Yankees 2009 Fantasy Team Won't Win a Pennant

If fantasy becomes reality this year, we will see a repeat of 2000, and the Mets will play the Yankees in the World Series, in their new ballparks, and I will be there.

Is that asking too much? Yes, probably. Here is why. The Yankees, for one, won't make it.

I sat home tonite, after a day as traffic judge, and reminisced how as a kid I would take the subway back and forth between the games in the Bronx and Queens, for the Yankees and Mets.

On satellite tonite, flipping back and forth between direct tv channels, I saw games at the Yankee's new Stadium and the Mets' Citi Field. I flashed back 47 years to my first days at the old parks, entrenched in my mind forever.

I remember my seats in Uncle Herb's Box 24J at Yankee Stadium in 1964 when Mel Stottlemeyer, who finished 9-3 that year, made his major league debut. But I virtually lived at Shea as a kid, cutting school and taking the number 7 train to Willets Point to catch the Mets, a Brooklyn boy's replacement for the Dodgers who went west. I remember the World's Fair, the Unisphere, and the Newsday logos above the left field club level, where I saw my first game from. Memories, good memories of days when we were younger.

As the Yankees enter this year, I am not optimistic for them from a fantasy standpoint. And in the Green Diamonds League I am part of, I foolishly bet the world on them, and will have to spend most of the year rebuilding. So here is why I think the Yankees go bust this year. Start with their catcher. Jorge is too old and too injury prone and no matter how good he once was, his best years are behind him. He can't throw people out anymore. And behind the backstop for the Yankees, they have no backup.

At third base, A Rod is hurt, bombed by allegations of steroids, and the hip hurting him today won't be cured swiftly swinging a bat regularly all summer. Hip injuries do not a batter make. Next to him, the consistent Mr. Jeter has numbers going down each year. Like Mike Young of the Rangers, he is a picture of consistency in games played and batting average, but the numbers which were once there are no longer going to come. He cannot cover the field the way he once did, and the Yankees have no game plan if he gets injured, no Gordon Beckham in the wings.

Robinson Cano blossomed in 2007, surrounded by a hitting jugernaut, but the sophomore slump leaves you asking which year was real. Of course having Tex at the corner playing off A Rod is awesome, and there you have the Yankees only real and established rising star in the lineup. But will teams simply pitch around him?

I drafted Matsui and Swisher and regret both choices. If Swish could not hit higher than .219 in Chicago surrounded by bats like Carlos Quentin, Jim Thome, and Paul Konerko, why should I expect more from him in the Bronx? He failed to meet expectations in Oakland and outright failed on the South Side of Chicago, and has been so unimpressive Joe Girardi has journeyman Xavier Nady playing right field ahead of him.

There is nothing not to like about Hideki, who homered tonite in the new Yankee Stadium but has been hurt for two of the past three years, and is likely to get injured again over the course of six grueling months. Already this spring it's been a hammie. We know how good he was just a couple of years ago, but we forget how long he played in Japan before he came to NY. His better days are behind him too. He has crested. The Sox signed Bay. The Rays, Burrell. The Yankees have Melky? Please.

Brett Gardner? Please, again. This is a sport that has developing outfield stars in Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Gomez, Jordan Schaffer, Dexter Fowler, Cameron Maybin, and Andrew McCuthen. In the past two years, we have seen Hunter Spence, Matt Kemp, Corey Hart, Nate McClouth, and Nick Markakis emege. Brett Gardner is not even mentioned in their breath. The guy barely beat out Melky Cabrera. Sure, the Yanks still have Johnny Damon, but his World Series star was worn five years ago. He too is older and prone to injuries. And Abreu is gone.

The Yankees may play to their peak and will be good but they will never be great with this lineup. Too much happens along the way to make them a picture of consistency. Only if they remain entirely injury free will these stars shine. There is much too worry about, especially in a depleted and overhyped farm system.

Great pitching may make their good lineup good enough to win more games then they lose. But Boston is more balanced and Tampa Bay is younger and hungrier. Only the arms could save the Yankees this year. AJ Burnett struck out 230 last year. CC is awesome. Rivera is still spectacular. But know this. CC has lost time to injury. Rivera had his shoulder operated on over the winter. With AJ, 200 plus k's last year notwithstanding, you are always holding your breath. Phil Hughes had a freak injury. Ian Kennedy is not god. There are weaknesses in the armor, chinks that suggests if you bet on the Yankees you will be burned.

My advice is to grab comparable ballplayers on lesser teams that give you better stats without the hype or the hurt.