The Question

Has Randy Johnson become too old to pitch effectively in the big leagues or will he round into form with the warmer whether? That for Yankee fans has been the question. The answer, I fear, is both. He is too old to perform normally until the sun warms his various parts and bestirs them into functionality. I have often noticed the same dynamic with small reptiles and aging parents. If I'm right, the win today in Detroit bodes well for the remainder of the season and quite poorly should they reach the playoffs, when the October chill will tell Randy's body it's time to hibernate.

Avoiding disaster/Avoiding responsibility

After a brief string of creditable performances by Scott Proctor, Joe Torre claimed to have seen in Spring Training that htis was a different guy from last year. He'd better wake up from his day game nap and check again. Proctor just gave up 2 runs against K. C. in an inning pitched, the fourth time in a row he has coughed up a run or more (three times more) in an inning or less. His ERA is up to alomost 4 again and he alomost cost the Yankees the game, which would have been a disaster, losing a series to the Royals at home. The Yankees weere in danger because they followed their typical pattern of putting their bats away after an early inning explosion. They managed to hold on, thanks to a nice return to form from Farnsworth, but frankly OPctavio Dotel can't arrive too soon at this point. Of course Torre will have to pitch him instead of Proctor, something he has refused to dom with Villone, despite his obvious superiority to Ptoctor. I fear Proctor may have become the new sentimentalized failure, taking over for Sturtze and if so nothing but an injury will displace him. Loyal Yankee fans will have to have him kneecapped.

In another news, Bonds' 715th provided the occasion for Harold Reynolds and John Kruk to reveal themselves as the most arrant, self-defiling whores in baseball journalism, a pedestal for which there is, as we know, much competition. Both essentially insisted that a) Bonds should not be blames for taking steriods, since he never failed a steriods test--which is a little like saying that someone never exceeded the speed limit because owning radar blockers they were never caught and b) even if he took steriods, his accomplishment is untainted, which is a little like saying Ken Lay's business model is undiminished by his conviction on 6 counts of fraud. These guys are a positive disgrace. They're a fucking disgrace and should be taken off the air. As former jocks, they should be acclimated enough to the smell of their own jocks that they needn't go sniffing other people's for a living.

In the film The Natural (obviously an ironic point of reference for Mr. Big-Headed Chemical Freak) Robert Duvall speaks, insincerely to be sure, of a baseball writer's office: protecting the game. The game doesn't always, or even often, need protecting, so a journalist is given a rare oppurtunity in a case like Bonds to perform his craft as if it mattered. When they fail to do so, they should be relieved of that office.

Addendum (Note on Last Night's Game)

Farnsworth said Berroa's game winning 3-run homer came on a hanging slider. He gets paid to hit that pitch, Farnsworth said. Exactly, he gets paid to hit that pitch because he can't hit 97 mile an hour fastballs. I know Farnsworth froze Ortiz with his slider and it was a thing of beauty. But the thing is, you can't get a monster like Ortiz out with nothing but heat, so you risk hanging the slider for the reward of getting him out with a good one. Berroa is not going to lose a Farnsworth fastball, so there's really no reason to try and beat him with your second best pitch. It reminds me of Wohlers and Leyrich in the 1996 series. Leyrich couldn't catch up with Wohlers' fastball and if he never saw the slider, he doesn't hit the game tying homer, the Yanks don't win the Series, don't fashion a dynasty, and Wohlers career doesn't go in the tank. Since the Yanks under Torre were the beneficiaries of Wohler's error and its monumental consequences, you'd think they'd be able to apply the lesson, as they say, in everyday life (i.e. the regular season).

Big Deal!

Sometimes small wins come in large packages. Indeed, the Yankees are becoming masters of this formula. Today they found a pitcher that even Kelly Stinnet can hit and they brutalized him. Hey, if you need 2 home runs on the way to an 11 run margin of victory, AROD is your man.

Would any win satisfy after last night's debacle, where the Yanks managed to lose the same game to the world's worst team no less than three times? Probably not, at least not one against these Royals. But it is interesting to speculate as to the kind of win that would be relatively palliating under the circumstances.

Clearly, it is not this sort of bludgeoning. The Yankees do this all the time only to blow close games the next day. I would even argue that the bludgeoning serves to enable the blown games. The big margins make them over confident or at least over comfortable and then they feel the sudden pressure of a late inning nailbiter all the more. But even a win that featured virtues the Yankees too often lack, such as sparkling glovework or timely hitting, would not do the trick either. We'd all suspect, rightly, that they would be back in their old bad habits soon enough.

No the only win that could possibly have gratified, by giving reason for hope, would have been one indicating that something had been learned from last night's loss and that the point of instruction might work a permanent change in their way of playing the game. That something would have to be tactical, the educated party would have to be slow Joe, dunce cap and all, and the knowledge would have to involve an awareness that his continued passivity and timidity, particularly in the area of offensive strategy, was costing them games now and a playoff shot later. The win, then, that really would have been a big deal, and not just a big package, would have come by dint of daring, by way of a rational assessment of risk instead of the phobic avoidance that Torre regularly displays. This particular game of course did not call for a newly venturesome approach. Unfortunately, the kind of overkill the Yankees once again perpetrated makes the adoption of such an approach all the less likely in the near term. All of which means this was a victory not only small but Phyrric.

A Game You just can't afford to Lose

Your Ace on the mound, at home, against the worst team in baseball, and maybe the worst team since the 1962 Mets. And the Yankees lose. Down 3-0, they storm back in the middle innings to take a 4-3 lead and the Yankees lose. Torre for once trusts Farnsworth, as I have been arguing and he fucking blows up in the seventh, and the Yankees lose. Down 7-4 in the eighth, the Yankees get runners on second and third with noone out, thanks in large part to a double by AROD (3 hits), and Cano, Williams, and Cabrera not only make three consecutive outs, but only push home one run in the process. The Yankees narrow the lead to 7-6 in the home ninth, thanks to Damon (3 hits), Jeter (2 hits and 2 walks) and Sheffield, but with runners on first and third one out, Torre lets Giambi hit into the shift instead of bunting him to tie the game. Of course he hits into a double play, which he's been doing more and more of lately, and the Yankees lose. As the message boarders point out, on a wet field, the play was to send Sheffield on a steal with one out and bring Jeter home if they bite and throw to second. If they don't, and they probably wouldn't, Giambi's grounder ties the game.

