A look at the standings

Now that all of the Sunday games have been completed, here is an updated look at the American League East standings and the American League Wild Card standings.

AL East
Boston Red Sox - 34-15
Baltimore Orioles - 23-27, 11.5 GB
Toronto Blue Jays - 22-27, 12.0 GB
New York Yankees - 21-27, 12.5 GB
Tampa Bay Devil Rays - 20-28, 13.5 GB

The Red Sox magic number (or Yankees tragic number) to win the East is 102, so there's still hope!!! NOT.

AL Wild Card
Detroit Tigers - 29-20
Chicago White Sox - 24-21, 3.0 GB
Seattle Mariners - 24-22, 3.5 GB
Minnesota Twins - 24-25, 5.0 GB
Oakland Athletics - 24-25, 5.0 GB
Baltimore Orioles - 23-27, 6.5 GB
Toronto Blue Jays - 22-27, 7.0 GB
New York Yankees - 21-27, 7.5 GB
Tampa Bay Devil Rays - 20-28, 8 GB
Kansas City Royals - 19-32, 11 GB
Texas Rangers - 18-32, 11.5 GB

The Tigers magic number to win the Wild Card is 107, so there's even more hope!!!

As you can see, the American League East race is over. The Yankees have dug themselves a huge hole and will not crawl out of it. The Red Sox are too good and the Yankees are not.

The Yankees have not played Detroit yet this year, and the Yankees, on paper, are better than most of the teams they are behind in the Wild Card standings.

This all being said, the Yankees have to play better baseball and at least get above .500, because the "that's early" excuse is not going to fly in the middle of August.

The way things are now, the team has no pulse and it does not seem like they want to win. You get a feeling that when they fall behind early, they stop caring. It may be best if they miss the playoffs, start playing some young guys to see what the system has, and build a better team for 2008-on.