Buster Olney provides a great service to anyone interested in baseball, linking to every team's local newspaper beat reporter and columnists. Olney is of course one of the best baseball journalists in the business, but I disagreed with his pre-links article today (subscription only).

The central theme of his argument is that the current Yankees lack the mystique they had during the dynasty years at the turn of the century. There is certainly some truth to that, but Buster went on to write, "Alex Rodriguez and Bobby Abreu and Jason Giambi and Robinson Cano don't have that (winning) in their experience, and Joba Chamberlain." Which is a fair point as well, though I do not think is a major factor why this year's version of the Bronx Bombers, with such a thin starting rotation, currently reside in third place in the American League East.

For starters, the postseason is a crapshoot, the AL in general (especially the East) has improved dramatically this decade, the Boston Red Sox now have the best front office in baseball with Theo Epstein at the helm, and New York had much better starting pitching in the dynasty years. That is the major difference, not because Rodriguez and Abreu and Giambi and Cano do not have "winning experience." He raves about how former New York third baseman, one of the main figures in the article, had that swagger that several current Yankee players lack. I was at the Brosius home run game at Yankee Stadium back in 2001, which was one of the highlights of my freshman year of high school. But, during that same season, the Yankees infielder hit .287/.343/.446 with 13 home runs, 49 RBIs and a below average OPS+, 105+, for a corner position. Rodriguez already has more homers this season, in half the at-bats, is the best player in baseball, and gets way too much flack for he performs in a small sample size and for the performance of his teammates. In the past, some writers have made the ridiculous argument that the Yankees would be better off with Brosius in his prime rather than A-Rod, undoubtedly the best hitter in the American League.

However, if one wants to look at a major problem going unnoticed in New York this season-not the obvious poor performance of youngsters Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, Robinson Cano's inability to get on base and Chien-Ming Wang's injury-look out at shortstop, where the beloved Captain continues to kill the Yankees with his terrible range and overall defense. The Yankees ranks 22nd out of 30 teams in defensive efficiency rating-the rate at which balls put into play are converted into outs-and Jeter's lack of range is a major reason why.

"Passed-A-Diving," a nickname given to Jeter because New York announcers always use the phrase since he does not get too enough balls to his left or right, is also struggling at the plate right now. He has posted an un-Jeter like OPS+ of 98, which indicates that he has been a below-league average offensive player, albeit at a defense-first position. Given his poor defense as well, he is clearly not living up to his reputation or $20-million paycheck. He may have four rings, but the players got it right in last week's SI poll, choosing him as the most overrated player in baseball. Honestly, if A-Rod-who was a far better shortstop at the time of the trade, and would have stayed at the position if Jeter did what was best for the team (yet received no criticism for, due to the media's infatuation with him and the myth that he is a Gold Glove fielder)-came up in the Yankees' farm system back in the 90s, he would have all of those rings as well. And if Jeter came up with Seattle, he would be just another shortstop, who most likely would have been moved to third base by now. Do not get me wrong, he has been a tremendous player and was an integral part of those talented Yankees teams at the end of the 90s, but he is now on the downward decline and is nowhere close to being as effective of a player as his partner on the left side of the infield.

Rodriguez was attacked by the New York papers-the Post is more of a tabloid, though-after making a few errors at third base in 2006, and some wondered if he could handle third base anymore after a small sample size of about two weeks. Jeter has been a poor fielder for years now, however, yet no mainstream writer would dare to insult the New York hero.