The Wild Card Team

That is what the Yankees now are.  A team who will fight , scrape and grind ( Aaron's adjective for 2020) to qualify for, and often win, the wild card game.  It's ticket to the real playoff rounds. 

But that is all we have.  And that is all we achieve any more. We lie dead in the grave before the games against the good teams begin.

The Yankees continue to be a patchwork team.  A few, rare, young players of quality. An aging group that muddles on, and on and on. And it is usually the most expensive old living room anyone can buy

A team that, each year, adds a $300 million part.  But by the time we have enough of those, the $300 million parts that originally formed the base of the " championship" pyramid are now aging out, slowing down and striking out.

We have a GM that is part of the furniture now.  Ownership is realty not interested.  The money is flowing in just fine. 

Until, and unless, one of the grand-children reaches maturity , with a George Steinbrenner fire in his belly,  we cannot expect any changes. Other than , " more of the same."  We should each write up the rhetoric that will soon flow about how the Yankees are one swing away from their 28th championship. 

Look for the biggest hole we have in the line-up, identify an available "super star" at that position who has had a few peak performance years, and we'll offer maybe $400 million for 7 years. 

And we'll sit back and wait for the championship to be awarded. The tea is served, gentlemen. 

The truth is;  all four of the teams still playing ( including the cheaters ) are loaded with better baseball players than we have. Those teams are young and full of energy. Atlanta pitched three...maybe four...shut-outs to get where they are. The Dodgers can hit anybody.

The Yankees are weak at catcher, have an aging centerfielder who never hits .250, a streaky home run hitter in right, a second baseman who is better at both second and first than anyone on the team, a shortstop who is a lousy fielder, an aging veteran in left who is still more dependable than any replacement on the team, and about three people who can pitch. 

So we will trade for another bunch of average players, give no real shot to anyone in our own system, embarrass our best young pitching prospect in a decade, and go with the old tired closer.

As long as we play the dregs of the league, we can look much better than we are.  But put us up against quality pitching and we shut down.  Tampa hit more homers in the playoffs than the Yankees. And that is our mirage strength.

Announcers love to gush over the distance of Giancarlo's meaningless hits. 

The Yankees are in the grave.  Buried with Whitey.  Nothing changes.