I suggested that the Yankees might take their injuries as an oppurtunity to reinvent themselves as a smaller ball team and recently I heard Joe second that recommendation. It should be said however that playoff caliber small ball really does require a manager whose field tactics are consistently sound and occasionally brilliant, not as in Torre's case, consistently uninspired and occasionally inept. You have to be willing to take chances to play small ball and as one fan correctly noted, Torre always plays it safe, which is one of the reasons I call him status quo Joe.

The Yankees have already turned a number of victories into defeats this year. When it is all over, and they miss the playoffs for the first time since 1994, these games--the Mets rubber game, the Royals tonight, the rubber match against the A's in Oakland, the second game against the Angels--will be the reason, and noone will look this far back and notice.

And Who Are They to Teach Us

It occurs to me that the punditry has become more obnoxious in recent years not because of any personal alteration in its make-up--wankers then, wankers now--but for structural reasons, owing specifically to the feedback loop in information transmission. Instead of simply telling us what they happen to think (or feel) about an athletic or political phenomenon, they are now equipped with data indicating how we supposedly think about that same phenomena, whether it comes by way of polls, talk radio, text messaging, blogs etc. And equipped with that data they feel compelled to not just give us their opinion about the phenomena in question, but about our collective or majoritarian opinion of that same phenomena. In other words, instead of telling us what they think, they cross the line and tell us we are wrong to think or feel as we presumably do. AROD is a classic case in point. The ESPN wankers cannot stand the fact that someone they long ago anointed as the "best player in the game" should have come to be regarded by the supporters of his team as the game's most maddening and pathetic choker. And so they fudge, lie, elide, overlook, traduce, all in the name of convincing us that we are somehow wrong in our empirically reliable, statistically verifiable judgement that AROD is to failing under pressure as Jeter is to succeeding. I would never want to advise them on how they would view a given issue if they only had half of the intelligence of most of the people I know personally; they shouldn't put themselves in the position of advising those same people on how things would look if they were as dim as Karl Ravech or Jeff Brantley.

What Have we learned

from the past two games. While the Yankees are bad, the Red Sox are overrated. They have 3 holes in their lineup every night; they're the slowest team in baseball; and even with the best fielding infield in the American League, their pitcher, save for Beckett and Papelbon, mostly stink.

We also learned sports journalists are the biggest doglickers in the world. They just don't want to cop to AROD's profile as a loser. When he hit a home run with the Yanks up 4-1 late, they felt compelled to insist that it mattered, thereby redefining the category of "clutch performer" so broadly that even AROd would fit it. Last night Anal Hersheyhiser kept laughing over the fans' insistence that AROD wasn't living up to expectations, citing HR and RBI totals without ever mentioning his dismal late game and RISP stats. Finally, with the Yankees up 8-6 in the 8th and following a Manny-blast, Anal chuckled, "well would a home run from AROD now be consequential; would this count, as if to say, what do these people want. Well of course it would have been at least somewhat consequential as I said to the television, but of course AROd hit a lazy fly out for precisely that reason and of course no further shit from Mr. Asshole was forthcoming.

We learned that Scott Procter's brief flirtation with competence is over, as he gave Manny a second gopher ball in as many nights to raise his ERA to 3.16, not good for a reliever. but on the postive side we learned that Ortiz may not like the amount of heat Farnsworth brongs to the party. Torre has got to learn to trust him more, despite his unevenness so far. He's definitely got the talent.

Speaking of which, we learned yet again, and even in victory, that Torre is, as Keith O. might say, "TODAY'S WORST MANAGER IN THE WOORRLLDD." Allow me to cite two instances of pure boneheadedness on Torre's part.

First inning, Johnson is, as usual, getting ripped. Two hard hit balls and only due to Lorreta's failure to "GET BACK" to first base is Johnson not already a dead man pitching. Ortiz comes up and lefty to lefty, Johnson whiffs him. So there's 2 out and a man on third with no runs in despite Johnson looking postively horrible against righties. Now Ramirez, only the best right-handed hitter in the American league comes up, so of course you walk him, especially since a) Manny is on one those streaks where nobody can get him out, least of all a 42 year old near retiree with location disorder, and b) Francona, an idiot of Torre-like dimensions, has chosen to protect Manny with Varitek, the one "star" struggling as badly to hit as Johnson is to pitch. But no, Torre does not call for an intentional walk or even an "unintentional" walk. He allows Johnson to challenge Manny with a fastball inside. The resulting blast cleared the fence, the stadium wall, the street behind the stadium wall and quite possibly the houses on the other side of that street. Two absolute gift runs courtesy of management. The last thing you want to do, with Johnson pitching so badly early in contests, is to further erode his confidence. With the strikeout of Ortiz, he had something to build on. Let him do it by getting out of the first unscathed, instead of condemning him to another one of those here we go again moments.

Second, eighth inning Sheffield leads off with a shot against the left wall for a single. Giambi is up and the Red Sox go into that ridiculous shift. Now two things should be kept in mind. First Giambi only hits singles and home runs to go with his walks. So unless this is the one out of 14 plate appearances that he typically homers, one base is the best you can hope for. Second, the Yankees have announced their puzzlement that Giambi's batting average has dropped from 300 to 250 despite the fact that he's hitting the ball well. Hmmm. You think it might be that there is no room in right where he hits everything and won't be until the Yankees force someone's hand? Well this is the perfect oppurtunity to do so. Lowell is actually closer to second than to third and, as we know, Giambi is a pretty fair bunter. He lays one down toward third, its a virtually certain hit and will put men on first and second nobody out. (Then you could bunt Rodriguez and hav erunners on second and third one out for someone who can hit in late innings, Robbie.) But Torre can't take the gift he is being offered. He has become so pathetic at thinking small ball, he cannot even do it when it's the only rational play. So Giambi hits the ball into the shift and presto, double play. Our second gift to the Sox courtesy of the mangement.

