The Art Neuro Weblog

Randy Johnson And Bam-Tino Makes It Eight In A Row
Well, that's it. The Yankees swept the struggling A's 6-4.
The game featured some odd trivia:
It was Joe Torre's 1800th win as manager, making him only the 13th manager to make that milestone. Nearly 1000 of those wins come from his 10 year tenure with the Yankees.
Randy Johnson won without striking out anybody for his 250th win, making him the 42nd pitcher to reach that milestone. He's going for 300 wins, which is why he demanded the trade to the yankees, so he should be please to know he's 'On Schedule'.
Tino Martinez had 2 homers, so he now has 8 HRs in 8 games. Kind of insane.

Rookie 2B-man Robinson Cano went 4-for-4, rasing his BA to *gulp* .325! Maybe he really is the real deal (small-sample-size alert)? While he might not be the next Alfonso Soriano, the indications are there that he's something special. And that's very good news because the Yankees need somebody to come up from their farm system. Tomorrow the Yankees send their other rookie, Tiger Wang to face the Mariners once more.

The Yankees are now back at .500, with a 19-19 record. While that's nothing to boast about AT ALL, it certainly means the season re-starts from here with 124 games remaining. The thing is, if a team starts the season hot, it has some wins in the bank; The Yankees being 5.5 games behind have nothing in the bank, so where does it leave them right now?
To make 100 wins, they need to go 81-43. A 0.653 Win% and that's way too tough.
To make 95 wins they need to go 76-48. A 0.612 Win% and that's tough, but it's sort of feasible if everything goes optimal. - i.e. nobody gets injured.
To make 90 wins they need to go 71-53. A 0.572 Win% and that's most definitely within the capability of this team. The question remains, how many games do the Yankees have with the AL East? Because those wins count for double in the standings as opposed to inter-divisional wins. Are the Orioles for real, and how close will the AL West and AL Central become for the Wild Card?

Realistically, if the Yankees make the play-offs this year, it's going to be a mighty fine effort and a bit of good luck from here on in.

- Art Neuro