What's Wrong With America's Team?

I've only seen about five or six Yankee games this year because I really haven't had time to follow them closely this season (fortunately!) but here are four reasons why I believe the Yanks have been so pathetic this season.

1st: Pitching - The Yankees entered the season with no options if any of their starters got injured or their two young guys, Phil Hughes & Ian Kennedy, couldn't play at major league levels. As things turned out, both Hughes & Kennedy fell apart just about as soon as the season started and with the exception of Mike Mussina, pretty much everyone (Joba Chamberland & Chien-Ming Wang being the two biggest names) else has been injured at some point. Due to all of that, the Yanks have been forced to start less than stellar players such as Sidney Ponson, Carl Pavano & Darrell Rasner.

2d: Injuries - Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada have missed significant amount of time. A-Rod and Johnny Damon missed extended periods & the pitching staff has been devastated by injuries all year (Chamberlain, Wang, Hughes, Kennedy, Brian Bruney & Andy Pettitte).

3d: A-Rod - this guy is a team killer. When he became a free agent last year, I assumed that the nightmare was over & hoped that the Red Sox would sign him. But, for some reason that I still can't understand, Cashman decided to pay Alex an obscene amount of money to come back. Maybe they deserve this season.

4th: The (Devil) Rays - it's a well known fact that the Yankees have steadily been declining for the last four or five years. Despite getting worse each year though, they've always found a way to get into the playoffs. The emergence of the Rays just pushed them over the edge from being a wildcard team to missing the playoffs. They could survive playing against one decent team in the division (the Red Sox) but two was too many.