Took a solace game from the Marlins and I am not going to go into too much on Shields except to say, thank you, that was pure joy to watch!
From the offensive side of the game I want everybody to remember that after all we are a $40M team and not blessed with the super stars that can with one swing of the bat change games. It seems we have lost a bit of focus on the get em on, get em over, get em in concept that was supposed to be our mantra this year. Not getting the leadoff runner aboard half the time is killing us. We NEED Sam Fuld on base disturbing the pitchers, advancing by stealing, and keeping the pressure on THEM. I feel watching the games when we were streaking till now, the pressure has changed and it is on us to get on base or score. Two/three weeks ago the pressure was on the other side to keep us off base, because when we got a runner on things were gonna happen!
I have posted this before and I sincerly believe, that with all the fundamentally sound baseball played by our team, one aspect is missing that would radically change the pysche of the game. Yes, you've heard this before but BJ can fly, Sam Fuld is fast and S-Rod started his career with, THE BUNT. Think of what it does, and I'm not talking about the Oh, we need to move a runner over thing, I'm talking about bunting for a base hit! The fore mentioned guys could and should be doing it often. Even Johnny Damon batting from the left and all his experience should be doing it. Not only would it give us extra baserunners, but it puts the defense on the defense. They must stay ready to charge a bunt, usually cheat in a bit, and this opens up the holes for swinging away.
One of the reasons the Yankees score most of there runs from the homer (besides their little league right field fence) is that all teams can play back against the grass waiting for the big swing. That gives the infielders more time to get to a ball and therefore wider range. I mean you gotta guy with BJ's speed who bunts his way on and by golly those corner infielders are gonna cheat in. When he sees that then he can swing away and find the hole.
This is my opinion and it may be worth what you paid for it. But, till somebody proves me wrong I'm hoping we could give it a shot!