Will Yanks survive first West Coast swing?

As a Yankee fan every year I dread the first West Coast swing every year. The Yanks rarely play well and coming out slightly better than .500 on these 1st swings is considered respectable.

Predictions? (reasonable ones joeybee12 ;-))

If I were a Yankees fan, and I am not, I wouldn't be worried yet. This team is loaded with talent and talent eventually will come through. Baltimore is off to a nice start but let's see how they do when the dog days of summer arrive.

Hate to say it but...the Yankess S**K. There. I feel better.

so far. So, I'd say that anything less than 4 wins is probably not a good sign for the Yankees.

- they've won five straight, albeit against weak teams . . .
- they'll be playing those same weak teams on the west coast . . .
- their starting pitching has been good, except for that Mulligan by Pavano . . .
- their relief pitching has been even better . . .
- several guys are swinging hot bats, most notably Tino . . .
- they're bringing in Reggie Jackson to work with Giambi, starting tonight (okay, so that one's a stretch) . . .

yeah, they should be fine . . . the real test will come when they get back east and have to face Boston and Baltimore . . . and even the Mets . . . those are the games that will tell us whether they're still the Yankees, or if it's all over but the shouting . . .

as a Yankee fan, I think they're still going to have real problems against the strong teams . . . despite signing Randy Johnson, they did NOT fix their starting pitching during the offseason . . . they way overpaid for two journeyman pitchers (Pavano and Wright) who each had one moderately good year . . . they let John Lieber get away, and because of previous stupidity, are stuck with Kevin Brown for the rest of this year . . . the only real reliable starters they have are Johnson and Mussina -- and both of them are starting to show their age . . .

Torre always says "we'll go as far as our starting pitching takes us" . . . imo, that's not going to be very far this year . . .

trip with a 3-3 record would be a disaster, considering where they are in the standings and their overall win-loss record. If they can't start teeing off on teams like Seattle and Oakland and racking up some wins, then the Yanks are in serious trouble. It isn't going to get any easier when they get back home.

It's true that some of their bats have begun to show signs of life, but Tino sure as hell isn't going to carry that team into September. Giambi and Williams tag-teaming the DH slot is a fuckin' joke, and I don't know how long the NY press and The Boss are going to find it funny.

The Yankee pitching has it's problems, but what pitching staff doesn't ---look at Boston, their #1 and #2 starters on the DL--- but it's not the worst situation in the League. So, all things considered, I'd say wait 'til Sunday, by then you'll know if this latest win streak is the team really finding it's legs, or just a series of timely hits that won their games. Remember that Seattle scored a LOT of runs off them during that last series.

2 out of 3 in Seattle and its a 5-1 trip.

time out West than the Sox.

Yanks sweep the As while Seattle takes 2 out of 3 from Boston, and, worse news for Sox fans, the Sox pitching staff allowed 22 (!) runs over the 3 game series by the Mariners -- that is not a good sign. :(