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It’s been a while since I have posted an article on Bleacher Report, and as the Yankees Community Leader and Featured Columnist, I do sincerely apologize.

Working a full time job almost six or seven days a week while trying to save for a wedding can take its toll on a person.

But that was then, this is now. I am back! Now, onto the defending champions.

So, the Yankees have been struggling of late.

And not just a minor struggle, it’s gotten ugly for the Yankees at times.

Not only are they 11-14 right now in the month of September, they also surrendered their American League East lead to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Despite the September woes, the Yankees are just one win, or one Red Sox loss, away from another trip to the postseason and are still just a half-game behind Tampa Bay for first in the division. All hope is not completely lost on the Yankees here.

Just like in the 2000 season.

The then two-time defending champions started out September at 75-56 and finished 87-74, winning just enough to win the American League East over Boston by two games. But the Yankees stumbled to the finish line, going 12-18.

The Yankees that year, despite being the defending champions, did not even have the best record. The White Sox (95-67), Oakland A’s (91-71), and Seattle Mariners (91-71) all had better records. The Cleveland Indians (90-72) had a better record and they didn’t even make the postseason.

Yet, the Yankees somehow fended off the A’s in the division round, torched the Mariners in the ALCS and crushed the Mets in the World Series en route to their 26th championship.

Fast-forward 10 years later. The Yankees are at 93-64 and possibly looking at starting the postseason playing the Minnesota Twins on the road as the A.L. Wild Card if the September stumbling continues.

Here’s the big question: Can the Yankees dig themselves out of this mess and find the magic from just one season ago that won them their 27th championship?

A lot of nay-sayers think the Yankees are done for. Right now, even I’d say the Yankees aren’t looking that great.

But when the calendar turns to October, never, ever count the Yankees out of a playoff series.

Granted, A.J. Burnett is 10-15 with an ERA over 5 and can’t figure out if he wants to be dominant or get shelled. Javier Vazquez has all but pitched himself out of New York and lost Joe Girardi’s trust, and Ivan Nova is a 23-year old rookie who has only made seven starts for the Yankees.

But this is also the same Yankee team with Alex Rodriguez, who carried the Yankees on his back last year with clutch home run after clutch home run, with CC Sabathia, who is capable of pitching on three days rest and is the 2009 ALCS MVP, with Andy Pettitte, who went 4-0 in the playoffs and is the all-time winning pitcher in the postseason, and with Derek Jeter, who seems to hit over .300 every October.

Oh, and this is also the team with Mariano Rivera, who is still the greatest closer of all time. OK, yes, he did blow the save against Boston on Sunday. It happens. But if the game is 3-2 in the ninth inning, I am still giving the ball to Mo EVERY time to get the save.

This is still a Yankees team with a deep lineup that can score anywhere from 5-10 runs in a given night and a lineup filled with experienced postseason veterans who aren’t scared of the big stage.

The experience factor is what can help get the Yankees through the next couple weeks and potentially out of this mess.

So now, as we continue the final week of the season and get ready for October baseball, the fate of the Yankees will soon be determined. Can they muster enough to win another A.L. East title, or will they settle for the A.L. Wild Card and possibly head to a red-hot Minnesota team?

I’m sure people counted out the 2000 Yankees, and they turned it on in October and won the World Series.

Don’t count out the 2010 Yankees just yet. There’s a lot of baseball left still to be played.

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New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi won a World Series last season and also was voted Manager of the Year in 2006 with the Florida Marlins.

The Chicago Cubs currently have an interim manager, Mike Quade, after Lou Piniella left the team in August to take care of his ailing mother. Quade has led the Cubbies to a 20-11 record in his short time as skipper.

They are known as the Cubbies or Baby Cubs because they are using all their young players. These kids are producing at a high level and much of the credit is going to the interim manager.

Despite Quade’s success and the respect he has earned with his team and the league, the Cubs are searching for a proven manager.

