Turn Out The Lights

During a Monday Night Football game many years, Dandy Don Meredith began to sing, "turn out the lights the party's over", after a drive killing interception sealed the outcome. Well, with news of the elbow tear in Masahiro Tanaka's pitching arm, it's time to turn out the lights for the 2014 New York Yankee season.

With one remaining pitcher in the starting rotation that began the season, there is no way they have a legitimate shot at winning the American League Eastern Division, particularly with their offense. Any thoughts by Brian Cashman to trade young players or prospects for a 30-something pitcher should immediately be forgotten because this team is done. 

If Cashman is smart (which he is not) he would shut Tanaka down for the season and play the kids. According to Cashman, Tanaka will rehab for 6 weeks which brings us to about August 21st. The Yankees will be out of it by then. Trading for Cliff Lee would be a complete mistake but is a typical Cashman move. If you look at the AL East, the Orioles are better than the Yankees and there will be only one team to make the playoffs this year as both wild card teams will probably come from the AL West.

There has been much made that it is in the Steinbrenner DNA not to give up and try to win. But, it was in the Steinbrenner DNA to hold people accountable and that no longer seems to be the case. While there is not much you can do about losing 4 out of your 5 starting pitchers, there is a lot that should have been done over the last ten years to build the farm system to have players in place to replace Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, etc. If the Yankee farm system is not as bad as everyone thinks (this is what the Yankees and their apologists in the NY media are saying), then the Yankees should forget this season and see what you have with the kids. It's what makes sense for the future because the present is a disaster.