That Sinking Feeling

                "There seems to be resignation in the crowd," said Michael Kay on the YES broadcast tonight.  "This is odd," he continued.  "They're four runs down.  That's nothing.  It's the eighth inning and yet the crowd seems resigned."  Al Leiter chimed in.  "The thing they have to look out for Michael is the 'woe is me' factor.   I know it's tough.  I know they've had some bad breaks here, but you can't start getting down on yourself."  Michael Kay jumped back in.  "You know, every year in baseball it's like a crapshoot.  It seemed last year like the Yankees just drew the short straw, with all of the injuries they had.  Well, this year it seems to be more of the same."

            Okay.  So a few observations on that dialogue in the booth.  First of all, Al Leiter came off a lot more annoying than that reads.  I don't necessarily disagree with him as I reflect on his comments, but I think the thing that bugged me was his reference point.  He was talking about the team, which is appropriate.  But when broadcasters, particularly broadcasters who are former players, talk about the mindset of the team and staying positive, they sometimes have a tendency to project that onto the fans, analysts, and casual observers as well.  It's as if he's saying "Let's all not talk about that Michael, because we don't want to get in a losing mindset."  Dude, we're not playing the games.  We're sitting our fat *sses on the couch watching.  Our mindset isn't going to affect the game.  The fact is they are losing, so you have to look at why from a practical standpoint.  And the significant time that Jeter, Posada, and Allie have missed is a key reason.  It just is.

            So why else?  Well, you've got the reigning MVP on the DL, and when he wasn't on the DL he was hurting for about two weeks.  You've got the all-star starting catcher on the DL, and he's been hurting all year.  You've got Jeter hitting 40 points below his career average and in the middle of the second-longest homerless streak to open the season in his career.  And then, probably most striking, you've got two of the six lowest batting averages (with enough qualifying at-bats) in the entire major leagues in the starting lineup and playing every day.  That would be, of course, Messrs. Giambi and Cano.  Yeah, of the 195 major leaguers who qualify, Giambi is 190th and Cano is 194^th (second to last).  Thankfully, as of today at some point, Troy Tulowitzki had two more at-bats against his 16 hits.  The Yankee futility with runners in scoring position has been so well documented that I won't even go into it.  So what's real and what's imagined?  Jeter will bring his average up.  Cano and Giambi won't stay below .200 for long.  Especially Cano.  He'll rip off 4 hits one night and will be on his way.  The problem is that he'll probably need a garbage game against a bad team to do it.  These guys aren't going to take enough pressure off of themselves to bust out of it in a close game against a tough team.  And that's what we've got for a while.  Giambi won't stay below .200 just because it's hard to do.  But he's got one major roadblock that isn't going to go away.  In my mind, the biggest innovation in baseball of the last ten years, besides HGH, is the shift.  It's effective, it's deadly, and it just flat-out works.  Not that it was invented in the last ten years, but the proliferation of it is relatively recent.  Does anybody think that it's a coincidence that Jason Giambi, David Ortiz, Carlos Delgado, and Ryan Howard are all in the bottom ten in baseball in batting average?  The shift works.  And it doesn't just work.  It crushes a guy.  Take a look at any one of those guys' faces after they hit what would have been a clean base hit directly into the shift in short right field.  It's devastating.  All you need to do is watch the games to figure that out.  How many times does Giambi hit into that shift?  Constantly.  Dude, he needs to start bunting a bit.  Something to make the defense think.  They may get him out, but so what?  They'll get him out anyway if he hits into the shift, so what's the difference?  The guy has been hitting between .050 and .175 all year long.  What does he have to lose?  Will a defense continue to shift if he literally bunts four times in a row?  I don't know.  Let's find out.  Go practice, dude.  If teams don't start playing you more straight up, you are dead out there.  Dead.

            So essentially, you've got two of your best out, and then you've got two other guys who might as well be out.  Hence, the lineup doesn't score any runs, and there is no confidence in the stands.  In fairness to the fans, four runs is a lot.  And when you haven't had anything to cheer for offensively in a long time, you can't blame the fans for taking a defensive, I'll-believe-it-when-I-see-it stance.

            This is a unique position.  The Yankees, amazingly, have a better record that the Tigers.  But the Tigers, right now, are a vastly superior team.  The Yankees have lost the first two and will desperately try to avoid the sweep tomorrow.  And it will be desperate, because you-know-who is pitching.  And you know what?  Honestly, when I look at the two teams, I have to admit, that scenario looks about right to me.  The Tigers are simply the better team out there.  For now.

            Time2goJoe - great point.  I hadn't thought of that.  Hughes also said today that he can't see at night?  I really don't know which way is up anymore.  Jason from the Heartland, I saw you and J-Boogie moved.  I'll update my links shortly.  Good luck with the new sights.

            So.....one of these two kids has to win a game sometime.....don't they?