A Noteworthy Occasion?

The Yankees have for the first time this season ascended to the lead in the division, on the wings of a less than impressive 13-10 record. (As of this posting Red Sox Network, ESPN, continue to list the Sox in first place despite the higher winning percentage of the "2nd" place Yankees. Those guys are such wankers.) I guess this speaks to the parity in the division. While I remain utterly unimpressed with the Jays, whose pitching is not nearly as good as advertised, either at the bottom of the rotation or in the bullpen, the Rays are better than I can ever remember them and the Orioles are certainly better than the dismal predictions. I also think it speaks to the comparative weakness of the AL East. The Yankees lost almost half their games in just 2 series against AL West teams and the Sox got their lunch handed to them by the Indians. And nobody's played the real beast in this league, the White Sox.

Nobody's really talking about this, but the Yankees starting pitching has been pretty amazing. Another grteat start from Mussina today (and he's the biggest surprise of the season so far), Chacon and Wang have both been good in their last couple, Johnson's still winning ugly (actually, look at the guy; he's always winning ugly), and Small just came off the DL. This represents their one chance to make the playoffs in my view. They're unlikely to slug their way there if they have to rely too much on their middle relief to keep games in hand.

Getting to first place though doesn't mean Torre is any more tolerable as a manager. Faced with the necessity of replacing the injured Sheffield, he put Williams in right instead of Crosby. Williams promptly dropped his batting average to 217, while sporting the weakest arm in right field of anyone, I would venture to say, in modern baseball history. Certainly when Damon and Williams are out there together, they represent the only center-right combo ever where neither could reach the cut-off man in the air.