Yankees: It’s time to separate the men from the boys

The Yankees, along with the rest of baseball view the Fourth of July and the All-Star break as a time to sort out what you have and what you don’t have. And for the first time, you might take a closer look at the standings to determine if you are a player – or not. Here’s how things shape at the halfway point of the 2017 season.

As play began today, the Yankees, according to the standings are 2.5 games behind the division-leading Boston Red Sox in the AL East and they hold the same advantage over all other teams in the race for the Wild Card.

They have excelled, propelled, and then, deaccelerated, almost to the point of alarm, but they have held on. With the shuttle from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and the Bronx in full play, the team has reached into the depths of their organization, and in almost cases, the results have been good as the Yankees continue to make the best of a rash of injuries that have afflicted the team.

This team is not going away. It’s only a matter of how far they are going

Moving forward, it isn’t as complicated as it might seem. For the Yankees to stay in contention, they need to stay close to the Red Sox while keeping themselves away from the pesky Tampa Bay Rays.

The Boston Red Sox

This team is not going away. They have too much talent, and with just one move to fortify their starting rotation, they are poised to finish at the top of the AL East.

Having said that, the Yankees will need to look to their head to head matchups as a way, and possibly the only way, to catch them.

Chris Sale is everything he was advertised to be and David Price, despite his recent snitty-fits that continue to irk his manager, teammates, and ownership, is still David Price, providing the Red Sox with the one-two punch the Yankees have lacked in their starting rotation.

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Packed with a lineup that regardless what anyone says does not miss David Ortiz, the Sox have a Rookie of the Year candidate who is ready to challenge Aaron Judge for the title, in Andrew Benintendi, plus Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Hanley Ramirez that is bound to score more runs than they have to date.

Their problem, much like the Yankees, is having to rely on the pretender to the CY Young of last season, Rick Porcello, and nobody behind him to solidify a suspect rotation.

One of the two teams is going to win the race to get that major league proven starter in the next couple of weeks, along with the Astros who have the same need. Whoever wins automatically gets a leg up in the race to wire.

Tampa Bay Rays

This team never seems to go away. They are like the pesky weeds that insist on growing in my flower beds. They are not like either the Red Sox or Yankees in that they do not begin a season with the intention of winning a World Championship.

They exist in a tenuous market for baseball with (still) one of the lowest payrolls. And until either ownership or the metroplex of Tampa-St.Pete springs for state of the art indoor theater to house their games, they are doomed to be the also ran they are.

Having said that, though, they are poised to present problems for any team they play with a pitching staff led by Chris Archer and an awakening Alex Cobb; they will compete in every game they play.

Plus, they can score runs, currently ranking eighth in the majors, even ahead of Boston who is in the thirteenth spot (Yankees are second only to the Astros).

For the Rays, it also comes down to the next couple of weeks when they decide whether or not to be sellers in a market that covets pitching. Archer and Cobb will both command attention if the Rays decide to build for the future, but neither will negate the fact that this remains a second-rate franchise in a league that waits for no one.

Halfway home and livin’ on a prayer

Jon Bon Jovi has little in common with the Yankees except for the lyric he drew up for a song that mirrors the team’s future this season.

The Yankees are indeed halfway home in a season that continues to surprise and fortify the Yankee faithful. Six games over .500 are not the twelve they once had. But then again, this may not be a team that was meant to be that good in 2017.

But you take what you have, looking at all the rest, and you say to yourself, “Know what, we can do this.”

Yankees History: Five memorable Fourth of July moments

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And with the influx of young talent and the prospective return of players like CC Sabathia (as early as this Tuesday), Matt Holliday, and their All-Star (I say so) second baseman, Starlin Castro, this team, like the Red Sox, is not going away.

And it’s only a matter of how far they are going.