Yankee Hot Stove Reality Check--Jeff Passan, Yahoo

Hank Steinbrenner--Photo from Yahoo.com

• Jeff Passan reports on all the teams, notes Yankees are inferior to Red Sox and you now have the X factor of Hank. (There's always Randy Levine, too). Hank often takes reporters' phone calls and when not doing so is busy calling them himself. It doesn't sound like he's about to recede into the woodwork. I'll be happy in 2018 when Alex Rodriguez' contract expires. Not that I don't appreciate his great talent. I don't like all his other stuff including his vulgar wife. (sm)

(Mr. Passan): "For someone who wanted nothing to do with the family baseball business, Hank Steinbrenner has acted an awful lot like his father during George's most ornery days. From stonewalling Scott Boras to calling out Alex Rodriguez to essentially canning Joe Torre, Steinbrenner has added a new commandment to the Yankees' many:

• Thou shalt not trifle with Hank.

By now, Cashman should well have learned this. Though he has rescued the Yankees' farm system from its Sahara period, he has struggled to find the right formula for winning on the major league level. Maybe it is an infusion of youth, or maybe it's Joe Girardi's stern attitude as manager.

• Compared to the Red Sox, the Yankees are an inferior team. Chien-Ming Wang is an excellent starter. He's not someone you want in Game 1 of a playoff series. Mariano Rivera is an excellent closer. Behind him, who else is there? The Yankees' lineup is indisputable, but it couldn't hit them out of the first round the last two seasons.

For a transition year, the Yankees look awfully similar. And with a new Steinbrenner in charge – a bigger, badder Boss than we've seen in years – that isn't necessarily a good thing."

• From "Hot Stove Daily," by Jeff Passan, YahooSports.com, 11/22/07

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