Are the Yankees really in trouble?

First, as an Orioles fan I have to say I have no idea how they've been able to do this all season - smoke & mirrors and Buck Showalter.

Second, is the Yankees lineup really that great (even when everyone is back)?

C - Russell Martin is hitting .199
1b - Mark Teixeira is now 32 and is following up seasons of .256 and .248 with .255. And for the 3rd straight season has a slugging % under .500.
2b - Robinson Cano. OK, he's very good.
3b - A-Rod. Not the old A-Rod numbers, but 275/356/447 is pretty good. But he is 36, so dropoff is expected (if you aren't using PEDs).
ss - Jeter. I'll give him credit, after a crappy June he really picked it up. But he's also 38.
OF - Curtis Granderson - 34 HR but .234 BA and .326 OBP.
OF - Nick Swisher - Pretty solid at 269/353/476, but 269 would be the second-highest BA of his career.
OF - Ibanez/Ichiro/Jones. 40, 38, 35. Those are the ages. 301, 301, 284. Those are their on-base percentages.

Seriously, is it *that* scary of a lineup?

 

The Yankee offense is home runs and the walks generated by the fear of home runs. A-Rod's absence and Teixeira's decline make that offense less viable than it was.

 

And that's why building a 10-game lead was amazing in its own right. Assuming Cano doesn't play today, four of the top five hitters won't be in the lineup. Swisher's great when he's your sixth-best hitter. Not your second. And when Ibanez becomes your Number 3, I don't know how you can think that team can be successful.

 

Easy to build a 10-game lead when the division is the most depressed it's been in years.
No disrespect to the Orioles, who deserve their credit and have earned where they are at.
The Yankees' problem right now is both the offense and the pitching are stuck in neutral.
To have both fail at the same time is a new problem for them.

 

Absolutely not. They'll get Teixeira and A-Rod back in the lineup. They'll get Sabathia back on the mound. They'll win the division or at least a wild card spot.

Having said that, I must point out their starting lineup on Friday (including pitcher) had a collective 2012 salary of $89 million. The Orioles' lineup checked in south of $40 million. So I'm not going to spend too much time lamenting the Yankees' unspeakable misfortune.

 

And the inevitable salary comparison post finally makes its presence ...

 

Who is the tard in the avatar?

 

It's Shelden Cooper from Big Bang Theory. What does that have to do with this thread, though?

 

I think you have to throw out the Orioles' negative run differential at this point. The games that generated that number are in the past, and time is running out for the O's to regress to their pythagorean. As long as they're winning close games, they're for real.

 

Somewhere, Earl Weaver is laughing.

 

Plus, that number has shrunk from around -50 to -19 in the last two weeks. A lot of those ugly losses came when Markakis was out of the lineup and Reynolds stunk, and the O's were trotting out guys like Hunter and Matusz on a daily basis. That rotation seems pretty solid now. Tillman has stabilized (but may be hurt); Britton has looked fantastic and he's fresh considering he's missed half a season; they're getting Hammel back; Miguel Gonzalez has been nails; Saunders will probably be up and down. If the O's can get more of these starts going into the seventh and eighth to save that bullpen, they'll be around for the long haul.