The stench in the AL East

Did The Monk nail this or what? Last Monday I said the Yanks stink even before they dipped under .500. Now, it's official: they're awful.

Here's the litany of suck: Randy Johnson, Moooooooooooose, Flash Gordon, Rivera, Posada, A-Rod, starting pitching (0 quality starts in the last nine games), the middle relief, Giambi, Williams, hitting with RISP. The Yanks' 'pen has more blown saves (3) than saves (2). Simply stated, this is the same team that coughed up the Greatest Choke Job Ever (tm) with some new faces. So Steinbrenner's rumbling is fully justified (as edited from this article):

Enough is enough. I am bitterly disappointed, as I am sure all Yankee fans are, by the lack of performance by our team. It is unbelievable to me that the highest paid team in baseball would start the season in such a deep funk.

They are not playing like true Yankees. They have the talent to win and they are not winning. I expect Joe Torre, his complete coaching staff and the team to turn this around.

The NY Post added the snarky comment that "as usual, The Boss said it was Joe Torre's mess to fix." Well who else's mess SHOULD it be? Torre is the highest-paid manager in baseball. His $19.2M/3 years contract is both a reflection of past achievements and a premium because he is a draw for top players (Carl Pavano, ARod, Clemens). The Boss is coughing up more than $200M for this collection of all-stars who are playing as stiffs and has-beens. The Yanks have 12 games to avoid their first sub-.500 April since 1997 and the talent to do so. Time to get the heads screwed on straight.

UPDATE and bump: For the trivia mopes, here are two pieces of uselessness. First, the last time the Yanks started 4-8 was 1991 during the dark days of the Stump Merrill no-talent regime (1989-1992). I figured that one out.

ESPN had this bit of worthlessness: The only time the Yanks ever started 4-8 and made the playoffs is 1977 . . . that team won the World Series. Uh, BFD: in 1997 the Yanks started off just as badly at 5-10 (same .333 winning percentage, three games further into the season) and . . . won 96 games and a berth in the ALDS. Thank you for playing.