Top 5 - The "Real" Reasons the Yankees are in Last Place

I was in New York the past couple of days and the Yankee news pretty much dominated sports talk radio. There are a number of reasons why the Yankees are in last place in the AL East. Here is my take.

1. Their starting pitching has been banged up. They were counting on Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang and yes - Hot Carl Pavano. Of their top 4 starters - only Andy Pettitte has been able to give them 30 innings so far. In comparison - the Red Sox have been able to get well over 30 innings so far from all four of their top starters (Schilling, Beckett, Dice-K, and Wakefield). The Yankee problems mostly stem from the issues with the starting rotation.

2. The bullpen isn't that great to begin with and it has been overworked. The problems with Mariano Rivera have probably been over-blown. He'll be fine. The real problem is having to rely on the likes of Scott Proctor and Mike Myers who both have appeared in more games than anyone in the Red Sox bullpen.

3. The Red Sox - yup - the Red Sox are a big reason the Yankees are in last. If you take away the 6 games the Yankees played against Boston - then their record is 9-9. Nobody would be calling for Joe Torre's job if he was simply at .500 for the season. The Yankees ran into a scheduling problem which pitted them against the most balanced team in the AL at a time when the Sox were 100% healthy and the Yankees were banged up.

4. Joe Torre has to shoulder some of the blame. He's not a good technical manager. It used to be said about Bear Bryant that he could be yor'n with his'n and his'n with yor'n. Joe Torre's not that kind of manager. He can only beat yor'n if his'n are a collection of superstars. The Casey Jones of baseball managers. This isn't a knock against Torre - he is what he is.

5. George Bush. Its fashionable to blame Bush for every possible problem - so why not blame him for the Yankee woes too?