One guy rumored to be in contention for the job is Chicago area native Joe Girardi. Now that Girardi has guided the Yankees into a tailspin in September, he has become a bit more edgy with the media and has begun to manage games differently.

He is in panic mode, evidenced by starting Phil Hughes on Sunday when Dustin Moseley was supposed to get the nod against Boston. My opinion is that when Girardi saw the Tampa Bay Rays lose, he wanted to try and “gain a game,” and allowed Hughes to start against Boston to better the Yankees’ chances of winning.

The power of winning last year’s World Series might not be enough for Girardi to avoid the heat of October baseball in New York. The games are more tense, and so is Girardi.

Two months ago, the possibility of Girardi bolting the Yankees for hometown Chicago was, at best, a rumor. Now, it could be more of a reality than Yankee fans think.

Girardi was not saying NO directly at the time as a way of generating a more lucrative Yankee extension, but he might be able to get the same money elsewhere.

If the Cubs were really set on hiring Ryne Sandberg as their new manager, they would have announced it already, same as the Los Angeles Dodgers saying Mattingly will be their new manager.

Win or lose the World Series, there is now better than a 50-50 chance Girardi leaves for the comforts of home. Girardi will relish the chance to coach a young team again, and not be second guessed as much when he makes head scratching moves.

So when Girardi leaves for Chicago, there will be one big open seat for hire, and one much smaller seat across the river in Queens.  

Let’s go over the possibilities for the next Yankees manager when Girardi leaves.

Jerry Manuel has no shot. Just thought I would throw that out there for a good laugh.

I personally would love to have Tony LaRussa as manager, but he may not leave St. Louis. Also, if you think Girardi is short with the media, wait until LaRussa gets in front of the New York market.

Also, the last time a former St. Louis manager came to work for the Yankees, it did turn out quite well.

So, with Joe Torre “retiring” from the Los Angeles Dodgers, would it be a good fit to bring back Torre to manage this team of veteran players?

One word: NO.

Despite guys like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Andy Pettitte loving the old guy, there is just too much animosity in Yankee land regarding Torre.

Brian Cashman would never resort to bringing him back. Forget about all that hugging garbage on the George Steinbrenner tribute night. The Yankee respected George too much to not bring back Torre for the ceremony, but they do not like him enough to have him sitting in the dugout again.

The Yankees are different now than when Torre first managed here. They are all about innings limits, using their relievers differently than Torre does (meaning overuse of one or two guys), and bringing up younger players to fill roles much cheaper.

Torre has recently said that he is unable to relate to the younger players and can’t get through to them like he can with veterans.

How will that play out in New York now, especially with the tension Torre would create with Alex Rodriguez over the details in his book. Seeing a person you dislike (and do not respect anymore) is fine when it is for one day, for one event, and you only have to speak to them once.

But to acknowledge and speak to the person on an everyday basis during an entire season would generate lots of tabloid headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Torre would not be a good fit for the Yankees.

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Mariano Rivera has been as consistent a player as any in professional sports. His prowess in the playoffs is simply unmatched by all challengers. While every year there seems to be a hot new closer that everyone is in love with, the New York Yankees’ not-so-secret weapon has been terrorizing opposing hitters for years.

In the past month, however, Rivera has looked decidedly mortal. He has blown three saves this month, as well as an ERA that is a very un-Rivera-like, 5.04, which nearly triple his career average. Despite these facts, it should not cause concern for Yankee fans anywhere.

The last time he blew three saves in a month was in August of 2004. He simply fails less than anyone else at his position, ever. That being said, he still isn’t perfect. He’s bound to blow saves and, once every six seasons or so, they come in bunches.

Along with rarely giving up many saves in a given time period, the man just might be made of steel. He has been to the disabled list only four times in his 16-year career, the most recent coming in 2003. He still throws 92-93 MPH and shows no signs of physically wearing down. 

