3....2....1.....0

The Yankees' steady decline in offensive output makes one wonder if something else is going on.

We used to reliably score about two runs a game, which means we could yield only one run to whomever we are playing, if we ever hoped to win a game.

This memorial day weekend has shown a worsening...... to a zero output yesterday.   The last game the Yankees won, our output was 1 hit ( Castro's 2 run homer).  It came late in the game , so all the fans stayed watching and listening as the Yankees remained a hairsbreadth away from being on the wrong side of a no hit humiliation.

But here is the thing:  we all know that, at some point, an athlete's skills begin to diminish.   At a later point, the skills diminishment accelerates until there, " just is no more gas left in the tank."  A fitness border is crossed, no matter how much oat bran and molasses an athlete consumes, how many reps he does in the gym, or how impressive the distances covered running up hills in New Jersey might seem.

At some point, age will catch up and everyone's reflexes slow by micro seconds, arm strength notches down, speed afoot slows, and the raw kinetic energy generated by the bat connecting with the ball is reduced.  Those home runs, once 18 rows deep into the left field seats, become balls caught at the wall.  Throws to the plate on medium flies to right field consistently are six inches off target, or a breath late arriving, and word gets around that, " you can run on him."

The Yankees are a team of mature and aging ballplayers.  Is it possible that the skills of all of them are entering the, " accelerating diminishment," phase at the same time?

 Tex drilled a shot to right yesterday which, off the bat, looked gone on tv.  It was caught at the wall.  Everyone seems to run on Ellsbury, including a dude who scored from first on a single to center. Jacoby is working so hard, sometimes, to get position on a fly ball that he is mis-timing it, and committing errors he never used to make.  Carlos's throws home from right field are lame and often 1-2 feet off the plate when they do arrive.

Look at all the old guys. And include Gardener and Jacoby in that group.  People decline at different times and at different rates, but the Yankees are not getting what they expect from either of the two I just mentioned.  Gary is hitting .212 and it is only June 12.  Jacoby is hitting enough singles to bat  about .267....a totally average performance for most anyone. Tex is hitting under .200 with no power.  He is playing hurt.  Our next best choice at first is either Austine Romine or Nick Swisher.  McCann just came off a 0-24 steak with a meaningless, late homer that did not impact the outcome of the game.  A-Rod is now only facing lefties, and remains hitless in his last eight appearances. Headley, while not old, has caught the malaise and is beginning to seem, more and more, like another mistake in talent evaluation by Cashman and Co.

Baseball can be ironic sometimes.  Here we have been worrying about our starting pitching, but it has, all along, been the toothless offense that is our albatross.

And no one in the organization pays the price.  The responsible people get to complain loudly in the press, as if that changes anything.  Just as in the financial crisis;  no one goes to jail.  No one is fired.  Incompetence is rewarded.

That's what the Yankees have become.

Nothing is the adjective that comes to mind.  Nothing.