Only Aaron Hicks, Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorius are having any fun. Greg Bird would be too if he hadn't gotten hurt this spring. I really had hoped they would have had him start at 1B instead of Teixera at this point.

Take a look at Hicks' highlights from the past two games - unbelievable play. If he can hit, the Yankees have a new star. Gregorius has flaws but improves constantly, dealt with the whole replacing Jeter pressure extremely well after an initially awful start last year and can really field if he gets his fundamentals to work regularly. Castro has been their best player since joining the team.

Leading me think that the only real solution to the problem that Cashman and co. have weighed the team down with - namely that they overspent for years and bound the team with contracts for a long time for 7-8 aging or over the hill vets - is to just decide that an invisible season got played. Just lose 200 million dollars once, take it on the chin, including the fine for going over the salary cap, and get rid of all the over 35 players, replace them with kids that can run, throw hard and play. If we finish last this year, okay, but fans will show up to see an exciting team.

Learn from the mistake of having traded Soriano and Nick Johnson when fans were coming to see an exciting team of the future that never happened. ALL that money went to winning one championship in 15 years. Not a good investment.

I know, I know, this is the not the right forum, but I don't feel like dealing with you know who especially on Yankees stuff. So bear with me here all.

I would go to the Stadium to see Aaron Hicks play. So will a lot of people. You have to play him though.

I disagree with you on a couple of points.

First of all, I'm pretty sure Brett Gardner has been the Yankees best player so far this season, not Starlin Castro. I'm not sure Starlin Castro is in the top 5. He's exciting, but he hasn't been hitting all that well. I'd have a hard time saying he's been playing better than McCann or Beltran so far. Getting him out of the top 5 would require throwing in a couple of pitchers.

Aside from that, I think the Yankees are more dependent than the average team on "casual fans." Specifically, my impression has been that a large proportion of the people who buy the absurdly expensive seats in the new Yankee Stadium are businesspeople who don't really follow baseball very seriously. Not all of them, of course. But quite a few. Those people are going to look for wins. They aren't going to be aware of the team playing exciting baseball. They'll be aware of the record, generally speaking. Given the proportion of seat revenue that comes from the most expensive 10% of seats for the Yankees (by far the highest such ratio in baseball), this means the bottom line still cares quite a bit about winning.

It's nice to say that you will go to see Aaron Hicks play. So will a lot of people, you're right. But this is the Yankees. They sell out the cheap seats every game anyway. They don't care how many extra people they have to turn away because they're out of seats. As long as they sell out, it's the same. The only seats that don't sell out consistently are the ones that sell for 4 figures. And as I referenced in the previous paragraphs, selling those probably depends more on record than the brand of baseball that leads to it.

You are right of course about the business economics involved.

And yes, Gardner - I had left him out unfairly. McCann is good, Beltran ok, but if we went by a cost/benefit analysis? I am just tired after decades now of having overpaid, past-their-prime old guys be the Yankees.

But your points are all fair. Hicks belongs near or in the league of the great defensive centerfielders that Bill James was talking about today on his blog: Kevin Keirmaier, Kevin Pillar and Jackie Bradley, but is not playing regularly. Put him in Centerfield. I am over-reacting and engaging in hyperbole, I admit, but this team is going nowhere anyway.

As to the economics? F...the rich people, get rid of the expensive seats. The Yankees make enough off the TV revenue they could probably replace those with $7 seats and still have more money than most other teams. And spend it more wisely.

It is the Yankees, and as Buck Showalter once said, "People don't pay to see the Yankees play, they play to see the Yankees win." But they aren't winning and won't this season, not a whole lot anyway. Probably above .500, but that is about it.

As to me going to the see these guys play, I wrote that I would go, not that I will, I can't since I live in Italy, but I do pay MLB TV $100 a year to see as many games (the ones that start earlier) as I can.

Sure, Ellsbury steals home yesterday and Gardner just now hit a walk-off homer.

So apparently those two at least read this forum and took my comments to heart.