New York Yankees: Why the Yankees' Losing Streak Is Nothing to Be Worried About

Currently, the New York Yankees own a 20-18 record. It is true that the team has struggled tremendously over this last week, going 1-5. Everyone can continue overreacting if they wish. All of the critics need to keep in mind the fact that the Yankees have only played 38 games. That is less than a quarter of the season that is in the books.

Sure, I suppose you could make a counterargument that the Yankees could screw up even worse with more fatigue. This could become true, but the Yankees almost always heat it up during the summer months.

Take a look at 2009, for example. This is a year in which the Bombers eventually went on to win the World Series. There is nothing at fault in this year, a year in which the Yankees even went 103-59, which was the complete opposite of the 59-103 Washington Nationals (I just think that is funny).

Every fan and team, for that matter, has a goal of winning the World Series at the end of the year. Whether the team has an amazing 103-win season is beside the fact. At this time in 2009, the Yankees had a 21-17 record, which is just one game better than this season's record. That is really no difference in record between the 2011 New York Yankees and the 2009 New York Yankees.

The reason I am comparing these two years is mainly that both teams had the same number of losses in their losing streaks. The 2009 Yankees had a five-game losing streak from May 2-7. I get it—that losing streak is a little more than a week before where we are in the season right now. But that is close enough to compare, as there is about a 10-game difference in games played between both teams.

After this five-game losing streak of the 2009 Yankees, there was a nine-game winning streak that came up four games after.

I think that the same thing could happen with the 2011 Yanks. Next week, the Yankees are playing the Toronto Blue Jays at home, are on the road against the Seattle Mariners, are on the road against the Oakland Athletics and are on the road against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

All of these upcoming series are winnable, and even though the Yankees might not sweep all, if any, of these teams, they can certainly win all of those series. The team will even have a shot to snag a series from the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets during this week.

Let me warn you, though: Do not, and I repeat, do not get frustrated if the Yankees drop two against the Tampa Bay Rays and possibly split with the Orioles. I am projecting that the Bombers will lose Monday night with A.J. Burnett on the hill against David Price. I will even go on to say that the Yankees are expected to lose Game 2 with the matchup being Ivan Nova v. James Shields. The Yankees are definitely long shots to take the second game.

So please, do not say the New York Yankees are not going to the playoffs just because they had one bad weekend. It happens to everyone, even the amazing 2009 Yanks. This sport is baseball, not basketball or football, where there are 82 and 16 games played respectively. You need to treat the game like baseball and wait until July, or around the trading deadline, before you start criticizing teams like the Yankees.