Nick,

Florida would manhandle any one of those three teams in a 7-game series.

Also, Simone, you’re right, in the recap for Friday Night’s game I meant to write JEtEr. That said, his defense on the season has not only been by far the best he’s played in his career (105 Rate, the first time he’s been in the black . . . ever), but is, count ‘em, 18 runs better (per 100 games) than E-Rod, who’s been by far the worst defender on the team all year acording to Rate, Bernie included.

And a small point, but at the time I was irate–why did RJ through that pitch to Reyes that he smacked early on? It was 0-2 and all I ever hear about Reyes is that he’ll fish after garbage. Why, then, doesn’t RJ get him to fish on a slider or two in the dirt instead of pounding him inside with heat?

Uhm. At what point does Johnson get his fastball back?

Agreed, jkay.

They definitely need a defensive upgrade in the OF or they have no chance of winning in the postseason.

As far as the offense, the runs scored is a little deceptive because of the many slugfests and drubbings. Such production can’t be relied upon in the postseason, of course, so it’s well to focus on manufacturing rather than slugging.

All I’m saying is I’d feel much more comfortable scoring fewer runs and being better-sutied to winning one-run ballgames, which entails flawless D.

The offense was ranked #1 in runs scored last I checked.

The starting pitching has come around nicely.
Moose, RJ and Pavano would be tough in a playoff series, not to mention a healthy Brown.

The pen is pretty solid these days. Gordon has regained his good form and Mo is sharp.

All that is left is the defense which is horrid at times. Another outfielder would go a long way to fixing the D. Womack/Bernie are not the answer. They need some new blood out there and they might have to wait for the trade deadline to get help.

When you add it up, they are close to championship calaber now and getting a decent fielding OF will bring them much closer.

Sure it’s upsetting to see Matsui hit a ground ball instead of a double, but sometimes that’s all it takes. If Boone and Giambi had managed to put the bat on the ball when it counted back in 2003 they well could have beaten those Floridas.

So perhaps I’m wrong, maybe the Yanks really can win, lapses and all.

Of course, if this is the case, then it’s a sad commentary on the state of the game that a championship-caliber team is capable of and can get away with abysmally sloppy play with such frequency.

You’re right, of course, except that you’re not.

This is not a championship-caliber team. It’s looking like the sloppiness is part of the package and not just aberration. They can’t slug up for their sloppiness in October. (I coined a phrase, there, ‘slug up’ for ‘make up’. Nice, right?)

It is great that Mo seems to be out of his funk. I agree wtih singledd, when Mo goes through his inevitable final decline, it will be the greatest loss to the Yankees organization.