New York Yankees: Out of The Race?

Twenty-six World Series Championships. Thirty-nine American League Pennants. Thirteen consecutive seasons with playoff births. Yet it appears that the Yankees' amazing stretch of dominance in baseball may come to an end in the 2008 Major League Baseball season for as of July 2, the Yankees stand at third place in the American League East with a record of 44-40. The Bronx Bombers are currently seven and a half games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays, and five games behind the American League Wild Card Leading Boston Red Sox. How could the Yankees possibly drop so drastically so fast?

Many may place much of the blame on new manager, Joe Girardi. Girardi entered the season sporting a number twenty-seven to motivate his team toward earning the franchise's twenty-seventh World Series Title. But he doesn't appear to be too concerned that his team remains as far behind their division at this point in the season as they are. Joe has also made many questionable decisions in the team's first half, including leaving the struggling young hurler, Ian Kennedy in the starting rotation as long as he did and benching many well-battingleft-handed batters and replacing them in the lineup with less hit- savvy right-handed in an attempt to overpower the Mets' starting pitcher, Oliver Perez in a game on June 28. Despite all this, Girardi is sitting comfortably and securely with his managerial job, when in years past, if Joe Torre were still manager, one may question if he would still possess his job at all.

His managerial style aside, Joe Girardi has done well enough to keep his team where they are now, although his pitching staff has not been the best in the majors.

The team's pitching problems start with the recent injury to ace, Chien-Ming Wang. Wang has posted a 54-20 career record and an 8-2 record to start the season. He proved to be one of the Yanks' more reliable hurlers in the early-going, but due to his inter-league-suffered injury, he will be out until at least early September. 

If that's not enough, the Yankees' starters outside of Wang have combined for a record of 25-26 (not including recent acquisition, Sidney Ponson). And although Mike Mussina and Andy Pettite have been pleasantly dominant, the young Darrel Rasner and Joba Chamberlain are not developing fast enough to avoid the Yankees from falling to fifteenth in the majors in ERA, and eighteenth in runs aloud.

The Yankees' all-star lineup has also sputtered a bit thus far in the 2008 campaign, causing troubles for the team. Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano, and Melky Cabrera are all batting under .265 on the season, the latter two batting under .245. The team also remains at thirteenth in the majors in runs scored and fifteenth in home runs.

As the Yankees continue to try to reach their full potential, the clock continues to tick away for them to cath up with the productive Red Sox and Rays. And if they do fail to reach and pass the win total of the aforementioned clubs, their reign of dominance may be over for good.