"The time has come," the Walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of Babes and Pipps, and Stephen Sax, Of Overbays and Chien-Mings, and why this team is walking dead, and Blue Jays don’t win rings."

Everybody gather 'round. You better sit down, kids.

Remember those dire predictions from last spring? The doomsday screamers? The rants about how the Steinboys wanted to cut payroll more than win? We'd let Swisher, Russell Martin and Rafael Soriano walk, then passed on big free agents and international signings? We looked like a terrible team, the worst in 20 years. Remember?

We hoped we were wrong. We weren't. The Evil Empire is as rotten as advertised, slipping more by the day. Baltimore didn't just sweep us. It humiliated us. Their eighth man in the batter order is better than our cleanup hitter. If we played them 10 times, we'd be lucky to win two. Comparing the lineups was embarrassing. We should be playing their International League team.

Tonight, we begin four against Minnesota, one of MLB's worst clubs. Who doesn't expect to lose three?

Help? It's not on the way. The Yankees couldn't even welcome a hopeful tweet from A-Rod without creating a back page controversy. We can foresee yet another Yankee Horror Trifecta: we pay his salary, trade him for nothing, and then he hits again. The farm system? Forget it. Yesterday, Michael Pineda got hammered in Double A Trenton, and Jose Ramirez - the fast-rising star - was cuffed around at Scranton. Two days ago, that DePaula kid we've been touting - our lone candidate in the Futures Game - got battered in Single A. (In the past, this is often a prelude to the announcement that a kid needs Tommy John surgery.) None of our hyped position prospects is having a good season, and nobody broke out to replace them. We are on the verge of cutting a deal for the likes of Michael Young - and in the name of Xavier Nady, does anybody not expect to get our pockets picked?

We could be down for three years. Think 2016.

Nevertheless, this collapse is camouflaged by the new expanded playoff system. For all our failings, we are only four games off the wildcard - that one-game season that Bud Selig installed to increase revenues. (Everything he does is to increase revenues.) We are still in the hunt.

But... what should we want? Nobody wants to root against the Yankees (though I've gotten to the point where a base hit from Vernon Wells merely means we must endure another week of him.) But a 10-game losing streak - a collapse that gives Cashman the mandate to start thinking of 2014 - it would be humane. What is the point of hoping for Travis Hafner to break out? He hit .228 last year. He's now hitting .223. Are we thinking he's going to raise his average by five points?

This is a team from the late 1980s. That was a 14-year barf, because we told ourselves we were always a player or two from changing it around. The Redsocks last season swallowed the bitter elixir. Do we have the guts to follow?