So that's what we've learned: the Sox, contrary to reports, suck; they may even suck as bad as the Yankees. Scott Procter sucks; he may even suck as bad as we once surmised. And of course Torre sucks; he may even suck worse every day. Oh, and Melky Cabrera is only 21 years old. I had no idea. He really could wind up being a player, like Cano. Which would mean sports journalists, you know the ones that said the Yankees had no farm system, they suck too, like Alex in the clutch.

Quote from NEWSDAY: "When it doesn't count, count on Alex"

They Just Don't Get It

As an addition to last night's post, I would say that while there is no point ranting about a loss like that, the comments in the Yankees lockerroom afterwards indicate that they are delusional in their estimate of where they are as a ballclub right now. Johnny Damon, who has frankly been pretty disappointing all year, nonchalantly assures everyone "we'll be there in the end and we'll be solid." Solid is some thing the Yankees haven't been since the last night in the desert when Mo threw the ball away at second base. They still seem to believe that playing for this franchise makes them that dynasty team. The Detroit Tigers are closer at the moment. Torre, who is almost as out of touch with reality as his addle pated Boss, appreciates how they keep battling, keep taking their swings even when the game looks out of reach. 'We just have to keep the game closer early on' he proclaims, seemingly unaware Pretty Boy Fraud and his ilk only get decent swings when the game is out of reach. How lifetime baseball men can fail to recognize such a collective inability to hit with men on base or in scoring position in close games is beyond me. Once again, I think we are looking at a subtle perversion of the Yankee code. It used to be, "My God, I'm a Yankee now, I better start playing like one." These days its, "Playing like a Yankee will come as a matter of course, since I am one."

I Wish it had Been at the Stadium

There's no point ranting about a game like tonight. Sometimes you just get outplayed and lose, badly. That's why it is important to win games like last night's, which BGW correctly called the most depressing and predictable loss of the season. I only wish tonight's game had been at home, so we could have been treated to the unusual spectacle of 50, 000 plus hometown fans booing a homerun hit by a hometown player against their bitter rival. Yes AROD, you fucking loser, it is possible to drive in 130 runs a year and never come through in the clutch. You do it by killing game-winning rallies by hitting into dps one night and then hitting meaningless home runs when the game is out of reach the next. That's how you manage, by the way, to have the third lowest batting average in the major leagues with RISP and 2 outs.

You say you are harder on your self than anyone. Bullshit. You couldn't bear to live with a level of self-disgust that would equal the contempt most Yankee fans feel for you.

The darkest day in Yankee history since the untimely demise of Thurman Munson was the day the player's union blocked the deal that would have sent you to Boston for Manny Ramirez. I cried whenI heard about Munson's plane crash (he was my favorite Yankee before he returned in the form of Paul O'Neill). If I knew then, what I know now, I'd probably have cried when that deal got blocked. I know I would have when the Yankees picked you up instead. What I know now is that the Yankees have become a team, your team, where instead of marginal to decent players performing out of their minds in pinstripes, bringing home championship after championship, it is a team where high priced superstars follow your lead in underachieving, creating the nightmare scenario that the Yankees will become the BoSox of the 21st century. To avoid this fate, I believe Steinbrenner ought to have you sent down to AAA right now. If he has to pay you ridiculous sums of money to help his team lose, her should have the satisfaction of making you ride in Greyhound and sleep in flea-bitten motels. while being shamed and execrated in small midwestern towns you never heard of.

Zero for Fifteen

That's what Yankees not named Derek Jeter were with runners in scoring position last night, as the Yankees suffered perhaps their most inexcusable loss of the season. I swear its getting harder and harder to watch this team without hurling objects, or even one's half-digested dinner, at the television screen. They had runners in scoring position in 8 innings last night and only scored on Jeter's singl and Giambi's sac fly. It was the single worst display of clutch, situational hitting I have ever seen.

What is worse, the Yankees seemed to feel pretty good about themselves immediately after defiling their reputation further. Torre stated "We had them on the ropes all night" and AROD seconded, "we could have broken the game open a number of times," as if this patent fact ameliorated things instead of aggravating them (and Yanks fans everywhere). The Yankees also manged to hit into three double plays.

The worst offender was of course none other than AROD hinself, whose name has become a virtual synonym for pressure-induced aphyxiation. With the Yanks up 2-0 and looking to blow the game open, AROD left the bases loaded. But the worst was yet to come. In the eighth down 4-2, the Yanks load the bases with noone out. After all the blown chances, one last golden opportunity to take the series. After Giambi's sac fly (4-3), Damon and Jeter are on second and first for Arod who hits the ball weakly toward short for an inglorious double play that killed the rally and, for all intents and purposes, their hopes. Of course if Joe had any brains, guts or insight, he would have executed the double steal, knowing the Mets would never have looked for it. They would have assumed, correctly as it turned out, that Joe wouldn't want to take the bat out of AROD's hands. But in fact he is just about the last person a Yankees fan wants to see up in the clutch. Let the Mets walk him and pitch to Cano; I like the Yanks's chances much better then. The inning before, Joe Morgan, whose only virtue as a television commentator is that he wears nice suits, declared that all "good" Yankees fans were glad to have AROD. As Z pointed out, it is unclear in what register Joe was usuing the term "good," but I know this, you have to be positively saintly to tolerate the way the $25, ooo, ooo man collapses under pressure. For the time he has been with the Yankees, he has been at best a frustration. But he's fast becoming a joke, rather like the pundit Morgan himself.

Speaking of the gutlessness of Torre, which he tries to pass off as serene judiciousness, when you are down to your 9th inning last chance in the game, and you've got someone in scoring position (again), you have to let Posada bat for Stinnett, whose futility as a hitter came to a crescendo last night. You can't worry that Posada can't throw runner out in the bottom of the ninth--you've got to get to the bottom of the ninth, and hope noone gets on. Do something a little bold for once, Joe. As long as your satisfied with status quo managing, the players will be satisfied with the status quo performance--which at the moment means blowing games they should win. On Saturday, the Mets gave the Yankees the game, so they won. On Sunday the Mets merely gave the Yankees every fucking oppurtunity to win the game, and they couldn't.

