ESPN is devoting a three-part series to the Dust Bowl that is the Yankee farm system, but will anything really change?

The first installment of ESPN's Trilogy of Tears on the Yankee farm system ran yesterday. It basically rewrites what River Ave, Lohud, and every prospect-rating clipboard in captivity has been saying for a year: We are soooo screwed.

One scoop: The story suggests the Yankees are ready to pull the plug on Manny Banuelos as a starter and send him to the bullpen, if he pitches well this spring. (Yes, Virginia, there IS another Joba Chamberlain! You never have enough Jobas, am I right?) And the story quotes Brian Cashman liberally. In discussing the Yankee system, the GM sounds amazingly like Barack Obama announcing the roll-out website for Affordable Health Care.

"It's not as good as we need it to be in terms of results," Yankees GM Brian Cashman said when asked if it was fair to characterize his farm system as a bust. "There are a number of reasons behind that. At the end of the day, we've had some misses, without a doubt. We've had some guys who didn't make their projections, who failed to cross the finish line. So basically it's fair to criticize where we're currently sitting."

From then on, the story goes into familiar territory - a recap of every disastrous first round pick from Andrew Brackman to the pitcher two years ago who needed double A-Rod hip surgery after about five starts. It picks on Cito Culver - (I am officially a Cito supporter, FWIW)  - and says flatly that he will never hit. (HE WILL, DAMMIT!) But today, I suspect as part of the deal in getting Cashman on the record, ESPN publishes Part II, which is strangely titled: "How the Yankees are planning world domination in 2014."

Huh?

Listen: I can't critique a piece I haven't read. But the title sounds suspiciously like a healing, puffy, Hallmark Movie of the Week story, designed to assure everybody that - "Yes, although Mr. Madoff had some questionable past dealings, he's aware of the problems and promises your pension funds are safe and secure!"

I don't know how the Yankees are planning world domination in 2014. But I thought they were also planning it in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. I must have been wrong. They weren't. Apparently, somebody said, "Hal, Hank, Cash, I got an idea: World domination!" Maybe they are changing their ways, although $500 million in free agent long term contracts does not suggest too much movement in a new direction.

Disclaimer: Of course the Yankee brass knows more about baseball than I do. And nearly all bloggers, for that matter. Yes, yes, of course, I accept this. But there are many baseball minds out there in the game - young and hungry assistant executives, who have either built teams in places like St. Louis and Texas, or are building them in other cities. The Yankees have not only failed to scout 17 year olds. They've failed to look for management.

It amazes me how the Yankees have no problems bringing in three OF (Soriano, Beltran, Ellsbury) - in essence, making Brett Gardner a fifth wheel. But when it comes to replacing anybody in the front office, they're all untouchable - like Jeter and Mo? Amazing.

This winter, nobody in the Yankee brain trust lost his job, except for a relatively low-level strength coach. (God knows the inside story behind that one.) So now, we're told that Cashman has identified the problem: Lack of success in the farm system! Great. Just great. Why do we, as Yankee fans, sit in wonderment, year after year, over the differences between the Redsocks and Yankee systems? This isn't something that cropped up last fall. It's gone on for a decade. If the problems in Obama's heath care roll out continued for 10 years, do you think the Democrats would still be in power?

In part I, ESPN does a fine job. In part II, I'm sure they do diligence. But I wonder if they traded their knife edge for a few rinky-dink Cashman quotes. I hope not. Because it's time for the Yankiverse to start publicly and angrily questioning the future of this franchise. I don't know how a franchise revolution happens. I don't even know if such a thing can happen with a baseball team. But this lineup is so old, so brittle, and so unbalanced that even after $500 million, it's still just a hamstring away from a complete 2014 meltdown.

Yes, folks, we are perilously close to disaster.

And if that happens, Yankee fans are going to have to take to the streets. We will need to boo, to belch and to boycott the team that has owned our lifelong passions. Things must change from the top to the bottom. Otherwise, next winter, we'll be reading another trilogy of tears.