State of the Yankees

The Yankees have had a disappointing second half of play so far and are in the midst of falling to their largest division lead of the season to the Red Sox.  Aaron Judge has been striking out extremely often, as his teammates have been the heroes as of late, specifically Didi Gregarious and recently returned Aaron Hicks. Catcher Gary Sanchez has hit for power lately but has been in hot water for all the interference calls which is the reason he was benched by Joe Girardi a little bit ago. They continue to fail with runners in scoring position as this has been a significant problem all season long with no progress made. While the lead is still only five and a half games behind the red hot Red Sox, the best bet for New York is to settle for one of the two wild card positions which they currently own the top spot in front of the Angels. 

The pitching rotation has also been a bit of a nightmare for the Yankees with the injury bug catching up to them finally. CC Sabathia is on the disabled list, along with Tanaka and Pineda who will be out for the rest of the year and a majority of next season as well. Sonny Gray and Jaime Garcia have done a decent job but the run support has not been there for either pitcher. They should really delve into the farm system and correct that problem as best they can, either by call-up or seeing who is available on the waiver wire which the deadline is this month. The Yankees have one of the top three farm systems in the league so giving a few of the prospects some major league experience could provide a helping hand for the club.

Joe Girardi, has been shuffling the batting order quite a bit as of late which does not help the hitters as they have been put in various spots in the order. Ronald Torreyes has done a good job for the back end, filling in for Starlin Castro who been on the disabled list quite a bit this season. While Castro is still young, the fact that he has not been healthy should show that Torreyes should be kept on the team as he gotten on base and drove in runs often for the team. Some may say that it could be time for Girardi to be let go as manager, but the truth of the matter is that injuries and that the hitters have not lived up to their potential is not all completely his fault. Some of the blame could be put on both the hitting coaches and pitching staff, as they clearly have not provided the answers against opposing teams.