it's going to happen. For the first time in my time as a Yankee fan (essentially my entire life), they will be missing the playoffs. It comes as an odd reality, but one that I'm ready and willing to face. For the beginnings of the past few seasons, my pessimism shining through, I've thought that the playoffs were out of reach for the Yankees. Now that "bad dream" might finally be coming true. I can't help but think of R.E.M: "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." Perhaps the Yankees not making the playoffs will wake the entire organization up into possibly changing things. While I think things like "heart" are overrated, this team clearly lacks it. Passion has been totally absent from this team despite their claims of playing in a "playoff atmosphere" for the last few weeks. Maybe biting this "no-playoff" bullet will be good and the Yankees will be able to develop some prospects in the coming weeks when rosters expand. The decision to call up Alfredo Aceves is a great one--even though it comes rather late--and it'll be nice to see him get some major league innings. Hopefully Phil Franchise can get some more major league work before '08 ends, as well. Maybe Brett Gardner (my new favorite player) will get some more time, too. His tools are definitely fantastic and the future in CF for the Yankees looks very bright.

Troubles w/RISP

While I'm not a huge fan of the whole "clutch" thing that has baseball in a death grip right now, the Yankees' situational hitting has been just awful this year, especially compared to previous years:

2006 w/RISP: .286/.386/.479/.865
2007 w/RISP: .293/.378/.451/.829
2008 w/RISP: .259/.345/.389/.735

Right now, the Yankees are 8/14 in the AL in runs. In 2006 they were first and in 2007 they were first again. More on this later, on an individual level. That's all for now, check back tomorrow night for a game wrap up.

-Matt