Even for the homer-happy Yankees of a month ago, this loss would have been unbelievable. And that is because they had Matsui. This is the kind of game, and there have been a number of them, where the Yanks do their level best to go in the tank and Matsui just won't let them. He would not have let them lose this game, this way. And speaking of the absence of Matsui (and Sheffield), it should be noted that Jeter, aware that more of the offense falls on his shoulders, is hitting above and beyond even his own considerable capacities. AROD, meanwhile, has responded to his added responsibility by becoming even more of a head case (8 errors), even more of a choke artist (230 something with men in scoring position) than he already was. He's his own private version of Gulliver's Travels--when it means little he's a Brobdignag; when the heat is on he turns into a Lilliputian. Now that Matsui and Sheffield are out, the heat is almost always on so he just gets smaller and smaller.

No Reason for Celebration

With their best starter on the mound, and with their season on the precipice, the Yankees couldn't touch Pedro and committed four errors, almost blowing for the second straight time an excellent performance from Mussina. By rights he should be 8-1. That Wagner and the Mets elected to make a gift of this game should not in any way hearten Yankee fnas about the quality of this team. Their four run ninth came on a walk- and plunk-a-thon featuring but 2 hits. Yes they got out of the way (or in the way) as the mighty Mets shot themselves in the foot, and that is a crucial part of any grinder's playbook, but their insouciant fielding is bound to kill a team now living, of necessity, on the edge. I'm sure Torre believes his charges are too professional and too elite to require anythin so mundane as daily fielding workouts or pre-game fielding warm-up. Let me assure himm they are neither.

At least Mo recovered from last night's beating. The question is: when, no if, he's going to be able to string twenty or more successful save outings together. Cause that's what they've come to expect and, more importantly, that's what they're going to need.

A Double Burial

So Johnson is probably dead. My God, he gets spotted a 4 run lead in the first and he can't even hold it a half an inning. But the scary thing is that Mo may be done too. He has a 3.37 ERA, terrible for a reliever, especially a closer. He has almost as many losses as saves and all of his saves are what I would call unearned. The Yankee fill-ins, call-ups and old guard, excepting Williams, have done an exemplary job since Matsui went down. They are 4-4 and with decent pitching (the kind that preceded his injury) and decent managing (which granted we no longer have any business expecting), they would be 6-2. But no amount of grinding can overcome a mound collapse that takes down both the starters and the bullpen. It's not like last year, when you knew the middle relievers couldn't get anyone out, and you just hoped the starters would get you to Gordon and Mo. Now every single part of the staff oscillates between excellence (Mussina) and futility (Johnson) and most of the indivdual pitchers fluctuate along these lines from one appearance to the next. If half the everyday players are no longer with us, half the pitchers at any one time are not worth having with us. The Yankees can no longer outslug them and, now that they are hitting better situationally, they are less and less able to hold good teams off in the late innings.

They have 2 left with the Mets and three after that with the Sox. They're 2 back in the loss column now. They could be 6 back by the end of this stretch and, barring some major additons, effectively out of it by the end of this stretch. George said, "this is our year." If he was referring to has-beens like himself he may well have been right. This may be the year Rivera and Bernie, Randy and Sheff, Cairo and Pavano, Tanyon and Damon, all join him in obsolescence if not retirement.

And now Bubba...

With Crosby going to the DL, the Yankees really have no outfield left to speak of. Damon apparently has a fracture in his foot, which would ordinarily sideline him, Williams can't chase down balls in left and Cabrera evidently can't pick them up out there. Unless sheffield comes back immediately upon the expiration of the DL (the 21st), I think the Yankees will start sliding down the standings, behind the Blue Jays, and, at least for now, out of contention. Without Crosby, and with Damon hobbled, there really is no viable plan for putting a solid defense out there, leaving both the good contact pitchers, like Wang, and the shakier ones, like Chacon and Small, really vulnerable. At the same time, the loss of Crosby and the hobbling of Damon effectively abrogates any speed game they might want to play on offense. Barring a sudden explosion by Giambi and AROD, the continued hitting of Cano, Jeter, and Posada, and some ignition of Damon's offensive firepower, it really is hard to see where they are going to get the runs to counter those they give away. Torre is going to luck like he was just victimized by bad luck and will live to fuck things up another day, er season.

Well, this much will be interesting. Now that even they must know the team they are fielding is not very good, do they start to play with a more consistent urgency?

F*&! Joe Torre? F#%&*! Carl Pavano

Carl Pavano "needs" surgery to clean out bone chips in his elbow. Will someone tell me how this is possible? Here's a guy who never ptiches, never fucking plays, and yet continually gets hurt. First it was his back, then it was his butt, now its his elbow, all of which seems unrelated to the shoulder problems that originally sidelined him. Why is Steinbrenner, who refreshingly called out Hall of Famer Dave Winfield for failing in the clutch, who refreshingly called out torre himself for pitching Embree against right-handers, who refreshingly called out AROD for screwing up in the field, why does he remain silent on this gutless, malingering, thieving disgrace? He should heap ridicule upon him and encourage the press and the public to do likewise. He should make it clear that Pavano is not worthy to wear a Yankees uniform and encourage Yankees fans to revile him in similar terms. We should all work together to make Pavano's baseball life, such as it is, as hellish as possible. That little pain he feels in his elbow, or is it his back, or is it up his ass, should be the least of his problems. They should start producing "Like all babies, little Carl Pavano sucks" T-Shirts and selling them at the stadium. Fans should wear them and insist his teammates denounce him while signing autographs. He should get run out of town on a rail.

