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Panic in Bronx? It's not time yet

Yankees still have time to catch BoSox, so no need to make rash trades

Image: YankeesReuters
The Yankees have had quite a few conferences on the mound with their bullpen struggles, MSNBC.com's Mike Celizic writes.

But what the Yankees can get now isn’t going to win the World Series. On the other hand, they’re probably still the favorites to win the division. So throwing away a few more prime prospects to get more high-priced veterans doesn’t make any sense.

Yes, they trail Boston, but three games down with 80 to go is hardly an insurmountable margin, especially when the Yankees allow two 10ths of a run less per game than Boston and are scoring at a slightly higher pace than their rivals.

For all the injuries and all the fretting in the Bronx, the Yankees are tied for fifth in the league with the White Sox in team ERA and trail only Chicago and Cleveland in runs per game. The Red Sox haven’t been able to bury New York so far, and they probably won’t; Boston isn’t exactly a team without flaws, either.

The Yankees should make a deal if they can. But they shouldn’t do it out of panic. They shouldn’t keep throwing away next year to almost win this year. And that’s what they’re doing. They need to get younger, leaner and healthier up and down the lineup. They need a truly studly one-two combination of starting pitchers. They need reliability at the bottom of the rotation.

They’re not going to get it all, not now. And they’re also not going to beat either Chicago or Detroit in the playoffs, not going to win the World Series.

They need hitting. They need pitching. They spend all that money and they still need a lot more than they can get.

If someone wants to panic, save it for the off-season, when it might do some good. That’s the time to finally build this team the right way. Right now is the time for learning to live with what they have and hope that, by some miracle, it will be enough.

© 2012 NBC Sports.com  Reprints


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