Yankees Phone It In, RJG Looks to 2015

So it hasn't been the greatest year.  Neither for the Yankees, or for the RJG blog.  Many spectators would look at our blogging, and say that we've seemingly given up on the year.  The same could be said about the Yankees.  It's a shame that in the walk year of the most iconic Yankee player of our generation, the team would play as they have, but you just can't call these things.  Who would have thought that a reinvented offense with Beltran, McCann, and Ellsbury would struggle to score runs?  Now, while the Yankees continue to play out their season, they do so with one eye towards 2015.  With Jeter retiring, the core 4 is no more.  There are some decent to good players like Gardner, Betances and Robertson that are homegrown, but there really isn't anyone that is the face of the franchise.  A player who embodies the team's spirit, and has come up the ranks of the Yankees farm system.  That mostly has to do with the fact that our farm system has been awful for quite some time, and we are now reaping the results of what we've sown.  So what will 2015 look like?  Well, outside of whatever free agent splashes or trades we make, we have a returning group of Teixeira, Gardner, Ellsbury, McCann, and Beltran.  The two big openings are second base and short stop, and the Yankees will always look at improving their rotation.  And then of course, we have A-Rod.  I'm not going to malign the man, or even try to predict how he'll play in his return, but the only question I have is, will we have a team worth watching next year?  We've already watched two terrible seasons of Yankees baseball, propped up only by Mariano Rivera's final pitches, and Derek Jeter's last double plays.  I don't know what will keep Yankee fans engaged if the Yankees do not have a product worth watching on the field.  At what point do the Yankees accept that they've been building poorly for years, that the free agent splashes are getting boring, and that they continue to perpetuate the same problem of signing past-their-prime players only to have them break down on our watch and at huge costs?  Perhaps the Yankees need to take next season and rebuild.  Do a fire sale, and build this team from the ground up.  I suspect they are going to have a hard time filling seats until they have some homegrown talent we can be excited for again.