No Really, F*&! Joe Torre

One day after winning the kind of game (4-3) to which their new line-up would, with the right pitching and proper management, be suited, the Yankees were bitten in the ass today by their two biggest bugaboos, bad fielding and atrocious field management. The gift of glove came by way of Robinson Cano, who on a single play, botched a slow roller and threw the ball away allowing 2 runs to score. Cano had made great strides in the field of late, so while you hate to see thiss kind of relapse, you are also inclined to absolve. Not so for the man who is rapidly becoming not just the most overrated manager in baseball, but a serious competitor for the worst. By some miracle, Torre got 6 fine, scoreless innings out of Jared Wright, and one would think he might be counting his blessings (or miracles) and having Guidry put a call into the pen when the 7th started, particularly since Wright had shown signs of weakening in recent frames. No? Okay. But when Mench starts the inning with a solid single, surely slow Joe invokes the protocol for starters pulling at the tether and slow walks himself out there to pull him. No? Okay, but when Wilkerson hits one out to put the Rangers up 2-0, Torre can at least see the damage his passivity has cost the team and act to limit it. But he doesn't. He lets Wright, who was clearly done at this point, put another man on by HBP, and then Torre, apparently roused from an afternoon siesta, comes out into the air and brings in who, Erickson, the absolute bottom feeder in his bullpen, the man with a 7.36 era, the man who makes Scott Procter look like Rollie Fingers and Sparky Lyle rolled into one. This is a game, remember, still very much there for the taking, a game still available to a grinding strategy in the late innings, and Torre brings in someone sure to allow it to get completely out of reach, which of course is exactly what Erickson does. He acts as a turnstile not only for Wright's man on base but for three more. Then, once th game is essentially over Torre brings in Villone. If you were willing to pitch the better man, why not do it when the game was still within reach, i. e. when the 2 runs the Yankees pushed across in the bottom of the 7th would have knotted things. Do you realize how good the chances of the home team winning when tied in the eighth are? Torre is simply a manager for whom there has become no excuse. Now that he has lost Sturtze to injury and so lost a golden oppurtinity opportunity to blow games the Yankees stand every chance of winning, he goes out and finds somebody even worse. Ericson is, as BGW might have it, Joe's sentimental, commemorative tribute to Tanyon Sturtze's futility.

Speaking of futile figures for whom there is no excuse, Carl Pavano claims to be injured yet again, just as his rehabilitation promised to afford Yankee fans the inestimable honor of seeing at last the return of the world's wussiest athlete. After just nine pitches the other night, he felt "soreness" in his forearm and now he claims he can't straighten out his arm. Beyond the obvious point that it is his head that needs the straightening, one must say that this long into an expensive comedy of nueresthenic disabilty, Pavano should be given a cocktail of cortisone, anti-inflammatories, advil and, if necessary some Class A narcotic like DiLauda, and dragged kicking and screaming to the mound to pitch, even if its only daily batiing practice. That way they'd get some use out of him, plus they'd make him a spectacle for the fans to take out their frustrations on.

Happy Birthday!

Ironic that Mr. October, and not Dave Winfield, was born in May. Happy Birthday, Reggie.

So Far, So Bad

Despite the thrilling win tonight, which featured a phenomeon so unusual--Posada blocking the plate--that the AP commented on its rarity, the Yankees cannot go on like this. When I proposed that the Yankees reinvent themselves in the wake of their injuries as a speed, contact, and defense team, I prefaced the recommendation that the pitching had been much better than anyone expected (2nd best era in the AL). My hope was that they could get beyond the drought/deluge rhythm on offense, put up 4-5 runs consistently, and win 3 out of each 5 on that basis. In the last three games, Johnson has treated us with his 5th bad start in a row, chacon with his 2nd and Mussina, who has been magnificent, was let down by a bullpen that is beginning to look even more problematic than last year's. Farnsworth is very uneven (he blew the game on Monday), Proctor is starting to get hit again (well, that was inevtiable), and let's face it Rivera has been pretty bad in the closer's role this year (including tonight when he almost lost them the game). Unless and until Rivera and Farnsworth recover or Dotel returs stroing, there is no harbor in the late innings and at the moment, Mussina is the only guy one feels any confidence in in the early going. If the Yankees are going to make that sudden deal everyone is talking about, it had better be for some pitching. And where the hell is Pavano? If he can pitch rehab games, he can pitch games. I think the situation is desparate enough that he can skip his next AA appearance and start earning some portion of his salary.

Meanwhile, the Dolt continues to play Williams in right--he cost them another run tonight--and Cabrera continues to look shaky in left. Crosby is not only better in the field, on the bases etc. than either of these guys, his batting average is actually about 30 points higher than Williams' and higher than Cabrera's as well. But even if The Fog wakes up and starts playing him every day, in center where he belongs, they remain short a defensive outfielder to execute the New Bronx Order. But with their pitching, it might not matter anyway.

a conundrum

When do the Yankees decide that Johnson is never coming back? that he's this year's Kevin Brown? I mean I hope that isn't so, but we saw Brown, a great pitcher in his time, lose it entirely on the Bronx geriatric plan, so I think we have to allow for the possibility that the same is true, now, of Johnson. He looks like he's not capable of pitching well enough, let alone well. This is important because it raises the question. upon the return of Pavano, should the Yankees keep Johnson in the rotation at all or look to find another starter at the deadline? Right now he's the number 5 guy in a rotation tat includes Jared Wright. Maybe he'll come back but it's 5 disastrous starts and counting.

The Concern is Touching

The (J)urinalists over at Red Sox Network (Crawford, Coleman, Gottleib, Ravech, Kruk, Green, Golic, Cowherd, Bayless, Ravech, Phillips and the so-called Dolly Llama) have had a field day asserting the exigency (not that that is one of the 200 or so words they know) of the Yankees making a deal to replace the productivity of Sheffield and Matsui. Please!!! To any sophisticated and knowlredgeable observer of the game, Bubba Crosby's superior fielding and baserunning skills, along with his joie de baseball and his ability to do the little things well compensates, or nearly so, for his inferiority to Matsui or Sheffield as a professional hitter. But of course many fans of baseball are not particularly sophisticated or knowledgable, and as we know the "experts" at RSN fall squarely within this less elite group. Even so, one would think anyone with even a modicum of baseball acumen (ok that lets out Ravech, Green, Golic, Crawford, Gottleib and Cowherd) would counsel the Yankees to adopt a wait and see posture for the next week, that is until Sheffield's MRI is taken. After all, shoud he return shortly thereafter, the Yankees remain a potentially awesome offensive force even without Matsui (Damon, Jeter, Giambi, Rodriguez, Sheffield, Cano). Why would you run out and get another outfielder who can't catch the ball, like Soriano, everyone's favorite candidate, when even on paper the need will all but evaporate in two weeks time. But there's more. You would think that anyone with a reasonable claim to objectivity (ok that let's out the Dolly Llama, otherwise known as Theo's suck, and John Kruk, otherwise known as Curt Schilling's only friend in the game) would counsel the Yankees to wait and see whether Cabrera proves to be the big league hitter he has given recent promise of being. Cabrera is hitting 444 since coming up from AAA, where he was leading the league at 385. Maybe in a couple weeks he'll be down at Andy Phillip's level, but they owe it to him and themselves to play him till he fails, especially since they haven't let massive failure stand in the way of Phillip's playing time. I personally believe Cabrera can hit 290-310 in this league. He certainly looks better than Juan Rivera ever did and the Yankees started him in the playoffs. In any event, the proper trial period for Melky neatly coincides with the likely duration of Sheffield's stay on the DL, so what do the Yankees have to lose by patience?

