-Let the Francisco Cervelli backlash begin. The Cisco Kid was a fun story last season and at the beginning of this year, but I think people are growing tired of his act. He seems to work well with the pitchers and he's passionate back there behind the plate, but that only seems to go so far when you can't hit and your fielding doesn't make up for it. The cool part about Cervelli was that he never hit in the minors and suddenly could hold his own in the Majors while playing with a swagger that endeared him to fans. That only goes so far when you're grounding out every first pitch and dropping pop ups against the Red Sox. As a backup catcher Cervelli is serviceable, but if Posada continues to miss time, he may not cut it in the long run. Now the Jesus Montero-to-the-Bronx wishers get their chance to voice their opinion.
-One of the things I've liked about the Yankees teams the past two years is that they never seem like they're really out of a game. Last year we saw that in the walkoff pies and this year I've felt that they've had a large amount of games where they've at least gotten the tying run to the plate. That type of swagger (feeling you're never really out of a game) usually helps in October.
-What also helps are the at-bats like Jeter had against Jonathan Papelbon last night. While they still ended up losing the game, making him throw all those extra pitches (he had only thrown 4, I believe, before Jeter's walk so if Jeter grounds out first pitch there, it's not a good result). That type of workload may keep Papelbon out of another game this weekend (though with his small sample size failures against the Yankees, I'm not sure that's what we really want).
-While Jeter's bat seems to be coming around and Mark Teixeira is incredibly hot, Curtis Granderson and newcomer Lance Berkman continue to struggle. Berkman hit a bullet in his last AB that required an awkward diving catch from Jacoby Ellsbury---but his box sheet will still show an oh-fer. Complacency is bad but sometimes constantly trying to reinvent the wheel can be worse.
-Walking across a shut down Park Avenue right now, I wonder why Park Ave can be open to everyone, but Yankee Stadium still feels like a closed caste system at times?
-Worry factor (on a 1-10 scale with 10 being panic)? Probably a 2.5-3. There's some things to work out but I still think this is a team that can win the World Series.
Ok, time for the event. Will try to update everyone later with some good knowledge from the panels.
-Andrew
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