His consistency physically is due to the lifestyle he leads. He’s never been back-page material for the New York Post and, by all accounts, leads a very quiet, sober lifestyle. Hard-partying may have been the bane of other closers in the past, but it’s of no concern for Rivera.

It hardly seems necessary to speculate if he is still possesses the same mental toughness. He is never rattled even in the most pressure-packed postseason situations. He has experienced the highest highs and the lowest lows, with a blown World Series Game 7 to his record. His even temper will never waver.

His postseason numbers add up to over a season’s worth of dominance. In 88 games, he has rang up eight wins against only one loss, with 39 saves. Not to mention his minuscule 0.74 ERA. Rivera was built to pitch in the bright lights of New York in October.

To ensure that he continues his dominance, Joe Girardi must never use Rivera in the eighth inning. Despite the fact that Rivera has a record 14 career postseason, two inning saves, those days are behind him. He must be carefully guarded to ensure that when the ninth inning rolls around, the opponent will be all but doomed.

Rivera is a human superlative. Not enough could possibly be said about the scope of his dominance, especially in the postseason. That said, nobody should ever doubt River or think he is “finished”. With nine career postseason series clinching saves and 558 regular season saves to his record, he’s earned the benefit of the doubt. 

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Yankees vs. Red Sox, the most storied and greatest rivalry in sports will have a little less meaning this time around because of Boston’s injury-plagued season that has left them on the brink of elimination, but it still is a must win series for the Bronx Bombers.

The Red Sox are going to be on the outside looking in this year and have had a miserable season this year with key injuries to team leaders Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis, that coupled with disappointing performances form Josh Beckett and free agent acquisition John Lackey has taken a little bit away from the remaining six games they have with the Yankees.

On the other side of the field are the Yankees who hold a half-game lead over the Rays currently, which they would be very happy to add to this weekend, as they look to gain home field advantage throughout the AL playoff series.

And the Rays are not the only team on the out of town scoreboard that the Yankees will be watching this weekend, the Twins have put on a charge of late and have made this a three team race for best overall record in the AL.

The Red Sox certainly know what is at stake for their hated rivals and would enjoy nothing more than to wrestle away best record in the AL form the Yanks, so let there be no mistake, the Red Sox aren‘t going to lay down and let the Yankees walk all over them.

Joe Girardi knows how important home-field advantage is to his team and is going to have his players ready to go, and I think that it is clearly a must-win for that same reason, home field advantage.

It could make or break the Yankees hopes of repeating this year, and we already know the NL has home field advantage in the World Series, so the fewer games this veteran Yankees team has to play through the AL playoffs, the better

This will be a highly-contested series, as it always has been, just with a little less drama, because win, lose, or draw, the Yankees are going to the playoffs and the Sox are not, but it would behoove Joe Girardi‘s squad to win this series as they hope the Twins and Rays run into some trouble.

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Who’s the hottest team in MLB right now?

The answer is the New York Yankees.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is a Yankee-hater, because you either bleed pinstripes or you burn them. It is that simple.

Looking back to just 7 days ago, things were not going so well for New York who finished 2-8 on a road trip from hell. The nickname “Bombers” was starting to refer to bombing games, instead of balls out of the park.

Lots of factors come into play regarding the Yankees resurgence of winning four of their last five games.

The first two wins were in Baltimore, but it was followed by a loss last Sunday allowing the O’s to avoid another sweep.

Heading into the toughest, most critical series of the season, a four game set against the Tampa Bay Rays, Yankee fans would finally get some answers.

Nick Swisher put it in plain and simple, “I think we all pretty much know what’s at stake,” Swisher said. “Take the Rays and us and line us up, and let’s see what happens.”

What has happened is the Yankees have played all around great baseball. Not just winning, but beating the Tampa Bay Rays.

It seems the surreal dedication and tribute to the late, great George Steinbrenner before Monday’s game definitely reminded the Yankees and its fans what would be the biggest way to honor their beloved Boss. Win, win and keep winning until #28 is a thing of the past.

