Ouch! The Yanquis are shut out by Toronto as they lose...

[cruadin]

their third straight game. They are now 7-10 against the rest of the AL East, and 6 games behind Baltimore (soon to be 6.5).

Baltimore looks like the real deal for April, they are on track to win again tonight against Tampa Bay. The Red Sox have their work cut out for them just to keep pace with the Os, who stand astride the AL East like a Colossus. ;)

[JohnKleeb]

1. Go Orioles

:bounce: To have your confidence coming back to your team is oh so sweet, this is the best start since '97 by the way.

[cruadin]

2. The Os look unstoppable so far, they may come to earth...

as the season goes along, but they are off to a kick-ass start.

Right now they're shutting out the Rays through 7 innings (5-0) to go for their sixth straight win.

[JohnKleeb]

3. yeah everyone comes back down to earth sometime

But I am loving this, :), I would be happy if they won 80 games man, thats how patient Ive gotten. THey have superb chemistry it seems by the way too, a great attribute to have.

[Reverend_Smitty]

4. They draw their power from your giant sigline pic, Kleeb

n/t

[JohnKleeb]

5. Nah, Ive had great sports luck this past year

Steelers making it to the AFC Championship
Predicting the NCAA's to near perfection
Havin the Sox come up down 3-0 on the Yanks
Having a good HS football team this year, as well as basketball

[OneBlueSky]

6. the mistakes Steinbrenner has made in putting this team together . . .

are legion, and the list of quality younger (and less costly) players he's let go and replaced with relics is a long one -- Nick Johnson, Ted Lilly, Alphonso Soriano, Jeff Weaver, John Lieber, Miguel Cairo, etc. . . .

one of his biggest miscalculations was assuming that just because Roger Clemens was still a star after age 40, others would follow suit . . . and thus we have a miserable Kevin Brown and a skakey Randy Johnson on board . . .

if George had built around the good players he's gotten rid of, we'd have a hell of a lot better team than we do with "all-stars" at every position . . . if the Yanks don't make the playoffs, it's entirely George's fault for doing stupid things like dumping Nick Johnson and signing Jason Giambi to a seven year deal . . .

I'm following the Mets this year . . .

[JohnKleeb]

7. Thats how I feel about the Yanks that trading Johnson and Soriano

were mistakes. Nick Johnson I believe has the longest hit streak in the NL right now with the Nationals. Soriano and Jeter were a nice tandem ast 2b and SS. I think these mistakes are affecting the Yankees finally, I Dont mean to sound gloatful but I really think some of the Yankees deals in teh past 3-4 years have really been in the worst interests of their future.

[OneBlueSky]

8. I agree . . . even though you are an Orioles fan . . .

actually, your team looks pretty good this year . . . with Boston losing a starting pitcher a week, and the Yankee bats as effective as rolled up wet newspapers, your guys may just be the team to beat in the East this year . . .

btw . . . have the Washington Nationals cut into Baltimore's fan base to any significant degree? . . . just curious . . .

[JohnKleeb]

9. Thanks and I saw you once acknowledge how Steinbrenner

paraded the kid in the 96 ACLS hero around in the ACLS as crap and bull, and I appreciated that. Hmmmmm well ya see I live in Virginia, Maryland has a higher Orioles fan base than us, alot of us like me are going for both teams, or like a guy in my journalism class is just going for the O's, he seems to hate the Nats, no idea why, I like both a lot. Seriously though, the Yanks are finally paying for their mistakes in the early decade dealing away all those young players, really, its why the declined after Mantle and Whitey Ford got old in the 60's(didnt develop the farm good enough) and why post Reggie they declined as well too in the 80's. You can have great all star players but to build your team on just that is just a stupid thing to do, like here in Baltimore we have a nice balance between all star players like Miguel Tejada, Sosa, that we got via big free agent deals but we also got guys like Rodrigo Lopez who I believe was originally signed to a minor league contract as our now defacto ace, and now he could be 17 game winner this year IMO, not 20, its hard to win 20 games today, Brian Roberts was developed by our miner league teams, Mora was a steal as well, the Yanks have to realize that big names alone doesnt make the team, but a balance of a few big name players here there, some steals, and homegrown guys is the best way to win, thats just my opinion of course, I Dont know if the Yanks slide is a fluke or not, I think its too early to tell but the way the Orioles are playing has me confident that even if the Yanks get hot, they still will have to work more harder than they normally will since the division is competive excepting Tampa Bay.

[OneBlueSky]

10. this year, I'm really having my doubts that the Yanks will get hot . . .

for any extended period . . . for all their dealing, their starting pitching is probably no better than it was last year, when they won over 100 games . . . the position players who brought home all those championships (Jeter, Williams, Posada, Martinez) are yet another year older, and their "all-star" acquisitions are just there for the ridiculous money Steinbrenner doles out . . . they don't have that Yankee pride or that attitude that makes winners . . . some of them (Giambi, Brown) are actually detrimental to the team, while others (A-Fraud, Sheffield, Johnson) have the occasional great day in between a bunch of mediocre outings . . . all in all, I think they've done a horrendous disservice to Yankee fans by putting a team together this way, and this may be he year that they pay the price for it . . . and given that I've criticized them all along, from the Giambi acquisition right up through A-Rod and the Big Unit, I'm not gonna be shedding any crocodile tears when it happens . . . besides, the Mets are playing some exciting baseball and are a whole lot more fun to watch right now . . .