In recent years, the premature Yankee obituary has become as much a rite of mid-May as the Preakness Stakes.

It works something like this: the Yankees stumble out of the gate. The lesser-informed contingent of the New York media notices and starts to qualify its every mention of the word "Yankees" with either "last-place" or "struggling." Talk radio hums with the monosyllabic lilt of incensed Staten Islanders, while the tabloids land many a bruising jab -- like the one in Monday's New York Daily News, in the form of a photo caption that reads "Ryan Church avoids tag for run that helps turn hallowed Stadium into Met turf." Zing!

Are the Yankees' struggles an illusion or are they losing their grip? (US Presswire)

Nonetheless, that world is currently wobbling as precariously as Jason Giambi in the throes of any activity that doesn't involve circling the bases very slowly. So I'm here to ratchet up the hysteria before the card-carrying hysteria-ratchet-uppers do the same.

The facts: As of Tuesday, the Yankees have lost four more games than they have won. Their pitchers have allowed 18 more runs than their hitters have pushed across the plate. They find themselves six and a half games behind the hated demon Red Sox and five and a half behind the sprightly teenage Rays in the American League East.

The latter represents an unusual state of affairs both for the Yankees and baseball at large. The Rays? Competitive? After a mere 10 seasons of top five draft picks? That's a solid decade and a half ahead of former GM Chuck LaMar's original projection.

The Yankees employ a rookie manager, Joe Girardi, whose buzz-cut leanings and no-Goobers-or-sorbet-in-the-clubhouse dictate may or may not chafe his "veteran" roster of "professionals" (read: oldie old olds not used to being denied a single thing). Girardi has scribbled out something like 42.65 different batting orders in 44 games, which puts him on pace to burn through several boxes of pencils by October.

He got pissy with the media horde a few weeks back over injury disclosure (or lack thereof), then cleared the air with an off-the-record session. This had such a profound calming effect that the writers jacked up the temperature on his seat seven weeks into his managerial tenure.

The Yankees cannot catch or throw the baseball. Whether you go by what you see or by range factor/other statistical metrics, this team's defenders range from decent (Melky Cabrera) to average (Jose Molina, ouchie-heads A-Rod and Jorge Posada) to indifferent (Robinson Cano, Bobby Abreu) to godless (Giambi's grandpa-slow reactions, Johnny Damon's noodly arm of despair, Hideki Matsui's neo-Knoblauchian routes to the ball, Shelley Duncan's symphony of elbows).

Derek Jeter? He looks like something out of a poorly edited Gatorade commercial when he does that plant-foot-jump-throw thing of his on balls to his right, and has amazing intangibles on grounders to his left. When the ball is struck in his general direction, I am sad.

The Yankees don't hit southpaws, at least not when A-Rod and Posada aren't around to counterbalance the lefty-leaning batting order. They have received a single acceptable outing (out of 13 total) from the touted, off-the-table pair of Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy.

They haven't yet determined whether third-base coach Bobby Meacham is an enemy operative tasked with breaking "Wave 'Em In Willie" Randolph's record of 93 runners gunned down at home plate in a single season. They'll have to do something about Joba Chamberlain's tendency to over-pump his fist after crucial strikeouts, lest that they set opponents chirping about violations of baseball's unwritten rules.

Does that about sum it up? Good. Bury the Yankees now. Except that, well ...

Teams have, at least once or twice in the last century, made up a six-game deficit with 118 to go. With largely the same cast of characters, the Yankees went 72-39 from June onwards last season.

Sure, they'll miss Roger Clemens' accountability (cough!) and Joe Torre's openness to change (cough cough cough!), but the AL hasn't lived up to its preseason billing. If the Yankees win 60 percent of their games from here on out -- certainly within the realm of possibility -- that gets 'em to 90 by October. That should be plenty.

Girardi may have an, uh, "unconventional" way of meting out playing time, with Sunday night proving the latest and weirdest example (no Duncan, whose Yankee existence is premised on his ability to mash portsiders, against lefty-vaporizing Ollie Perez?). At the same time, he has had less to work with, in terms of healthy bodies and rotation options, than any Yankee manager in the last 13 or so seasons.

Girardi's commitment to getting the team in shape -- after Damon and Abreu showed up doughboy-plump in February 2007 -- is long overdue and should benefit the players in the long run, even if all they have to show for it so far is a spate of quad pulls and achy breaky shoulders.

As for those quads and shoulders, it's been said that the Yankees losing A-Rod and Posada is equivalent to the Red Sox losing David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez.

Me, I'd argue that it's much worse.

Teams can find fill-in solutions at DH and in left field; the options are far fewer at third base and catcher. Here's how bad it became a few weeks back: The Yankees were praying that Chad Moeller, who began the season as the organization's 18th option behind the plate, would clear waivers and return to their fold. Insert "$200 million don't buy what it used to" gibe here.

The irony of it all? Following last October's loss to the Indians, the Yankees enjoyed their first rational off-season since 2000. They didn't throw gobs of cash at Kyle Lohse and assembled a semifunctional bench, eschewing Torre catnip like Luis Sojo and Ruben Sierra for versatile guys like Morgan Ensberg.

Most essentially, they adhered to Brian Cashman's developmental plan. Had they not, it could've been disastrous. Over the last two weeks, seemingly every billionaire-owned pauper franchise has inked its top young players to long-term deals.

As best as my limited grasp of economics allows me to understand, this means that these players won't be floated in trades when they hit their arbitration years ... which means that the days of Cabrera/Willis-for-the-entire-Detroit-farm-system are done ... which means heated competition for the smaller number of stars that reach free agency. Basically, that's a long way of saying that the Yankees got on the developmental bandwagon at the precise right moment.

But that's yesterday's news. Or tomorrow's. Today's story, alas, remains that the Yankees are terrible and bad and slow and old and soooooo overpaid.

Expect my "Yankees are back!!!" epistle on July 13.

Larry Dobrow writes a whole lotta words, a solid 40 percent of which are coherent, for a whole lotta publications.

He is currently in his fifth year as Maxim Online's baseball columnist and regularly contributes to the site's entertainment coverage as well. In the latter role, he once picked up his phone to hear, "Larry brutha, this is Mr. T!" on the other end of the line. Nobody else seems to think this story is as entertaining as Larry does.

Larry appears every Monday night on Maxim's Sirius radio channel and, as Stuff's online television critic, gets to view HBO's Sunday night shows and 24 a whopping three weeks before everyone else. This makes him feel special. He also contributes to a host of media and technology publications, including Advertising Age, and writes MediaPost's biweekly Magazine Rack column.

In sum, Larry is busier than you are, though probably not taller. He lives in New York City with six guitars and approximately three malnourished plants, and counts running and napping among his diversions.

See the original Article Printed Here: http://cbs.sportsline.com/mlb/story/1083437

My thoughts: This article was phenominal and should be read by all "Yankee Fans" that start the doom and gloom talk right now. It has not been easy to watch this recent trend of slow starts but that is exactly what it is. No team in the East is dominant., they all have holes. The Yankees will get it together and make the playoffs. If not, it's not a big deal!!!! They have 4 pitchers under the age of 27. That's a lot of dominance to come and Cashman knows what he's doing.