That may in fact be the case for the New York Yankees this season, but not a certainty. They have had some key players miss time with injuries, have not played their best baseball while their ace, CC Sabathia, has one win in his last six starts. Even with all of that, the Bronx Bombers find themselves trailing the division leading Rays by a mere two games.

Tampa Bay has begun to fade a bit after a fast start and is 4-6 in their last 10 games. With three strong teams in the American League East including Boston (third place, 3 1/2 games behind), the Wild Card will in all likelihood come from this group. When it is all said and done, put you money on the Yanks. They have the most experience and will make the necessary moves before the trading deadline to lock up the division.

The class of not only the ‘junior circuit’ but all of baseball, keep your dime on the Yankees to repeat as world champions.  Still not convinced? Take a look at their rotation. The rest of the starters have picked up Sabathia and his 4.14 ERA, with A.J. Burnett (6-3, 3.72), Andy Pettitte (7-1, 2.47), Philip Hughes (7-1, 2.54) shouldering the load. Even Javier Vasquez has turned it around and has been very effective of late. Every team may be a little thin in middle relief, and the Yankees are no exception. But the other clubs don’t have Mariano Rivera to call on in the late innings. The ageless wonder has converted 12 of 13 saves and has an ERA under two.

Playoff time is synonymous with the Yankees, and that is a tough pill to swallow for their rivals. A steady club that can turn it on when needed, they will be hard to unseat.

Photo by Bill Menzel

MuscleSport Mag has reached out to RotoInfo and is awaiting a response. The main question on everyone’s mind is who was the original source. None of the names will shock you and many of them appeared in the Mitchell Report.

There does not appear to be any significance in the order of the names, either. It is not listed alphabetically or by position, so it appears to be a general list. The accuracy of it remains to be seen. While it seems inevitable that this list will become publicized at some time, we will not know for sure until then if the one on RotoInfo was truthful or not.

David Ortiz, who has come under scrutiny during his prolonged slump to start the season, was on this list, as was Manny Ramirez, his former teammate who is currently serving a 50-game suspension for a banned substance.

Roger Clemens, Raphael Palmiero and Sammy Sosa appear, and they may have to answer perjury charges for their subsequent denials under oath if this is in fact true. Alex Rodriguez’s name appears, which had already been reported.

The list actually contains only 103 names and does not include Jason Grimsley, who tested positive that same year according to court records. That may account for the difference of one and something that we will look to clarify if a response to our request is received.

Here are the names as reported by RotoInfo:

Source: http://rotoinfo.com/read_article.php?articleId=318

Photo by Bill Menzel

It’s hard to fault Andy Pettitte for trying to shake the Yankee tree for as much money as he can. With the organization throwing money around as if it grew on the proverbial tree, the 36-year-old figures this may be his last shot at cashing in. The way his second half went last year, he may be overestimating his market value by a large margin.

The Yanks are offering him $10 million for one year and Pettitte wants the $16 million he earned the past two seasons in the Bronx. A 14-14 mark with an ERA of 4.54 will not help his cause, especially when you consider that he went 2-7 in his last 11 starts.

In case Pettitte forgot, he did state all summer long that he wanted to pitch in the new Yankee Stadium and that there aren’t many teams burning up his phone line with offers. This is a chance for him to go out gracefully the way he wants to and make a nice payday on top of it.

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Even if Pettitte returns, his place in the rotation would be number four at best. The offer that general manager Brian Cashman made to him in person at his Houston home will not be on the table forever. The Yankees are looking to ink another free agent hurler, such as A.J. Burnett, Derek Lowe or Ben Sheets – all who are more effective than Pettitte.

Even if Burnett accepts the five-year, $80 million package from the Yankees, Pettitte may still have a spot on the team. But he has to keep in mind that he is not exactly the same pitcher he was when he joined the Astros as a free agent in 2003. He is older, suffered arm injuries and went through the Mitchell Report – HGH incident.

This will in all likelihood be Pettitte’s final season. It would be appropriate for him to finish up in a place that he is welcomed and feels comfortable in. Is $10 million such an insult? When the Bronx Bombers are giving a 300-pounder money that he wasn’t even asking for, it just may be.

Perhaps it was fitting that Andy Pettitte received the win in the final game ever at Yankee Stadium. Improving to 14-14, the veteran southpaw persevered to even his mark after going winless in his previous five starts. His last win came back on August 20 at Toronto.

It has been a trying season for Pettitte, who had to deal with all the performance-enhancing drug allegations against himself and good friend Roger Clemens. That seemed to be forgotten as he started out 9-5, but since going 4-0 in June, he has not faired as well.

Once the season concludes, both Pettitte and the Yankees need to make some very important decisions. First off, Pettitte has to decide if he wants to return for his 15th major league campaign. At 36, he is not very old, but has obviously passed his prime some time ago. He can still be a good starter in this league and would probably be invited back on a one-year deal with an option if he decides to come back.

Figure on the Yankees to be very active in both the trade and free agent markets, especially for starters. With the opening of the new Yankee Stadium, money will be no object (as if it ever was in the Bronx). Top of the line free agents like C.C. Sabathia and Ben Sheets will receive offers from the Yanks and they may land one of them.