Also, major credit also goes to Joe Girardi and Brian Cashman.

GM Cashman and Skipper Girardi’s pick-up of RP Kerry Wood has completely changed around the bullpen, both Wood the individual and as a mentor to Joba Chamberlain.

Everyone knows Joba hasn’t had the easiest time out of the bullpen, understandably with what the 24-year old has been through.

This is a place Wood has been, the new hero to struggling middle reliever who used to have potential. Since joining the Yankees, Woods’ arm is back to his former days, finally getting recognition as a reliever because he realizes how much he was needed.

Wood has pitched 23 innings as a Yankees, striking-out 26 batters, with one home-run, one earned run hit against him and a ridiculous .39 ERA. Batters have a .167 average when Woods is on the mound.

Joba looked like Wood’s been rubbing off on him, proof was just last night.  In the eighth inning Joba took the mound, loaded the bases but worked his way out of it by fanning the next two batters to close the inning for Mariano.

In his last 24 appearances dating to July 28, Chamberlain has posted a 1.50 ERA, allowing four runs in 24 innings.

Fact is the bullpen is the core of any team in baseball. If you have a solid group in the middle of games to eat innings and win is the most undervalued, virtually going unnoticed a lot of the time.

Cashman did his job grabbing Wood and this is in the top three reasons as to why the Yankees have a chance to repeat in 2010.

The line-up Girardi used in Tuesday night’s win against the Rays is by far the strongest.

Three major positives factors, starting with Jeter at the top who is finally leading-off like the Captain again, which is a huge sigh of relief in New York. Swisher is on fire again, since coming back after receiving cortisone shot for his knee. Granderson is making-up for lost time smacking in two homers in the first win against the Rays.

The rest of the line-up all hit, getting base runners home and when the Yankees click like this it will be challenging for any team to defeat them.

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Ending a horrid 3-6 road trip, the New York Yankees are glad to be back home.

Home or not though, starting with a 4-game series against the second-place Tampa Bay Rays, the next two weeks will challenge the Yankees in every possible way.

The Yankees come into the week with a 90-59 record, just a half-game ahead of the Rays, who sit at 89-59. The series will give both teams a chance to leave with a two or three game division lead, but the Yankees and Rays are so evenly matched that a 2-2 split seems more likely than anything else.

Which team looks stronger?

It has only been a week since New York and Tampa played what was, hands down, the best series of baseball this season. All three games were determined late, and both squads fought it out with playoff-like energy. In the end, Tampa took two of three games from the Yankees at the Trop.

But the road to a series win will be that much tougher for the Rays, who will this time face the Yankees in New York, and that is not the only advantage for the Pinstripes.

Since leaving Tampa, the Yankees have welcomed back Andy Pettitte. Pettitte pitched great on Sunday, going six innings and giving up only three hits. Even though Pettitte won’t face Tampa in this series, having him healthy again is a huge morale boost.

Joe Girardi made a smart decision to sit third baseman Alex Rodriguez and first baseman Mark Teixeira during the Baltimore series, and they should come back energetic and healthy. Add well-rested Brett Gardner and Nick Swisher to the lineup, and suddenly Tampa looks at taking on a team headed into the playoffs with the entire roster ready to play.

HIT… is the word of the week for the Yankees, and they will need more of them with runners in scoring position in order to win this series. During the weekend Baltimore series, the Yankees left thirty men on base.

While Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte were all solid, the Yankees failed time and time again to push runs across in two one-run games. Not backing up good pitching by scoring runs is a quick way to lose your division lead, ask the recently dethroned San Diego Padres.

With the Yankees coming home to the Bronx, the fans will be nuts. This is always a big edge for any team, but the New York home field advantage is famous nation-wide.

