Festival of mediocrity

Maybe the Yankees are just a bad baseball team. Or, average at best.

Yes, their lineup is depleted, but most teams don't have Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada to begin with. They do more with less. Consider the Rays, who cleaned Andy Pettitte's clock tonight. They have one star - Carl Crawford - a couple good players - B.J. Upton and Carlos Pena - and a bunch of rookies a journeymen. The Rays pitch well and play good defense. They win. They're about to 10-0 at home in their last 10 games.

The Yankees don't pitch well, not consistently anyway, and it shows. They win one, lose one, win two, lose three, win one, lose two, win two. And their defense is sometimes suspect - with Robbie Cano's sometimes-I-don't-feel-like-it arm and Wilson "Stonehenge" Bettimit. Johnny Damon can cover ground in left, but he throws like a 3-year-old girl. Bobby Abreu is afraid of walls, Jason Giambi ... ick. Even Jose Molina, the greatest backup catcher in the history of baseball, is being exposed. He's now hitting .209 and it's affecting his defense. I feel as if I just pitched the lineup for "Major League IV: Now the Yankees suck."

It's said every team will go 60-60 in a season and it's important what a team does with the other 42 games. I wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees went 22-20 in those other 42 games. And I can guarantee that record will be anyone's fault but someone, or three someones, named Steinbrenner.