Yankees Hal Steinbrenner Still Doesn’t Get It

Well, hello there everybody. Welcome to This Week In Yankees Baseball.

Even when Hal Steinbrenner tries to wake up, he still seems like he is sound asleep. His lame attempt to “call out” the Yankees players for their poor performance shows once again why he is not the owner to bring the Yankees back to glory.

Yes, the intention was good. But the lack of passion stood out like a sore thumb. Enough already about how his personality is not like George’s. Of course George and Billy are not around any more. But that doesn’t mean they are the only ones who know how to light a fire.

“When you look at a guy like Mark Teixeira, clearly he is not playing to his potential with the bat,” Steinbrenner said according to LoHud.com.

And there is the same “matter of fact” evaluation of Michael Pineda. We already know that Pineda is giving up too many runs early. We know that his slider is not consistent. What we need to know is how much pressure is going to come to change that.

Oh, and Luis Severino is a rookie who is in his first “down turn, if you will.”  Are you trying to justify the lack of performance or fix it, Hal?

While his observations have had an initial positive affect, the Yankees aren’t going anywhere long-term until there is an overall change in outlook from the top. The pervasive attitude with Teixeira, Pineda, Severino and Chase Headley is that they are professionals who need to work it out for themselves. Manager Joe Girardi and General Manager Brian Cashman are seemingly not to blame.

“I don’t think it’s a flaw in the way the team is put together. I think the team we have this year is better than the team we had last year,”  Steinbrenner said, also according to LoHud.

So does that mean that a miserable performance in a wild card game is now the benchmark? There is a flaw in the way this team is put together. The Yankees need to hit premier pitching. They need to hit consistently against all pitching. They need consistent production from the third baseman. And they need another premier starting pitcher. There were good old days. And the Yankees do not have to accept mediocrity. None of the Core Four would have settled for that.

Most of all, they need passion from the top. Real passion, the kind that does what needs to be done, instead of justifying why it isn’t.