Glass Half-Full! (Of Hemlock)

 

All right, guys. Even though it goes against every fiber of my being, and threatens to provoke the juju entities—

(Clearly visible, incidentally, in those pictures from the new space telescope, the little bastards!)

—Here is my "Glass Half Full (Of Hemlock) report:

—Sure, your New York Yankees often go through inning after inning compiling at-bats like a team full of Stephen Drews.

Nonetheless, even while dropping 4 of their last 5, they managed to score 27 runs in that stretch–or 5.4 a game, which ain't nuthin'. 

Those games were lost in good part because of foolish running and fielding mistakes—more a sign of first- half fatigue, over a punishing schedule, than any innate problems.

—These Yankees are highly frustrating because they're in every game. So are most winning teams.

I hate to admit this, but I remember wailing, gnashing my teeth, and rending garments even over the 1998 Yankees, the Greatest Team That Ever Was (Well, not so much rending garments. Polyester don't grow on trees! Literally!).  

It seemed to me, at the time, that they lost so many close games. And of course they did—because they were always in it. 

A lesser Yankees team than this gets mashed up in Boston. And doesn't come back against the Reds these last two nights. It's agonizing to watch, I know—and the ungodly pace of these contests doesn't help any—but you gotta be in it to win it, and the luck will turn toward them again.

—The rest of our division has to play with itself. Ahem. What I mean is, the AL East is a very tough neighborhood...and a great one to have a 13-game lead in. 

Thanks to the abnormally late All-Star Game, almost 60 percent of the season will be gone by the time serious play resumes. Almost half of the remaining games will be against division rivals. That means that the BJs, the TB Rays, the suddenly revived Orioles, and the Carmine Hose will all be bashing each other for much of the remainder.

Hard for any one of those squads to make much headway, even if we have disastrous series against them. As our Peerless Leader noted, the BoSox went from their gleeful, last two games at Fenway against us...to losing 4 straight to an injury-racked TB team.  

We're gonna have to work hard to lose this division.

—As previously stated by our compadres, better this nose dive now than in September. Among other things, it might just convince The Brain that he can't get away with keeping Joey, Joey on the team, hoping he will miraculously revive. 

And even Cooperstown Cashman MUST understand that, after the events of the last week, he has to find some way to upgrade the pitching. (The other, much more ominous factor that let us down in Hell Hope Week.)

Yes, that will mean giving away the farm. But as ZachA has demonstrated, and judging from the trade results of the last 5 years, "the farm" is likely inhabited wholly by two-headed calves, sick chickens, and stud hosses ready for the glue factory. 

I'd trust my 92-year-old, vodka-swilling aunt more to make a big, important stretch deal than Brian Cashman. But rest assured: most likely, his organization has already so ruined most of its "prospects" that we won't hear much from them again.

There.  Feel better?

Well, don't.  Because as I've written before, all that hanging onto the division title will get us is another big fat let down in October.  

But for now, let's just put on some Frank, and enjoy the summer wind...

Like painted kites

Those days and nights

Went flyin' by

The world was new

Beneath a bright blue

Umbrella sky...