Yankees' Offense Frustrating to Watch

If you are a New York Yankees' fan, you already know that for the last decade or so, the team has been a run-producing machine.

Year in and year out, the Yankees fond themselves at or near the top of several offensive categories whether it was runs scored, home runs, hits, batting average, etc. It seemed like every single season, the Yankees were able to score runs with relative ease and because they were able to do so, won a lot more games than they lost.

Fast forward to this season and runs have been a lot more difficult to come by. Without the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira for most of the season thus far, runs are not coming as easy for the team and because of that, games have been a lot harder to win this year.

Sure, guys like Robinson Cano (16), Vernon Wells (10), Travis Hafner (10) and Lyle Overbay (8) have decent home run numbers, but it certainly does not compare to previous seasons. More often than not this season, when the team has needed a home run to take the lead or tie the ball game, it was nowhere to be found.

For the Yankees, this is something different. In previous seasons, the team was able to rely on the long ball to not only produce a lot of runs, but to also help the team win ball games.

That has not been the case this season. In fact, the team is 11th season when it comes to the long ball and while that is not terrible, it is certainly not Yankee-like.

Speaking of not Yankee-like, the team is 20th in runs scored this season. It has been awhile since the Yankees have really struggled offensively and right now, it is showing in a big way.

When the New York Mets swept the season series against the Yankees in late May, the team scored just seven runs in those four games. Recently, the team lost three straight games to the Oakland Athletics and in those three games, were outscored 14-8.

While there is still over three months left of baseball to play, the Yankees need to start figuring out alternative methods to scoring runs fast because if they don't, the playoffs might be in jeopardy for the first time in a long time.