Aaron Boone

The AL East will be competitive as ever so the Yankees will have to be at their very best if they want to win the division.

For the last 20+ years, there has been an interesting debate amongst coaches, managers and athletic performance professionals. The question is: do athletes respond to more structure and team rules? Or, do they flourish more, only restricted by the rules of the game they are playing? Should coaches let athletes "be themselves" or should athletes "conform" to the team they play for? Believe it or not, this question goes ascends to the major leagues.

The New York Yankees are struggling right now and are basically a .500 baseball team 30 games into the season. They had a brutally rough road stretch.

Aaron Boone was ejected from yesterday's New York Yankees' game over a video replay controversy, and Major League Baseball still needs to address it publicly.

In professional sports, you don't want to plan on injuries. However, you have to be smart and prepare for them. New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman lured the biggest pitching prize of the 2023 free agent market, Carlos Rodón, to the Bronx. The GM certainly didn't want to plan for his left-handed pitcher's replacement in mid-March.

Aaron Boone and the New York Yankees would rather forget this past weekend. Yes, losing two of three to a team that you handled at their place last weekend stinks. But, that certainly wasn't the worst of it for the Yankees manager. When your weekend is filled with questions about your team involving Tommy John surgery, struggling closer, blown saves and a racial comment, it's easy to forget that you have a 5 game lead in the American League East.

In 2022, every American League East victory is going to be crucial for the New York Yankees. That's why Sunday night was so important. Even though there are 159 games left for the Pinstripes, manager Aaron Boone knows this division will decided by a few games or less. A three game sweep would have been sweet but Boston showed that they too plan to stick around this season with their 4-3 victory in series finale.

New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone has a ton of time to think about his pitching rotation these days. One problem is, he doesn't know who is doing well coming off of injuries and who is not. Nor does he know who general manager Brian Cashman will be able to add via trade or free agency. As the players are locked out of team facilities, communication between organizational staff and their players is supposed to be non-existent. From everything that I can gather, that is true. So, let's give the manager some help and design a realistic starting five to take the Bombers back to the World Series.

When Opening Day will take place, may be a bigger question than even the New York Yankees questionable Opening Day line-up. Let's have some fun and give general manager Brian Cashman a little help, while providing manager Aaron Boone with a winning line-up. Remember, we have to be realistic with our wish-list additions!

This might be the year the baseball needs to try out some creative ideas. Here's one of them: seven-inning doubleheaders. Those have long been a staple of baseball.