These same media Sox-sniffers have spent much verbiage criticizing the Yankees, not without cause, for their inorganic method of player development: their over reliance on the free agent market, their addiction to the elderly, the high priced, and the glamorous etc. But at the first whiff of crisis, they are busy insisting that Cashman proceed in the same old dubious manner. Even when Cashman declares--with what sincerity I couldn't say-- that he would rather eschew an acquisition at this time, the wankers at RSN presume and prescribe that the Yankees must solve the situation by opening their exhausted farm system and their inexhaustible checkbook, despite the self-evident presence of young homegrown talent ready and able to step into the breach. Beyond the aggregate dullness of these wankers, which could furnish all the material a poem like Pope's Dunciad would ever need, their reaction to Matsui's contretemps bespeaks a deep-seated bias: a desire--which passes into a recommendation--that the Yankees organization enact the caricature of itself, so that they, the everlasting caricatures of the journalistic profession, can justify their ill-concealed attachment to the Red Sox as some sort of baseball purism.

I expect you all were wondering why I did not lead with the simple fact that the Yankees won again today. Consider it mimetic satire. Not once have I heard on Red Sox Network that for all their phoney handwringing, the Yankees are 2-0 since going down 2 starting outfielders, or that the scores of the games might indicate the mid-course correction the Yankees should execute, or even how despite their "devastation " and "decimation," they have not only gone up a game in the loss column on their more "solid" rivals, but now stand only a game and a half (one in the loss column) behind everyone's idea (my own included) of the best team in baseball, Chicago.

In response to an earlier post criticizing the Yankees squishy complacency, BGW pointed out that it was not only a softness but a sourness, beginning with the terminally morose Mr. Torre that seemed to plague the Yankees. He was right of course. But if they would just play Crosby, Cabrera and Cano, who are still playing the dream, along with Jeter and Giambi, who never lost that sense, they would not only see some of the fun come back into the game, they would see it become contagious, allowing Damon to recover the joy he seems to have left in Fenway and even bring the always chameleonic AROD along for the ride. But if ther Yanks are to be a fun team, a team that has fun and is fun to watch, which is another way of saying if they are to be fully Jeter's team again, then Bernie Williams, who cannot enjoy displaying his own obsolescence, must take a seat, and Sheffield, who seems to live, play and excel in the expectation of still greater embitterment, must be relegated to the DH, which would make him happy, or rather satisfied, anyway.

A halting first step?

The Yankees played great defensively in the infield tonight, bunted twice and attempted two steals in winning a close low scoring games. there did seem to be a sense that they would have to win differently and play a higher energy game. That is, they seem to be modulating into the kind of team I envisioned in my last post. On the other hand, however, they cannot be that kind of team with Williams doing anything other than DHing. Wang managed to keep the ball out of right field tonight, other than 2 singles, so Bernie wasn't given a chance to destroy their thin margin and with it their embryonic spirit. But if Torre leaves him out there, plays like last night will do exactly that. In addition, by continuing his insane practice of sitting Crosby, Torre does without not just his best defensive outfielder, but arguably his fastest player, and his second best (after Jeter) baserunner (and yes that includes Damon). The new Yankees will have to be taking the extra base whenever they can, stealing hits (or homers) whenever they can, and not giving bases away either with their gloves (Bernie), their lack of speed (again Bernie) or their arms (once again Bernie). Crosby is both offensively and defensively suited to and necessary for the style the Yankees are going to need to adopt if they want to make the playoffs. He is also one of the few players on the team that has mastered the rudimentary but essential skill of bunting, likewise crucial to the new approach. All the more crucial since the Yankees continue to flounder in the situational hiiting department. After going 2-14 against the Sox on Thursday, they went 0-5 tonight, including leaving the bases loaded. That's one for nineteen, down near .050 for the last two games. They also hit into 2 double plays tonight, continuing a trend that has been simply toxic for their attack. In sum, the Yankees looked in the infield and on the basepaths like they were getting with my program; they need to do so at the plate and in the outfield as well. That will take Torre putting the right players in the field, and soon, or George putting somebody else in the dugout.

One last thing. I think Cashman was proven right and should be given credit for waiting on an extension to Sheffield's contract. At this point, I think they should shelve the idea altogether and spend the money saved on pitching, speed and youth. The word keeps coming out of the Yankees camp that Sheffield is not only worried about his wrist but about his contract. I'm not certain what that combination means but it sounds like he's not hurrying back as a way of expressing his displeasure. I'd rather have someone who, having been given 10-15 mill a year, actually wants to play the game.

You mean this isn't the bottom?

They say you can't turn around a dysfunctional condition until you hit rock bottom. I hoped that had happened to the Yankees last night. They finally I thought hit the bottom. Not when Matsui got hurt, but when slow Joe failed to have Posada bunt in the eighth despite the fact that they were down a)1 run at home b) with a man on second nobody out and c) a left handed hitter on deck whose natural tendency would be to hit the ball to the right side (which he did) thus manufacturing a necessary run. I thought when someone in that ship of fools they call a baseball organization reviewed the game today they might wake up to the fact that they haven't been even trying to play sound strategic baseball for a long time and that the kind of performance they got from Bubba Crosby last night indicates what is needed in the immediate future. As always, the more right I am about what the Yankees should do, the more wrong I am in imagining, however fleetingly, that they will. Tonight's lineup, unbelievably, has Bernie back in right field, even though his bumbling blooper reel in the eighth last night proved he should no longer be entrusted with a baseball glove--ever. What's more, Bubba, after a triple, a single, brilliance in the field, brilliance on the bases, is sitting yet again. What the fuck does this guy have to do before the entire mass of Yankee fans forget about Bernie and his glorious but distant past and start berating Torre every time Bubba isn't out there.