The Yankees’ general manager situation is also up in the air. Incumbent Brian Cashman’s contract is up and he is no lock to return.

It appears that the obvious that has been staring us in the face is now even more glaring. The New York Yankees are going to miss the playoffs for the first time since 1993, and a team that was in the early stages of transition may have to do more than the old ‘retooling’ phrase general managers say about their teams when they don’t want to admit that a rebuilding is in order.

After dropping the first two at home versus the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees are seven out of the wild card and double-digits separate them from the surprising Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the American League East.

Not only did the Sox come in and do what the Yankees needed to do to salvage their season, but also they spanked their host and made a statement in doing so. Their newest editions – left fielder Jason Bay and starter Paul Byrd – were instrumental in the 11-3 drubbing on Wednesday night. Bay, who took over for Manny Ramirez in a three-team deal at the trading deadline, drove in four runs with a triple and a double, while the journeyman Byrd went six workman-like innings for the win in only his third start for Boston.

In the opener of the three-game set, knuckleballer Tim Wakefield outdueled Andy Pettitte in a 7-3 win for the road team. Alex Rodriguez felt the wrath of the Yankee faithful with a dismal 0-5 performance and an error. One of those failed at-bats included a seventh-inning, bases-loaded double play versus youngster Justin Masterson, who baited the perennial All-Star third sacker with his money pitch.

“I pretty much said, ‘Hey, throw my sinker, let it work, get a ground ball.’ That’s exactly what happened,” the 23 year-old converted reliever told reports after the game. The rich get richer with the Red Sox adding Masterson to the bullpen, who has an ERA under two in 14 appearances.

The Yankees trail not only Boston for the extra playoff berth, but also the Minnesota Twins, who trail the Chicago White Sox by one game in the American League Central. A steep hill to climb, no doubt.

Putting their rotation together with spit, it should not come as a surprise that the Yankees are struggling as much as they are. Sidney Ponson, not exactly viewed as a solid part of any rotation, dropped to 7-5 with a 4.80 ERA after the second game of the series. Picked up off of waivers after the Texas Rangers grew tired of his antics, he hasn’t pitched terribly in New York, but a big game was needed and four earned runs in four-plus innings was not going to do it.

Losing ace Chien-Ming Wang for the majority of the season has been the death knell of this team. He was 8-2 at the time of his foot injury, and had 19 wins in each of the last two seasons. With a shaky back end of the rotation heading out of spring training, a full season was needed from Wang. Without him, the rest of the staff could not hold up and make that jump to the number one spot.

The Sunday, September 21 prime time match-up versus Baltimore appears to be the last game ever played at the (almost) original Yankee Stadium. At least the hype and celebrations will have an exact date with the Bombers missing the playoffs.

At the start of the 2008 baseball season, Andy Pettitte seemed to be pitching with his mind elsewhere. Although his numbers weren’t all bad, the inconsistency that was rarely a part of his game seemed to be the only thing consistent during April and May and the beginning of June. One could hardly blame him, with the volatile offseason filled with the George Mitchell investigation and testimony for the congressional hearings starring Roger Clemens.

That all seemed to be past him as Pettitte won four straight decisions to improve to 9-5. Then word leaked out that he may have to testify in the federal defamation lawsuit that Clemens filed against both hurlers’ former trainer Brian McNamee. The following day, Pettitte got pounded by the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.

While all of that may just be a coincidence, one has to remember the fragile psyche that Pettitte has and the fact that he is – when Clemens is part of the equation – a follower and not a leader. The Rocket is the bad boy to Pettitte’s altar boy, and it was obvious during this whole ordeal that the religious lefthander was pained to be speaking so brutally frank about his own human growth hormone use and what he knew of his close friend’s alleged indulgence into performance-enhancing drugs.

The Bronx Bombers need Pettitte to be the ace of the rotation in the second half of the season. They are currently in third place in the American League East, 9.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays and 4.5 back of Boston. In the Wild Card race, the Yanks are five back, chasing three teams.

Since number-one starter Chien-Ming Wang went on the disabled list, the pressure on veterans Pettitte and Mike Mussina grew even larger to step up and lead the way in the wake of the two youngster’s (Ian Kennedy and Phillip Hughes) disastrous seasons.

A 4.22 ERA in today’s AL is not anything to hang your head about, but if Pettitte expects to lead this team into the postseason, he will have to repeat the effective part of June and forget about his off-the-field issues. Clemens is finished and cannot help him in any way, shape or form at this stage of their lives, and the wider distance that Pettitte puts between them will only be a boost to his game.

Although Pettitte was obviously downplaying his HGH use, at least he made an attempt to put the entire issue past him. When he made his public apology statement following the release of the Mitchell Report, he said that he only used HGH on two occasions. Then during his testimony to investigators before the February Congress circus, he said that it was three times. Anyone who has even the slightest of knowledge of PEDs knows that these drugs are used in cycles and one or two administrations will not be effective. Because McNamee could only attest to the few incidents, it was easy for Pettitte to keep it at that number, or somewhere reasonably close to it.

Because Clemens chose to not only deny his use of PEDs but go to extremes in doing so, he has switched the burden of proof onto himself. That has dragged many others into the fray, including Pettitte, who probably wished that he had chosen his friends more carefully.

Photo credit: New York Sportscene magazine