Brett Gardner

The Yankees were happy to leave Toronto after their first visit with the Blue Jays over the weekend.

This series provided a lot to think about in regards to what the Yankees are dealing with regarding strengths and issues.

Losing the first two games was making the Yankees look like has-beens. Thanks to Javier Vazquez’s impressive performance the Yankees avoided getting swept on Sunday.

Watching Saturday’s 14 innings proved that the Yankee pitching is pretty sturdy and continued to add more worries about the Yankee bats.

Okay so I'm a little late with Part II of my season-long look into the lost art of the stolen base. You can read part I here as a template for what future articles in this series will look like (if you are a new reader of mine). For those that aren't, yes it's the same format.

The look on Mark Teixeira's face tells it all.

The Yankees are mired in a slump to beat all slumps. Not only has the lights-out pitching from early in the year disappeared, but the offense is sputtering right now as well.

Which is not a good combination.

I'd say the slump started with the Detroit series, which was won by the Tigers three games to one. Then it looked like the Yankees dominance over the Twins would never end, that is until Jason Kubel proved that Mo was in fact human by hitting a grand slam—the first ever slam given up by Mo at Yankee Stadium.

We are here with our third installment of the Clint Eastwood crusade regarding the New York Yankees. If you missed the first installment, click here .

Second installment? Click here .

The Yankees took two of three against the Twins over the weekend, but lost the finale in stinging fashion when Mariano Rivera gave up a grand slam in the eighth inning. New York will have to bounce back from that blow quickly, though, as it welcomes the arch rival Red Sox to Yankee Stadium for a quick two-game set.

The Bombers (24-13) have taken four of six from Boston (19-19) already this season with all of those games being played at Fenway Park.

One old baseball adage states, "Speed slows down the game," a quote likely coming from Casey Stengel or Yogi Berra.

On the surface, this statement makes no sense. But when you dig deeper, you gauge that when fast players get on base, the entire game changes. From throwing over to first base, to the pitcher stepping off the rubber, a once ncrisp moving game can get stalled as the pitcher and defense woorries about the speedy runner.

Funny thing is that the runner by himself can't hurt the pitcher, unless he steals second, third and home.

Brett Gardner is having a great season at the plate.

He currently ranks 8th in the American league in batting average at .333, and 2nd in stolen bases with 16, while being caught stealing only once.  His On Base percentage is good enough for 4th in the AL, at .411, and he ranks 2nd in runs, with 28.  He has also drawn 14 walks.

Gardner has done all this from the number 9 spot.

On a windy day in Detroit, the Yankees were shut out for the second time in the past three games as Justin Verlander dominated them in a 6-0 loss on Thursday.

The Tigers ace allowed just four hits and struck out four in 6.2 scoreless innings as he outdueled CC Sabathia, who was touched up for six runs on nine hits in six frames.

New York's offense has gone silent over the past week. Outside of a six-run ninth on Wednesday, the Bombers have scored just nine runs in their last five games, losing four of them.

Last year, you might recall I had a season-long series on the art of the stolen base and whether or not we'll ever see a 100-steal man again.

While I have my doubts, I will however be continuing that monthly column update with yearly totals so look for that at the beginning of each month for the rest of the season.

With that here is the first installment of 2010:

The New York Yankees finished up a three game series against the Chicago White Sox with a 12-3 win today. The Yankees won the series by winning the opening game as well as the finale, but losing the middle game.

I wanted to share some thoughts that came to mind as the series wrapped up.

New Look Outfield