In order for the Rays to win, they will need to use every tool in their all-around talented lineup and that includes stealing bases. Virtually every player in the lineup features the speed factor, and base running could be the difference-maker. The Rays will need to get on base early in the game and than start running to fluster Yankee pitching, especially in the series opener against rookie Ivan Nova.

My Prediction:

To make a call on this series is tough as nails.

My honest bet is that the New York and Tampa spilt the series, leaving the fans on the edge of their seats and the AL East division still up for grabs.

Game 1 – Yankees win 6-4

Game 2 – Rays win 4-1

Game 3 – Rays win 5-4

Game 4 – Yankees win 3-1

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Joe Torre shockingly announced he will retire from the Los Angeles Dodgers, and hands  the reins to successor Don Mattingly today  with two weeks left in the regular season.

It’s a move that caught everyone by surprise considering that the Dodgers may want to interview others such as Tim Wallach, but nevertheless Mattingly is the incoming manager while Torre is nothing but a lame duck on the West Coast.

This offseason is promising to be quite the boiling one when it comes to managers and vacant team openings. As for Joe Torre, where will he end up going next season?

You can bet he’ll end up with a big market team with a playoff bound roster that is destined for the World Series. Remember he is retiring from the Dodgers, not baseball, so whether he is or isn’t we look at Torre’s possible destinations this offseason. 

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Making his first start in nine days, Phil Hughes was dominant for four innings. Perfect actually. He wouldn’t be perfect on this night. In fact, he wouldn’t even get his team a victory, thanks to Dan Johnson.

The Rays designated hitter who spent last season playing in Japan needed two swings to carry his team to their second win in three games against the Yankees.

Third baseman Evan Longoria led off the fifth with a single off Hughes. Two batters later, the Yankees starter made his first mistake. Johnson belted a two-run home run to give the Rays a 2-1 lead.

The Yankees would fight back after an acting session by shortstop Derek Jeter. Rays’ reliever Chad Qualls threw a pitch. All you saw at first was Jeter immediately grab for his wrist and appear to be in severe pain. The Yankees’ captain was quickly checked out by manager Joe Girardi and trainer Gene Monahan.

The next batter, Curtis Granderson, drilled a two-run homer of his own to put the Yankees ahead by a score of 3-2. Replays showed the pitch to Jeter never touched him. The ball hit directly off the knob of the bat. So, at this point, the acting job by Derek Jeter allowed the Yankees to take the lead.

Phil Hughes would come back out for the seventh inning. Since he looked so dominant outside of that one pitch to Johnson, it was hard to argue with Girardi’s decision to leave his young starter in the game.

Continue reading this article at Double G Sports.

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Joe Girardi managed the New York Yankees to their 27th World Series title last season and has the Bombers primed for another playoff run here in 2010, but is he the driving force behind this juggernaut or is he just along for the ride?

Everybody knows that Girardi is wearing No. 28 because he hopes to win the Yankees 28th World Series this year, just as he wore 27 last season.

Everybody knows about his playing days with the Yankees back in the late 90’s, where he won three rings under his former manager and predecessor Joe Torre. And nobody knows where Girardi will be next April.

Torre was truly a great manager, and has continued to be in his post-Yankee years with the Dodgers, leading them to back-to-back National League Championship Series the past two years, although it does look like his team will fall short this year, which would end 14 consecutive years of postseason baseball for Torre.

Girardi led the Yankees back to the promised land in 2009, and has them in position to become the first repeat champs since the 1998-2000 Yankees, who won three straight.

So back to my question, is Girardi a good manager? Well, to be honest, I would have to say he is an average manager right now.

I agreed that it was time for Torre to go, but I certainly did not agree with the way the Yankees went about letting him go and I wasn’t a big fan of Girardi when he got hired. Personally, I thought that Don Mattingly should have been named manager at the time.

Three years later, and Girardi’s contract is set to expire after this season, which has sparked rumors of him heading back to the North Side of Chicago to manage the Cubs.

