Yankees are best team in baseball. The only problem? It's June 3.

One key to life is knowing when you got it good... because, as every practicing fan knows - it won't last. 

So it goes with the '24 Yankees. We now possess MLB's best record, three up on Baltimore - (still the team to beat) - with Gerrit Cole's return maybe weeks away and an emerging Jasson Domiguez, raking - (.333 with 4 HRs in 51 ABs) - on rehab in the minors. 

It won't get better - which raises an existential question: Will we blow it... again? 

We face parallels, terrifying  omens, with 2022, when we washed ashore at the disastrous Aug. 1 trade deadline. Two years ago, a splotch of woeful deals kicked this team in its balls. The feeling still persists.

Then: The team was running away in the AL East despite an open sore in LF named Joey Gallo. Eventually, we traded him to LA for a lottery ticket named Clayton Beeter (now injured). Gallo briefly revived with the Dodgers, then returned to his uppercut malaise. (He's currently hitting a sad .141 with 4 HRs for Washington.) We went with a pile of players - Oswaldo Cabrera, Harrison Bader, Aaron Hicks -none who succeeded.  

Now: The team is in first despite growing concerns at 1B, where Anthony Rizzo has gone stone cold. Over the last 30 days, he's hitting .219 - with the second lowest OPS (.571) in the AL among first basemen. His fielding seems to have degraded. MLB is full of expensive, underwhelming first basemen, which opposing GMs would love to send to the Yankees for a workable prospect. In a nutshell, be afraid.

Then: Giancarlo Stanton was hitting HRs - (he'd finish with 31) - but was increasingly marginalized because of his inability to play the field.

Now: Giancarlo Stanton is hitting HRs - (he has 14, projected to hit 37) - but is totally marginalized because of his inability to run.

Then: An unexpectedly bad Josh Donaldson was stumbling and fumbling, with the YES team constantly assuring us he was coming around. He never did.

Now: Gleyber Torres cannot seem to get his act together. He's hitting .230 with 4 HRs and a series of on field blunders worthy of the Savannah Bananas. 

Then: Defying the laws of random sequence, every deadline deal Brian Cashman made blew up in our noses. (It should be noted that none of the prospects we dealt away became a big star; but that simply might free up the GM to... dear God...) 

Now: Will he attempt to restructure the bullpen and infield? And this time, will we give away the future? If you continually trade away the seed corn, eventually, you hit a famine. 

I know what you're thinking: Jeeze, Duque, be happy, for once. The Yanks just shredded the AL West - on a road trip, no less. They have baseball's best pitcher rehabbing, and maybe the game's best young pitcher leading the rotation. On a day devoted to Lou Gehrig, you could argue that we have the modern equivalent of Ruth and Gehrig - Judge and Soto. For God sake, cheer up. Because this can all go poof in one outfield collision. 

Yeah, that's it, eh? Celebrate while we can. But as a practicing fan, never let down your guard. Beat your chest, and the juju gods will take notice. That's when Judge will step into a wall. We're four months from October, a long hard slog. We might be peaking. It might never get better than what we just saw. Be happy. But don't let your guard down.