We have a new contributor to the website. Here is "Balls & Strikes" from Kevin "HitDog042" Albanese. The first column is on the front page of the website.

Nice bit of writing McGriff.
While I agree that all your points are spot on for why the Yankees are falling/failing I'm not sure if bringing back Bernie was a good idea... no matter how great of a Yankee he was.

My feelings are that Steinbrenner's heir apparent was running the team and was more interested in Cashman's vision and was able to give him the reins. So Cashman did what Theo did last season- rebuild. Of course Theo also figured there was a chance to compete also and went about trying to put together a few spare parts that could help us make a run for it at the same time... after all, the fans of both squads are rabid and pay a fortune for their tickets- The Sox and Yankees NEED to compete. We could never and CAN never go into a full "Marlins Restructing" of an entire team. The fan-base wouldn't stand for it.
Cashman rightly so, IMO, let Bernie go in order to see what they had in Melky (it's crap), grabbed a Rule 5 guy (that in itself is odd... consider that for a moment) in Josh Phelps. Dealt Randy Johnson for a pile of young arms. Ditto Gary Sheffield.
Cashman was blowing up the Yankees much like Theo did to our Sox shortly after the World Series... but like Theo, Cashman figured that with the talent still on payroll and some minor additions... some luck... things could go his way and they could make a decent run in '07.

A few things happened along the way- the Steinbrenner heir apparent got dropped from the family, essentially IMO, stripping Cashman of power and the old Yankee panic settled in after the sluggish start and some injuries.

whos McGriff? haha.

I wasn't really suggesting that they should have brought back Williams per say, I was more trying to make a coorelation of the moves they had made, and used the Williams move as a comparison point.

They didn't handle the Williams situation properly, bringing him back or not. It was very odd to see how that all went down.

When people use the words "rebuilding" regarding the Yankees, it makes me chuckle. Yeah, they are bringing up a prospect here and there, but they surround those prospects with a 190 M payroll... it's not the same thing as say the Cleveland Indians rebuilding.