Curtis Granderson

On a night when hearts were heavy and tears were plentiful, the New York Yankees Nick Swisher capped a momentous evening with a single in the bottom of the 9th inning. The single, Swisher's third hit of the night, scored Curtis Granderson with the winning run in a 5-4 victory at Yankee Stadium--the House the Boss Built.

The Bronx Bombers are in first place in the AL East with the best record in baseball heading into the second half of the season, which starts tonight versus the second place Tampa Bay Rays.

But there are several Yankees who aren't in the New York Groove quite yet and need to pick up the slack as the season moves into the second half.

By no means do the Yankees absolutely "need" these players to improve in order to win the division, obviously they are already in first place, but if the Bombers want to see their 28th title come this year, then these players do need to step it up a notch.

The New York Yankees enter the second half of the 2010 MLB season with the best record in the league and to much to complain about other than the inconsistent bullpen.

The biggest signing of the 2009 Winter Meetings was of course a deal that involved the New York Yankees.

A three-way trade between the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, and the Arizona Diamondbacks was the most intriguing, a deal that included the following players;

The Yankees closed out the Interleague slate with their best victory of the year, mounting a dramatic four-run comeback in the ninth against the Dodgers on Sunday, before winning the game on MVP candidate Robinson Cano's two-run homer in the 10th.

New York took two out of three from Los Angeles to finish 11-7 versus the National League. The first-place Bombers (47-28) now welcome in the last-place Mariners (31-44) for a three-game set this week at Yankee Stadium.

It was definitely not the most well-played game ever, but it was an instant classic for the 2010 season—at least for the Yankees, anyway.

The Bombers went into the ninth inning trailing 5-4. Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher both walked to lead off the inning against Aaron Heilman. Mark Teixeira’s ground ball moved them to second and third, and A-Rod hit a sacrifice fly to score Jeter.

Even though the New York Yankees are in 1st place in the AL East and currently hold the best record in all of Major League Baseball, there are still a plethora of trade rumors and debates taking place in the Bronx.

With the main areas of concern being the bullpen, the bench, and the outfield; everyone seems to have their own opinion about what the Bronx Bombers should do on their quest for their 28th World Series Championship.

This is the latest installment of the 2010 New York Yankee progress, honoring the epic Clint Eastwood movie of the same name. According to the astute readers of imdb.com, the Baseball-Reference of the movie and T.V. industry, "Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo " is ranked as the No. 4 movie of all time .

In the hours following Stephen Strasburg's Brendan-Fraser-in-The-Scout -level debut for the Nationals on Tuesday, my buddy Howie posed this question to me (@danhanzus ) via Twitter:

Most trade value: Mauer, Hanley, Pujols or Strasburg? I say #Strasburg easy.

Since Brian Cashman took the reigns of a championship-bound team in 1998, he has acquired several players who were run out of town following their disastrous tenures in pinstripes. Scathing condemnations written by dozens of columnists questioned these previously successful players' respective abilities to succeed under the bright spotlight of New York.