He is a Northwestern graduate and he did begin his career with the Cubs, so there are obvious ties with Chicago.

I think that Girardi will be wearing a Cubs uniform next season, no matter what the Yankees do in the playoffs or how much money they throw in Girardi’s face to convince him to stay. And quite frankly, I wouldn’t lose one bit of sleep over it, as a Yankees fan.

The ginormous payroll of the Yankees ensures that they will be in contention every year, and that it really doesn’t matter who the manager of the Bombers is at the end of the day, because if you don’t win, you will be packing your bags; just ask Joe Torre.

Who would have ever guessed in 2000 that he would be retiring as a Dodger and not a Yankee?

From Girardi’s standpoint, he would be leaving the Yankees on his own terms, and Chicago is not just a home coming, but a chance to prove that he is a great manager and can get the job done, whether it be in the bright lights of New York or the friendly confines of Wrigley Field, where Cubs fans have waited for over 100 years to raise another World Series banner.

And just think if he does win it all with the Cubs, he would the toast of the town for the rest of his life; hell, they would probably put up statues of him up.

In the end, it’s Girardi’s decision. Will he choose to continue his tenure with the Yankees, which will almost certainly end ugly eventually, or will he go home to Chicago, with the hopes of trying to end the longest championship drought in sports history? Who knows?

But right now his focus has to be on bringing the Yankees their 28th World Series title, and that’s all that really matters.

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Fourth devastating outcome in a row for the New York Yankees, third walk-off loss, and no longer do they hold the best record in baseball.

That honor now belongs to the Tampa Bay Rays, who take a half-game lead in the AL East standings.

The Yankees just can’t seem to catch a break, as things just keep getting worse.

Monday’s pitching match-up of CC Sabathia vs. David Price lived-up to all the hype. Both leading Cy Young Award candidates, who equally proved why on the mound.

Both starters were excellent at keeping the game scoreless through eight innings. Price and Sabathia put their respective teams in positions to win, and the bullpens continued where the aces left off.

That is until the Yankees’ fate was again placed on the wrong arm of Sergio Mitre, who gave up the walk-off home-run. This leads me to wonder what skipper Joe Girardi was thinking using Mitre in the bottom of the 11^th inning?

Girardi can’t seem to comprehend that Mitre is not good. He never really has been his whole career, except in 2007 when Mitre was a Florida Marlin, and Girardi was the Marlins manager.

Even back than, Mitre only pitched 150 innings total and struck out 80. That was over three years ago, and since arriving in New York, Mitre hasn’t been helpful, and has been the opposite of productive. That is a fact.

The minute I saw it was Mitre coming in the 0-0 game, my first thought was, “where is Joba Chamberlain or Dave Robertson?”

“Not available,” according to Girardi, and many will wonder why not?

Neither Robertson, nor Chamberlain pitched on Sunday afternoon so why couldn’t they throw in for a couple outs?

At such a critical time of the season, with first place in the AL East on the line, I thought Girardi would do whatever was needed to get the win. Especially following the blunder at third base by Brett Gardner, who tried to steal third with two outs. What was Gardner thinking?

He wasn’t because that was just dumb.

The Yankees could have used a positive night after being swept in Texas over the weekend.

Instead, the Yankees are getting more frustrated. It is all over the players’ faces, and it is heartbreaking to watch as a fan.

Walk-off wins are inevitably tough for the losing side, so the Yankees can’t be happy at all right now.

As a Yankees fan, it sucks to watch four losses in a row.

So many questions start mounting up as to whether the Yankees can turn it around or has age finally come before beauty?

Let’s hope this is just a slump, but clearly something is not working and the Yankees need to fix it ASAP.

Trying to stay positive but it is getting more difficult with each walk-off loss.

Hopefully, Yankees rookie Ivan Nova can continue throwing well on the mound, and that the bats back him up for a needed win on Tuesday night at the Trop.

PLEASE VISIT LADY LOVES PINSTRIPES….

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