They have gutted their farm system and traded their best prospects. That is why the single most important event of the whole summer was when they could not get Randy Johnson out of Arizona. Johnson wanted to come here in the worst way and the Yankees were desperate for him to come here. There was just one small problem: The Yankees had no farm-system assets that interested a rebuilding Diamondbacks team.
"We have nothing they want," Brian Cashman said one day to friends in his office, after the Johnson deal was dead.
The Yankees just crumble in the big moments now. They couldn't put the Diamondbacks away, couldn't put the Angels away in the first round in 2002, couldn't beat the Florida Marlins in the World Series last year. They are the champions of money now. That is all.