It's no mystery that the New York Yankees have not started the season the way they had hoped. A number of players have been struggling both on the offensive end and in the pitching staff.

On Wednesday night before the team's eventual 4-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the principal owner of the team, Hal Steinbrenner made comments regarding the team's struggles.

"The first five weeks were disappointing, frustrating, particularly looking at the offense," Steinbrenner said. "Clearly not living up to their potential."

Steinbrenner didn't stop there. He called out names.

"When you look at a guy like Mark Teixeira, clearly, he's not playing to his potential with the bat."

Teixeira is batting .203 with three home runs and eleven RBI's thus far this season. For a player who has voiced desire to continue his career with the Yankees once his contract is up at the end of this season, Teixeira likely will have to be the team's hottest hitter down the stretch in order to be on the roster next year.

Steinbrenner then took it to the pitching rotation as he targeted Michael Pineda and Luis Severino.

"All these strikeouts, and yet he's [Pineda] given up these runs," Steinbrenner said. "Whatever technically is wrong with the delivery, Larry [Rothschild] is going to work on, but the rest is up to Pineda to figure out. He's a professional, and that's what we expect from him, and that's what his teammates expect from him. The other [Severino] is a confidence issue."

With many of the players struggling, Steinbrenner made it clear that the coaching staff is not to blame for the team's lack of success.

"The coaches are doing a good job," Steinbrenner said. "These are professional athletes. They're the best baseball players in the world, and sooner or later it comes down to them, on the inside, to push through whatever it is they're going through and to persevere."

Teixeira heard about the remarks and agreed with Steinbrenner about his miserable performance thus far.

"I've been terrible the last month," Teixeira said. "I've been around long enough to know that you're going to get singled out when you're not producing, especially the type of career that I've had. I've always been someone that's been able to carry teams during tough streaks. We've been in a tough stretch the whole season. I'm the kind of player that can carry a team for a while. I just haven't done it yet.''

Pineda also responded with the same tone as Teixeira.

"I can be better," Pineda said. "I know it."

Pineda is 1-5 with a 6.60 ERA. Those numbers are unacceptable for a guy that was projected to be the team's second best starter coming into the season.

"I think the team we have this year is better than the team we had last year," said Steinbrenner.

With the team performing the way they are, or lack thereof, it's going to be interesting what moves will be made in the off-season (yes, Yankee fans should be looking at the upcoming off-season already. Especially with the contracts of Sabathia, Teixeira, and Beltran coming off the books). Many of the players on the team are replaceable, but it's a matter of who you replace them with?

 

It seems like the Yankees players no they are under-performing. Of course, without Greg Bird and James Kaprielian, the Yankees are missing a few of their key pieces, but with the caliber of players on this roster, there's no reason they should be in this scenario.

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