The Yankees are Confusing

The Yankees have now lost three straight to the Chicago White Sox. Their three and a half game lead over the Red Sox has evaporated. All the while, they keep mixing up those who are playing and some of the decisions aren't making sense. Here are just a couple of examples:

They traded for Jerry Hairston, Jr. Any fan of the Fan knows that any Hairston is a hairball in the life of the Fan. The Fan doesn't understand how they exist, why they have survived in the majors this long, etc. Okay, perhaps the Yankees know more than this writer. So anyway, they got the guy and immediately put him in left field in place of Johnny Damon. Supposedly, Hairston is a better option against a lefty than Damon. Damon has a lifetime OPS against lefties of .746. Of course, that's not nearly as high as his OPS against righties. Hairston's lifetime OPS against ALL pitchers is .700. Give the Fan Damon any day.

Okay, all that being said, part of Hairston's value is being able to play multiple positions including all the infield positions. If that is true, what is the need for Cody Ransom? Last night, Ransom played first and went 0-4 with three strikeouts. This was after Shelley Duncan was sent down (after never playing a game since his call up). Duncan has 27 homers in AAA this year. Duncan wouldn't have been a better alternative at first than Ransom? He couldn't have been worse. Ransom, after all, is batting .190 this year. And Duncan is a right-handed batter and could have faced the lefty, Danks.

All in all, it wouldn't have mattered because the Yankees' pitching got battered for the second straight day. All the funky line up changes can't change the fact that the Yankees will live and die by what kind of pitching they get. If they keep throwing Mitre out there, they are crazy. And Bruney and Coke need to be effective out of the bullpen to make this work and they have not been effective.

But probably the most confusing thing about the Yankees is their plight against all teams with "Sox" in their name. They play .666 baseball against every other team, but are 0-11 against the Red Sox and the White Sox. How can that be? Last week, they looked like the best team in the world. This week, they look like the Nationals. It sure is confusing.