Here the Yanks sit at the All-Star break with a record of 50-45, 6 games out of first and 5.5 games out of a wildcard.

On one hand, that isn't too bad considering the injuries to A-Rod and Posada earlier in the year and Damon and Matsui now. In fact, there have been but a handful of times this season that the Yanks have been able to start their projected opening day lineup.

The result has been a lineup with very little pop, a lower than expected On Base Percentage, and an egregious average with Runners in Scoring Position.

Injuries happen, and all teams have to deal with them. But I'm surprised so far by the lack of creativity on Brain Cashman's part to fill the gaps in the roster. I'm not talking about big moves here; but it's hard to believer he hasn't been able to pick up a right-handed bat to fill in at LF or 1B when needed. Clearly, Wilson Betemit and Justin Christian are not the answers. Morgan Ensberg and Shelley Duncan failed with the Yanks this year, and Cashman is put off by Jason Lane's numbers at Scranton: .229/.335/.433. (Although Lane has major league experience and could provide some power, I believe, if he were given a chance.)

Cashman's passivity is costing the Yankee wins. How many? It's impossible to say with complete certaintly. But the Yanks are scoring 4.6 runs a game this year, as opposed to 5.9 last year. Perhaps Cashman is waiting until closer to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, but by then, the Yanks could be too far behind for an extra bat to do much good.

To take a given game, the Yanks went to Pittsburgh last Thursday for the make-up of a previous rain out. The last four batters in the lineup? Melky, Molina, Christain, Mussina. Granted, it's a National League game, but that's the equivalent of four pitchers at the bottom of the order. (That game was further exasperated by the fact that Mussina had the best at bats of the four.)

Because the Yanks carry 13 pitchers and three catchers, there is virtually no one on the bench to pinch hit. Often times, the only choice is Wilson Betemit. These are incredible holes for a team with a 200 million plus payroll.

It's hard to win a lot of games when five of your starters have these types of On Base Percentages-either putrid as always or considerably below their career norms:

                       Year           Career
Cano:  .285  .335
Molina: .263  .277
Cabrera: .301  .331
Jeter:   .345  .386
Abreu:  .345  .405

For the better part of the season, the Yanks production has come from 1B, 3B, and LF - before Damon and Matsui went down. And very seldom can they muster any offense at all against a lefty, our any quality righty for that matter. In short, we are talking about a team that scores two runs or fewer 35% of the time. Someone needs to tell the Yanks it's not 1968. Or is it?

For now, Cashman sits and watches, biding his team until the injuries heal, doing very little to help the team win.

And there is the pitching predicament. Cashman's answers so far to bolster the rotation and provide an improvement over Darrel Rasner and Sidney Ponson are to work out Victor Zambrano and, god forbid, Eric "Moonshot" Milton.

I understand that the Yanks are taking fliers on guys here with very little financial commitment. But come on, is this the best you can do Brian?

Cashman took a chance this year, hoping that Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes were ready to start the season in the rotation. They weren't. In fact, they failed terribly. This is not to criticize Cashman for not getting Johan Santana. I was in favor of not making that trade then and I am still happy the Yanks didn't sign Santana to a long-term contract.

The problem here is that Cashman had no contingency plan, nothing to back up two rookies who were rushed into the rotation, and no solutions to an anemic-and often clueless--offense. 

There are only so many times one can stomach hearing Derek Jeter give credit to the opposing pitcher in the post game interviews. Take Sunday's game going into the break, for example. A.J Burnett's ERA against teams other than the Yankees this year is 5.88. How about working the count against a guy on 3 days rest for the first time in his career, Cap?

The Yanks' schedule gets much harder after the All-Star game. They will see a lot of the A's, Twins and those dreaded Angels. 

For Derek and the rest of the Yankees, the post-season is a long way away.