As the American League East continues to become extremely competitive with the Boston Red Sox coming off another World Series victory and the Tampa Bay Rays finally turning into a very good franchise, the New York Yankees no longer have it easy in their division and are finding it increasingly difficult to compete even with their star studded lineup.
Although the Yankees have an all star in seemingly every position on the field with Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi, Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, Bobby Abreu and Andy Pettite for some reason the road back to being the most dominant team in baseball like they were a decade ago has not been as easy as their lineup appears it to be.
In the beginning of the season the Yankees were hit with a major blow, they lost Joe Torre to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now Torre was rumored to be on his way out because of the poor performance by the Yanks in last season's postseason, but nothing was set in stone and owner George Steinbrenner was said to have changed his mind about firing the coach that got him four World Series rings. Even though Torre was offered the position again, he felt it was time for a change and decided to go to Los Angeles to start over.
As a result the Yankees decided to go with former player and New York Yankee Joe Girardi. After the departure of Torre a lot of speculation was thrown around about the future of some of the more high profile players like Jorge Posada who was a free agent and Alex Rodriguez who opted out during the game 4 of the Boston Red Sox World Series. Fortunately, the two superstars decided to stay and signed huge contracts with the team.
Only five months into the season the Yankees have played fairly well despite the early injuries to Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and the season ending injury to Jorge Posada. As of right now they are in trouble though with the sudden emergence of good team out of Tampa Bay who looks to actually be favored to win the AL East which will absolutely rock the foundations of both the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees because of the enormous payrolls of their players and the extremely small payroll of the Tampa Bay Rays.
The way things are turning out even the defending World Series champion Red Sox will not make the postseason unless they can win the Wild Card. There is still a month and a half to go where anything can happen which was proven last year by the Red Sox's World Series opponent who literally did not stopping winning until they made to the World Series.
All and all, you can never count out the New York Yankees as year after year they always seem to find a way to win. Just something about those
Yankees jerseys , history has shown they won't stay down for long!
About the Author:
Jonathan Tucker, a fan of the New York Yankees, started the
Yankees jerseys website to help other fans support the team.