42 Games in 47 Days

Welcome to The Pennant Chase, and what an appropriate time for our first post. The Yankees have their backs to the wall and are certainly in a "must win" mentality for this month and a half.

With 42 games left in the season and the Yankees 5 back in the wild card and 8 in the division, you have to believe that 92 wins is probably the benchmark the Yankees will need to take the wild card. That being said, with their current 64-56 record the Yankees need to play .667 ball, or go 28-14 in the final stretch.

That starts today with an afternoon game versus Minnesota. I like the lineup we have today, even/especially (gasp!) with Jeter out of the lineup. Damon, Abreu, A-Rod, Giambi and Nady are a solid top 5 of the order that should get on base, put the ball in play with some pop, and keep the pitcher on his toes. And our final 4 of Cano, Pudge, Betemit and Melky are a bottom four that most (not necessarily me) teams would kill for. The problem here is the arm we've got on the hill. Rasner has several guarantees on the day he pitches and they include: <6 innings, an overworked bullpen, the YES Network receiving their lowest ratings of the week, and a loss in the standings.

Now as for the rest of the season's lineup assuming Jeter comes back quick, here is how I would do it, and I expect about a million Jeter lovers to vehemently disagree, pout and slam their keyboards. Damon, Nady, Abreu, A-Rod, Giambi, Cano, Jeter, Pudge and Christian. We NEED people on base, and Jeter is killing us at the top of the order. With that lineup those first 5 batters have OBP's close to .400. With Jeter mixed into the late middle to bottom order of the lineup I think that would be just what we need to wake up the whole roster and wake up the sleeping monster that is the Yankees' lineup. And Melky obviously needs to sit. Christian is not much better, but I don't think we have the expectation that he will be. Christian will be better in the outfield, and when he gets on base it's a guaranteed RISP situation with his speed, for someone like Damon and Nady to pick the team up with.

As far as pitching goes, the Yankees are going to need to start winning games by 5 or 6 runs, where my change in lineup proposal comes in. With the little time we have left, quality starts by Ponson and Moose can not be put to waste, and that can not only be helped by the lineup but also the bullpen. Night after night when the bullpen is either trying to stop the bleeding on a 1 or 2 run defecit, trying to preserve a tie, or hold on to a slim 1 or 2 run lead, you can see how that pressure is going to wear. Imagine every night going into the 7th or 8th inning, and the offense NEEDS to score 6 runs to win the game, this is the type of pressure the bullpen is imposed with because of the anemic offense.

It is not going to be an easy task to win 2/3 of the games, but I think a lineup change is the first thing we need to take a step in the right direction. I don't dislike Jeter, I just go off of performance so far this season and I think that is the optimal set of players to score runs. Girardi needs to man up and start showing he is the manager, make some moves, make some noise, and prove to fans like us that they don't want to party like it's 1993.