Yankee Fan's Take: Let's Not Get Ahead of Ourselves

This is the reason why it's a great thing us New York fans don't run our teams. A week ago, I heard people from Queens saying they wanted to dump Jose Reyes and David Wright for prospects. Prospects! And with A-Rod, how many Yankee fans said they wished the Yanks could get out of that contract? One win doesn't mean we're there yet, and one loss doesn't mean the season is over. With Alex Rodriguez, this is a completely different team from the one that started the season.

What I'm more excited about is that A-Rod seems like a different player. He used to always fold under pressure, but look at when his two home runs have come. That first came when after being exposed as a steroid user and with all pressure on him, he slammed a big homer and this comes as a walk off shot to win an extra inning game against a quality team (I think the Twins will win that division). Did anyone realize that steroids or no steroids, this guy was the number one ranked prospect in America before his eighteenth birthday. So he didn't NEED the roids. He was just insecure. There is no reason to assume he won't put up his old numbers by year's end.

But I'm still worried, primarily because of the division we play in. The Blue Jays will be out of the race by July. Sorry, but I have difficulty trusting a staff that after Halladay has a 2-5 consisting of Scott Richmond, David Purcey, Rickey Romero and  Brett Cecil/Ricky Ray, and the bullpen might be the weakest in the division by year's end. And even though I love any outfield with Vernon Wells and Alex Rios, you have to assume Aaron Hill will slow down at which the question of who will produce will become evident. Baseball is a league of averages. A .300 hitter, steroids and age not being in the picture, will always hit between .280 and .320, and a 75 win team will always win, well, between 65 and 85 games. And the Blue Jays are a 75 win team. So forget about Toronto.

The Rays, however, will be right there, as they have the best hitter in the division in Evan Longoria, a classic 5 tool threat in Carl Crawford and Mr. October in B.J. Upton, not to mention a surplus of pitching, albeit no sure fire C.C. Sabthia type ace. However, for them to take the division, David Price will likely have to come up from the minors and have an immediate impact closing out games.

While I think the Yankees can definitely one up Tampa and take second place, a lot of things have to break right for us to be in the Red Sox's class. Their lineup is better than ours even with David Ortiz reverting, their bullpen is much (stress, much) better than ours, their defense is better, their manager is better and they are still two games ahead of us even though their starting rotation, which is perhaps the best in the AL, has been the worst in the league. I hate the Red Sox. I want to see them lose every game and be a laughing stock, and for my Yankees to win the world series ever year, but I'm a realist. 

The one reason we can potentially go out there, beat the Sox and advance to the series is because... yes BECAUSE of Alex Rodriguez and notorious slow starter Mark Texeira. That 3-4 is our x-factor. Derek Jeter is a great grinder, but is there any denying that Dustin Pedroira is better right now, and Jason Bay is much better than anything we have in the outfield. But together, A-Rod and Texeira are potentially, just potentially that amazing Manny/Ortiz combo with speed. We need them to be that if we will play October baseball, and if we have any shot to play late into October.