Yankees: Let's stay calm. This is what a skid looks like

Of late, the Yankees are getting their butts kicked. They’ve dropped to second in the AL East. Worried? A little, but this is what a team skid looks like.

The Yankees were never as good as they were a month ago and they’re not as bad as they’ve looked in their last ten games or so. It’s baseball, and over the long haul of a season, the law of averages tend to take hold.

The Yankees no longer hold bragging rights to first place, trailing the Orioles, who haven’t been setting the world afire lately either, by a meager half-game in the standings. They still have the best run differential (+54) in the American League, and only three teams in the league have given up fewer runs.

Starlin Castro is still having a career season and is in the top ten in several offense categories. Gary Sanchez has returned to the lineup and is hitting .300 or better already. Aaron Judge is hitting .330 and still leading the league with fifteen home runs, including the bomb he hit yesterday in the Yankees 9-5 loss to Tampa Bay.

Slumping Chase Headley gets a day off and comes back with three hits. Jacoby Ellsbury continues his comeback season. And the Yankees continue to find ways of getting at-bats for Aaron Hicks, who is motivated to show why he is an everyday player in this league.

In sum, there is still a tremendous upside to the team the Yankees put on the field every night. The elephant in the room, though, is the starting pitching. What else is new?

Reading yesterday’s newspaper

From day one this season, Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi, Steve Contursi, and yourself have known that starting pitching would determine the fate of the Yankees. When they were on a roll, all five starters were breezing through six or seven innings, and the team was winning. Now, they’ve hit a stretch where getting through four innings is considered a masterpiece.

As with many things, somewhere in the middle lies the truth. Michael Pineda and Luis Severino are, and maybe always will be, as inconsistent as ever. Jordan Montgomery is still learning how to pitch in the big leagues and CC Sabathia, despite his brilliant outing in his last start, is not getting any younger. Nothing has changed. They are who they are, nothing more, nothing less.

Tanaka adjusted to baseball in America without any whining. But maybe it’s time for the Yankees to adjust to him.

But as we know, there’s another elephant in the room. And that’s Masahiro Tanaka, whose recent demise is not only a total surprise but one that is sounding a ringing alarm that is a cause for deep concern for Yankees brass and fans.

Where have you gone, Masahiro?

Something is wrong with Tanaka. And at this point, no one knows what it is. But whatever is wrong is either a physical or mental ailment. And from where I sit, you can throw the mental thing out the window immediately. Because no one is more mentally tough than the Japanese-bred Tanaka. He is a perfectionist who is no longer perfect.

But having said that, he is also a product of Japanese baseball and is used to pitching every sixth day and not the American norm of every fifth day. Tanaka adjusted to baseball in America without any whining. But maybe it’s time for the Yankees to adjust to him. The sabermetric guys could tell us in a second, but I just know, without “knowing” that Tanaka has been lights out when he’s he’s been afforded the opportunity to pitch with that extra day’s rest.

The sabermetric guys could tell us in a second, but I just know, without “knowing” that Tanaka has been lights out when he’s he’s been afforded the opportunity to pitch with that extra day’s rest.

And if it isn’t that, then it’s time for the Yankees to skip at least his next scheduled start, while utilizing the time to send him to a team of doctors for a thorough physical examination. And that’s about as close as the Yankees should get to pushing the panic button at the moment.

For the Yankees, the question remains the same

We’ve known all along that at some point in the season, the Yankees, and in particular, Brian Cashman was going to be faced with a decision regarding the team’s starting pitching if the Yankees were going to seriously contend for anything in 2017.

Again, nothing has changed. And it was just a week ago that I wrote a column titled, “Do the Yankees stick to the plan or go for #28?”, in which I outlined the choices the team has at its disposal.

Fortunately for the Yankees, they have more options than most other teams because of their depth in the minor leagues. But still, it comes down to a question of whether or not they dismantle some of that talent in the minors, going all in this season. Or wait it out with a hope and a prayer that they have at least enough pitching to get into the playoffs

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Or, do they wait it out with a hope and a prayer that the team has at least enough pitching to not only get into the playoffs but to make some noise when they get there?

The Yankees can make trades sacrificing a few prospects. They can promote from within by calling on someone like Chance Adams, Chad Green, Justus Sheffield, or perhaps even someone who is under the radar in the minors that Cashman has had his eyes on. Or, they can simply stand pat and hope for the best.

One way or another, and with the possible exception of the Tanaka thing, the recent skid the team is on should have no bearing on what the Yankees do or don’t do.

Because all we see now is baseball. Teams are like hitters, who sometimes see the pitch coming in looking as big as a beachball. While at other times, they inexplicably find themselves flailing at pitches in the dirt or two feet off the plate.

Yankees: Guess who made the cover of Sports Illustrated

The Yankees have a new Sports Illustrated cover boy. It's Aaron Judge who gets an honor rarely bestowed on an individual by the magazine. Good story too.

And that’s why my doctor’s orders for this Yankees team is to take two aspirin, drink water, and get plenty of rest. You’ll feel better tomorrow.

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Yankees: Let’s stay calm. This is what a skid looks like

By Steve Contursi | May 21, 2017