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Lookin' For Light At the End of The Tunnel |
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Written by Joe Lazauskas
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Friday, 16 May 2008 |
 Hank Steinbrenner is at it again. After a loss dropped the last place
Yankees to 20-22, Steinbrenner did something that would have been
laughable just two months ago—he demanded the Yankees to be more like
the Tampa Bay Rays.
On Wednesday, Steinbrenner told the New York Post, Yankees have "got to start playing the way the Rays are playing. (The Yankees) need to start treating it like when they were younger players and going after that big contract, like they're in (Triple-A) and trying to make the majors. That's the kind of attitude and fire the players have to have.”
Steinbrenner’s comments are bizarre. His Yankees are simply not built to operate with that sort of unproven player drive. Even after the Rays nearly doubled their payroll this off-season, the Yankees’ players still make five times as much of the Rays. And this season, the young, unproven players the Yankees have relied upon have come up short.
Blue chip pitchers Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes—once cite as the keys to the Yankees’ season—are now nowhere to be seen in the rotation. Apparently they could not embody the unproven player ‘attitude and fire’ that Steinbrenner expects and translate it into wins. Much like the dollar, Kennedy and Hughes value has dropped tremendously. During the off-season, Kennedy and Hughes’ currency was inflated. They could have been potentially exchanged for many things—most namely, Johan Santana.
While the Mets have struggled and Santana has not been spectacular, the Mets will surely delight in giving Santana an extra day off so he can kick off the subway series this Friday. It’s no secret that Steinbrenner wanted Santana desperately, but GM Brian Cashman vouched for his young pitchers. If a loss to the Rays spurs Steinbrenner’s biweekly rant to The Post or The Times, we should expect an increase in Hank’s headlines should Johan blank the Yankees’ struggling and injured lineup.
Fans can already see Steinbrenner envisioning next year.
"This is going to get turned around," Steinbrenner said. "If it's not turned around this year, then it will be turned around next year, by force if we have too."
Perhaps he will give those hungry Rays the big contracts they deserve
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