It's time to stick a fork in the Yankees, Clemens...was Perlozzo actually the reason for the O's ineptitude?

Cross-published on http://www.armchairGM.com

If the New York Yankees get swept by the lowly Baltimore Orioles tonight at Camden Yards, the Yankees season is officially over. As of now, they sit 11 games behind the Red Sox, and they're lucky it's not more than that as Boston just got swept in Seattle. They also sit 8.5 games out of the Wild Card, with Detroit and Cleveland sharing the lead. The Tigers and the Indians are better teams than the Yankees are this year, so I can't see them overtaking the wild card. They'll also have to leap-frog the Blue Jays, Twins, A's, and Mariners.

Roger Clemens is also finished. He is 1-3 with a 5.32 ERA...not exactly worth $17 million (or whatever ridiculous amount they're paying him to suck). His splitter is totally ineffective. Batters are recognizing it out his hand and are just not swinging at the ball. Maybe he's tipping that pitch, but his splitter not working is one of the reasons why he had NO strikeouts last night in Baltimore. Speaking of pitching last night, Erik Bedard, although he IS a jerk, stepped on the throats of the Bronx Bombers last night. He made Derek Jeter look silly (twice) and his curveball was absolutely disgusting.

Back to the Yankees...the bullpen is atrocious. As an O's fan, that's certainly an example of the pot calling the kettle black (cliche alert), but at least the O's 'pen can throw the ball over the plate (most of the time REALLY over the plate). With runners at first and second, Scott Proctor walked back-to-back runners on Tuesday night to allow the walk-off run. The starters and set-up pitchers blow leads and do not allow themselves to get to Mariano Rivera. The Yankees are dead last in the majors with 9 saves on the season...who would have thought that would happen back in April?

The roster is aging, their starting pitching is not all that good, the bullpen is terrible, and recently, they can't hit the ball. That spells danger when trailing by 11 games in the division.

Dave Trembley

Was Sam Perlozzo REALLY the reason for the Orioles problems? At first, I thought he did not deserve to get the axe, but look at the statistics. Interim manager Dave Trembley has a .625 winning percentage and the bullpen hasn't blown the game yet under his management (give it time). The players have responded to his challenges and coaching style. They're more interested in the games, and that's obvious by the mood in the dugout. Most of the time, the players are standing on the top step of the dugout and have their heads in the game. He has shaken up the line up a bit, and that has seemed to spark a few bats. Yeah, it's only been 8 games, but if they continue to play the way they're playing right now, the O's are looking like they might be able to finish near .500 this season. Maybe this guy knows what he's doing...we'll see.