Black Betsy

Uh-Oh

And I don't mean that in the Darrin Jackson calling a home run sense. Although I've been taking much glee at the demise of the Yankees this year, they are far, far from dead. Since they hit their nadir on May 6th (11-19), here are the standings in the American League:

Team	W	L	PCT
White Sox	35	19	0.648
Yankees	33	20	0.623
Angels	34	22	0.607
Indians	34	23	0.596
Red Sox	31	24	0.564
Rangers	28	25	0.528
Twins	29	26	0.527
Blue Jays	28	27	0.509
Tigers	28	27	0.509
Athletics	27	28	0.491
Orioles	26	30	0.464
Mariners	24	31	0.436
Royals	22	33	0.400
Devil Rays	16	40	0.286

As you can see, there's quite a bit of fight left in the Yankees, and 30 games into the season was far too early to think that they were dead. Playing .623 baseball over the last 132 games of the season would get the Yankees to 93 wins.

In case you had not noticed, the other contenders in the AL East have not exactly been setting the world on fire, either. The Orioles have sputtered after a terrific start and look destined for third place. The Red Sox, although in first place with a 3 game lead, are at pace that will not get them well past 93 wins. Indeed, with Keith Foulke regaining his Keith Choulke title, and Schilling being slow to come back from injury, I would not be shocked to see the Yankees in first place by August. Heck, they could be in first place a week after the All Star break.

This all speaks to how the White Sox might approach (I hate to say the word too soon) the playoffs. If the Yankees and Red Sox are going to be involved, they need to have someone better than Jose Contreras starting game four of a series. It would be great for the Sox to pick up another playoff-proven, #2 type starter, and it's time to start thinking about the price of losing in the playoffs. Kenny Williams repeated "1917" a bunch of times last year - it's time to see whether we can pick up a guy who can bring us to the promised land this year.