the a-roid news seals it…the yanks won’t make the playoffs again!  a-roid will hear the chants at every at bat on the road, will struggle, and be booed in ny by the break.

  distraction gets under tex's skin and skirmishes ensue in the dugout.  burnet's arm falls off in may and wong reverts to his mean (.500).  girardi attempts to settle things by mandating curfews and new diet regimen.  jeter begins venting to the media.   fed up yankees fans riot and burn the new stadium to the ground following early august 4 game sweep by the sox...   dreams can come true...

[quote=go_huskies]the a-roid news seals it…the yanks won’t make the playoffs again!  a-roid will hear the chants at every at bat on the road, will struggle, and be booed in ny by the break.

  distraction gets under tex's skin and skirmishes ensue in the dugout.  burnet's arm falls off in may and wong reverts to his mean (.500).  girardi attempts to settle things by mandating curfews and new diet regimen.  jeter begins venting to the media.   fed up yankees fans riot and burn the new stadium to the ground following early august 4 game sweep by the sox...   dreams can come true... [/quote]   You missed a few...Posada, Chamberlain, and Rivera's arms fall off too, and Sabathia blows his knees out under his own weight after cramming 1 too many cheeseburgers down between innings.   And the Yanks still win the AL East.

that squad is marginally better than last year.

  giambi hit 30+ bombs and had nearly 100 rbi - tex is an improvement, but not overwhelmingly. mussina won 20, maybe sabs can reach that number, but he's got a lot of pressure and he's proven to not be a pressure pitcher (the postseason record is telling) burnett has been a trainwreck his entire career. a-roid will wilt. the outfield d is terrible and damon lost a step. jeter...well, jeter will be jeter, so at least you got that.   al east: sox, rays, yanks, jays, orioles  

Disagree…squad is much more than “marginally better” (assuming relative health).

  -Tex represents almost .05 impovement in BA, OBP, and SLG over Giambi, and he is a tremendous defensive upgrade at the position.   -I would say it is reasonable to assume Sabathia will replace the 20 wins lost by Mussina. He has pitched against all those loaded lineups in the AL East (though, admittedly he has not been great against those douchy Red Sox).   -Burnett, while fragile, murders AL East teams, and I would take him over marching Sidney Ponson up on the mound every 5 days in between his fights with random bartenders at hotel bars.   -While history doesn't indicate it, I think A-Roid has hit pretty close to rock bottom. Outside of somebody at a Planned Parenthood coming out with a Ron Mexico story, what else can happen? Ok, don't answer that, but the booing can't get a whole lot worse.   -The outfield was awful last year and the Yanks still won 89 games. Damon doesn't have to be Grady Sizemore, he just has to not be Manny Ramirez.   All in all, the Yanks have added net gain pieces which should push them to at least 5-8 more wins. Nobody in the East has gotten appreciably better, so those 5-8 will come from one of those teams. Rays will be tough, but they won't sneak up on anybody. The Sox are perrenial pests, so that will be a horse race. But, as I said, barring a injury catastrophe, Yanks win the East.