Torre, Girardi and now Boone: It is the way of Yankee managers to kill their bullpens

Listen: August is always a bitch. The algae blooms spread, the nights turn cold, and the fall elections drive a spike into your heart, where you once held a few shards of hope. The Yankees seem to play every day - (not today, though) - to make up for April washouts, and five months into the maw, the grind takes its toll. Right now, we seem to lose a player every day, and the nine-man order that crushed pitchers last May is a distant memory.

Imagine our lineup if Giancarlo tweaks a gonad playing right field in Miami. Who bats third... Shane Robinson? 

In 11 days, the rosters will expand almost infinitely, and Shane the Bane will become a pinch-runner. But August still has plenty of time to waterboard us, and - for now - our once proud bullpen looks like the leak that sinks this ship.

To the top-right are stats for the last 30 days, and if you seek hope in the bullpen, it is Dellin and duh. (And the other day, he surrendered a HR, so keep your fingers crossed.) Once again, we see a Yankee bullpen limping toward September and a manager with no options other than to send out the dead.

Before the July 31 trade deadline, the Yankees dealt Cody Carroll, Giovanny Gallegos, Chasen Shreve, Caleb Frare and Adam Warren. Of that group, Carroll seems to have the highest ceiling, but the loss of Shreve and Warren brought immediate consequences. (Though, frankly, I can't blame the problem on the loss of either; both were spotty at best.)

We are starting to wonder if Chad Green and Johnathan Holder have simply been pitched out. Over the first five months, Aaron Boone used them like Post-It notes. Tommy Kahnle's fastball went south in April, and it may never return. We have a rotation for which five innings is a "quality start," which means somebody, anybody, must provide the "bridge" to our "closers" - two of which, Zach Britton and El Chapo - have proven themselves capable of blowing any lead. 

In fantasy land, we imagine an October featuring the Britton, Chapman, Robertson and Betances of 2015. In reality, we'll see George Kontos. And here's the crazy part: Whomever is pitching well - the name won't matter - Boone will use him until the arm falls off. That's what Yankee managers do.