This is such a crossroads in the season I feel compelled to tell slow Joe what he and Cashman would do if they had an ounce of brains. As unfortunate as the dual injuries of Sheffield and Matsui are, they gave you mooks a chance to reinvent this team, something you badly needed to do in any event. You can make this team a contact, speed, hustle, defense team, with just enough pop in the lineup to carry you. You can make this team Jeter's team again instead of AROD's, a team that win or lose would be more fun to watch, more likable to root for and better able to play the game of baseball in the round--instead of being a sack of aging sluggers sitting on their duffs waiting for the next ball to leave the park and stumbling around the field like they have vertigo(yes Bernie I mean you).

In case it hasn't been noticed the pitching this year has been pretty good, and if players unable to catch and run in the field were kept off the field, the pitching would be a lot better. Start Bubba in center cause he's your best outfielder, move Damon to left-he can cover that alley and his arm is less of a liabilty there. Play Cabrera in right. He's supposed to be able to play the field; perhaps he will--you all know (except Joe) that bernie can't. Move Cano up in the batting order and bury your slow, old guys like Posada and Williams. Move Crosby up in the order as well. When Sheffield comes back DH him and sit williams down for good.

Damon Damon
Jeter Jeter
Cano Cano
Arod AROD
Giambi Sheffield
Crosby Giambi
Cabrera Cabrera
Posada Posada
Williams Crosby

Steal, hit and run, bunt. Look to get 4-5 runs a game and give away none. This team could be like the 96 team which had exactly 2 long ball guys, a couple of slashers and a few single hitters. What have you got to lose? If you continue to play Earl Weaver ball, with Posada in the role of Sheffield and Williams in the role of Matsui, you're gonna get smoked right out of the playoffs. And if you do look to trade, look for someone like Torii hunter, not Soriano, someone, that is, who can actually play the game. You know, like Bubba.

As I was Saying

A couple of posts ago I noted that Bernie in right would cost them a couple of games this season. I had no idea I would be proves correct this quickly, this dramatically and this farcically. With the Sox failing again and again to play their grind it out game, leaving men on base, failing to press the baserunning advantage, the Yankees coul and should have won this game and all but had it sealed with the very pop fly that cost them the game. If Bernie catches the seventh inning fly you'd expect a little leaguer to snag, the Yanks would have had two down in the seventh with a man on first, with Farnsworth and Rivera coming in the last 2 innings. Instead Bernie plays the ball into a ground rule double, he overruns a pop-up, and when Cairo fails to make a play at first he should have made, they were done.

What was most dpressing about this game, besides the loss of Matsui for the foreseeable future, was the numbing predictability of how they came to lose yet again to the Sox. Let's see. They batted 140 with men in scoring position (2-14), they made the crucial misplays in the late innings for which they have become infamous (I swear to God I'd rather have the Royals players in the field late); they failed to manufacture runs when they had the oppurtunity. Bubba--with Jeter the only exception to this litany of futility--hits a triple with one out and a 2-0 lead. Squeeze bunt for Christ's sake because that's a run you absolutely need. No squeeze, no run, and as a result, no win. Or more egregiously, after Bernie blows the play in right, he hits a double. Nobody out, man on second, down 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh at home. Everybody knows (say it with me now, except Joe) that you sacrifice bunt in that situation, get Bernie to 3rd with one out and try to push a run home with a hit, a ground out to the right side, a sac fly, a squeeze, whatever). Instead Joe lets Jorge swing away and strikeout. Cano grounds to the right side and moves bernie to third (instead of home) where he dies. If Posada can't lay down a bunt in that situation, bring in someone who can, but back in spring training, lazy ol' Joe should having been making damn sure everybody could lay down the requisite bunt on occasion. No small ball, no run, no win.

The inning before that Jeter singles steals second with one out and neither Giambi nor AROD, the Yankees big guns, so much as put the ball in play. Yes AROD it is mathematically possible to deliver 130 rbis and fail continually in the clutch, and you are the living proof of this, the Alex Algorithm.

The Yankees lost this game so badly they didn't even make the Red Sox win it. I wonder if there has ever been a team this talented that was so woefully unabvle to master the fundamentals of the game. That's the weird part of watching Bubba play, watching Bubba haul back a homer from over the left field wall, watchiong Bubba run out a triple, watching Bubba score from on a hit from, who else, Jeter, watching Bubba track down a tricky fly in left center, what's weird is that other than the captain nand maybe Cano, he is the most, no the only, fundamentally sound ballplayer on the team, the only guy who plays like an illustration in the Spalding Guide. And yet he is the guy in whom Joe has no confidence and no time for, he's slow Joe's abject, which only goes to show,fter all the hype about 1000 wins, how little grasp Torre has on the basics of the game, how slow Joe really is. Bubba's one of the only guys on the team who plays the right way and Joe would rather play, for sentimental reasons, broken down Bernie Williams, who runs after fly balls like a 12 year old girl just learning the game. Sad--not the spectacle Torre is making of Bernie, but that we Yankee fans are being forced to witness it.

Ersatz Activism II

Like most sequels, this one gets worse.

Professional geo-politcal ambulace chaser Jesse Jackson last night took up the cause of Barry Bonds. He claims that since the slugger had never failed a drug test, the public dismissal of his record quest as a cheater's errand amounted to, you guessed it, racism. Jackson particulary objected, as I understand it to SI"s latest cover with an aterisk after Bonds' career home run mark. Shall we examine the Reverend's brief analytically? Well, a white man, Mark McGuire, has already been reduced to the status of baseball paraih for refusing to admit or deny that he took steroids before Congress. Needless to say, McGuire never failed a drug test, but baseball fans, not being complete idiots (at least not all the time) were able to read between the lines. Bonds himself has actually confessed, in a limited fashion, to taking steriods before the BALCO Grand jury, so why shouldn't he be treated as a paraih as well. Because he's black? But that would be...uh...racism. What's more, the career home run record threatened by Bonds' cheating is held by a black man, who faced real, virulent racism in his pursuit of Ruth. Why pray tell is it racist to insist that Aaron be protected from accomplishment-theft just because the perpetrator of that theft also happens to be black? Interestingly, few are questioning Bonds right to the single season home run record, largely because he took it from McGuire, another cheater, and Sammy Sosa, another cheater. It seems such a long way back to the real holder of the single season record, Roger Maris, a man who endured every bit as much emnity as Bonds, despite his whiteness and his committment to fair play, just becasue he was deemed unworthy of displacing the Babe (who by the way is still the only man to hit 60 home runs in 154 games without benefit of the juice.)

