michael kay the genius.

Can’t we enjoy the here and now?

And now I come back to this blog, after a much needed win where the offense beat up on somebody (Ok, Brian Bannister and the KC Royals ‘pen ain’t the greatest). And I see a whole lot of negativity.

Why? The issues with the roster makeup, injuries, some MINOR league pitchers getting injured and not performing as some thought they might…Draft problems (I thought the draft was not so predictable, what happened all of a sudden?)….

What, these issues didn’t exist before? They just sprung up in the past two hours? We didn’t know this stuff already? This season isn’t over yet, and from reading some of the recent posts, the next 2-3 seasons plus – and maybe the future of the franchise! – are in jeopardy because Gerrit Cole didn’t sign and somebody else is hurt. Give me a break!

Maybe a dose of an anti-schizophrenic drug is needed.

In certain ways the draft debacle was among the most concerning things that happened to the organization this year.

If you’re going to commit your organization to player development you cannot draft two guys you don’t sign and then pick a third who has limited upside and is hurt.

You can’t take 3 guys in the first 65 picks in the draft and have nothing to show for it. Its not being cranky. Its a bad job. The Yankees will admit that themselves. There is no other way to spin it.

Bleich may turn out to be a good pick. However, he was a guy who would have been available to them later in the draft.

Lefties who throw 87-90 are available in the middle rounds of the draft. He was overvalued by the Yankees and now he’s out for a year.

Boston hasn’t had injuries as bad as the Yankees? No Dice-K for a month. No Ortiz for two months and he’s still not healthy. No Schilling all year. No Lowell for the first 5 weeks of the season and now he is out again.

Youkilis has missed time due to his back injury.

Those aren’t serious injuries?

The Angels: No Figgins to start the year. No Lackey (their ace) for the first two months. No Escobar (their second best starter) all season. Both SS’s have been hurt all year. Vlad’s back is a mess and has been all year. Napoli missed 5 weeks with injuries. Those aren’t serious injuries?

Every team has had injuries this year. Using injuries to make excuses for the Yankees poor play is just that…..an excuse.

Their top 7 hitters in the lineup are still better than most teams in the AL this season and they still haven’t hit for much of the year.

If you are a championship calibur team, you find ways to win games despite injuries.

Giambi at first, Nady in left, Damon CF, Abreu RF and Matsui at DH – that’s what they need to do in every game remaining this season if they are still pursuing a playoff spot.

Matsui didn’t have surgery this season so he could come back and help the team make a playoff push. He didn’t do this rehab so he could sit on the bench for the last 38 games and play a couple of times a week depending on how his knees feel.

They need to play matsui as much as his knees tolerate – that means he has to be in the line up every day as long as his knees aren’t getting more swollen.

Why is that?

If the yankees are going to make the playoffs they will need to win around 70% of their remaining games.

That’s an enormous tall order for a team that’s been so bad for so long this year. But it’s possible. Do pull that off they will need to go on an incredible run. That run will have to lead by the offense. There is no way around that. The offense will have to catch on fire.

In order to win 70% of its remaining games the yanks will need to average scoring around 8 runs per game. That’s right – 8 runs per game. Their team ERA is around 4.3. If you assume that’ll continue to be their team ERA for the remaining 38 games (an optimistic assumption perhaps) they’re going to give up around 165 runs.

If you give up 165 runs over a 38 game stretch you’ll need to score around 300 runs over those same games in order to play .700 baseball.

There’s really not much you can shave off the team’s expected runs allowed to make their winning percentage go through the roof – team ERA of 4.3 is not bad. Even if they miraculously decreased that by 10% for the rest of the season they’ll still need to score a huge number of runs in order to play .700 ball over the remainder of the season.

It’s been the offense this year that put them in risk of making the playoffs.

If they are going to make the playoffs, the offense is going to have to score 8 runs a game. To do that you need all of your best hitters playing everyday and playing at a high level.

If you want to see what you have for next year you play Gardner. But if you’re serious about trying to make the playoffs you play Damon in CF as much as Matsui’s knees allow. That’s a must.