Unlike Aaron, who suffered the rants and threats of racial injustice, and Maris, who suffered the rants and contempt of icon injustice, Barry Bonds is suffereting the rants and fury of a public rightfully indignant that he looks to ascend to baseball immortality on synthetic wings.

Jackson's fight against the profound justice of public opinion in this case indicates how little he knows about the sport, the situation, and the ethical questions to which he speaks. That is of course a convenient position for an ambulance chaser--prevents the facts from getting in the way of the torts.

I stand chastened

The dreaded words "And now pitching for the New York Yankees, Scott Proctor," were heard last night, and were heard with 2 men on and the Man(ny) at the plate, and disaster did not ensue, as I would have, and have, predicted. To the contrary Proctor blew Manny away with a high 95mph fastball and went on to complete an impressive hold. Earlier in the day Torre was quoted as saying that Proctor was not the same guy as last year, and while I think he has pretty much been that guy until very recently, I must conceded he was not that guy last night. One of the good things about all this, of course, is that Tanyon Sturtze is surely done now, to BGW's immeasurable relief.

I was less impressed with AROD's resurrection. Schilling grooved one in the middle innings and he hit it a long way, but it was the middle innings, the Yankees were not behind (which is when he really stinks) and so it barely qualified, if at all, as a clutch situation. The fact that he was able to field a routine grounder with men on base was even less noteworthy, particularly since his throw almost pulled Giambi off the bag.

Damon had his single worst moment as a Yankee in the first inning of last night's game. Having fallen behind 2 strikes, he just waved at a ball in the dirt, belying his reputation as a selective hitter and ferocious 2 strike warrior. I think the shame of his performance got through to him, howver, because after that he was a different hitter. The next at bat, he ripped a pitch to left that Manny had to make an uncharacteristically good play on, and then he singled to drive in the last Yankees run. Hopefully that first inning whiff, his 3rd in his last 4 at bats, was a turning point in his play against the Red Sox.

As for Cabrera, I hope when Sheffield returns, he stays on the team for his bat. But you just can't be putting him out in the field. Maybe he's still jst nervous, but he looked shaky on every routine fly ball that came his way.

It was so sweet to see "fat man self-promoting" get toasted last night. He's been rebuilding his ersatz legend against some pretty bad teams so far this year, but last night showed that he is vulnerable to a patient line-up. His fastball started out high 80's to 90 and then went up from there to 94-95. While this might have seemed a good sign from the chowderhead perspective, it really indicated that he was feeling tired and beginning to overthrow. Less than an inning after he established his fastball, it was leaving the park even faster. Schilling's performance was just about as bad as Johnson's the night before and served notice, I think, that these 2 guys will not be at the center of their repective teams fortunes this year. And if I'm right, it means that the fat man (unlike Johnson) will not be going to the Hall of Fame, and that judgement comes from none other than professional Red Sox doglicker Peter Gammons.

Same new, Same new

It is easy to blame this one on Johnson, and in a comment on my last posting, Z did exactly that. But the truth is the Yankees lost this game by displaying every one of their worst tendencies all at once. First of all, they still can't field. You can't commit three errors and expect to best good teams. Mapping onto this is the fact that AROD has got to be the world's biggest choke artist. He committed two of the errors and the first one cost the Yankees the game. If he makes the play, the third inning ends with the Yanks still up 2-0 instead of down 3-2. Let it be noted that AROD has been playing gold glove level third base so far this season. I say this not to mitigate his faults tonight but to magnify them. Athletically gifted beyond measure, capable of Omar Vizquel and Mike Schmidt type glovework combined, he simply wilts every time the pressure is on. Tonight's performance was the regular season equivalent of that easy play he blew that gave last years ALDS to the Angels. AROD is right to be in therapy, so right, but these treatment protocols take more time than the Yankees have. He's not much use with the bat in these big games either--tonight he went 0 for 3 and, of course, hit into a twin killing.

But AROD was not alone in collapsing under the weight of the rivalry. Johnny Damon looked perfectly awful, striking out twice, once looking. For someone who is supposed to be among the best contact hitters in the game, this is not only unacceptable but further evidence that he can't play against his old team. That is if he's not actually playing for them. It is up to the Yankee fans at the park to make it clear to MR. Dreamboat that if he doesn't snap out of it pronto, they will make his life miserable. They should establish contact with him that is not only audible but aerial.

No list of typical Yankee fuck-ups would be complete without a review of Torre's managerial malfeasance. Now I understand why in the absence of Sheffield, slow Joe would want to get Cabrera in the line-up. He was leading the INT. league with a 385 batting average. But we all know (except Joe) that he can't field a lick. He proved that last year, and reminded us all once again with his ridiculous 2-run error on a frigging pop-up tonight. What is more we all know (except Joe) that Bernie Williams is totally overmatched by Josh Beckett. It's a simple formula really: if their fastball is going 93, Bernie can no longer see. So everyone knows (except Joe) that you get the added hitting you want by putting Cabrera in the DH slot (he went 2-3 with an rbi) and you get the defense you so badly need by putting Bubba in right. The defensive problems of the Yankees are so pronounced and so fatal that I don't think Torre should be fucking allowed to submit a lineup card to the umpire that doesn't have Bubba's name somewhere in the outfield.

Finally, I repeat, Aaron Small is not a relief pitcher. He pitched well as a starter throughout last summer, but he never excelled in relief. This year he's getting jacked in relief. MAybe last year was a fluke and he can no longer pitch at the major league level. We'll never know unless he starts a game or two, because even in his dream season, he was scaring noone coming out of the pen.

To return to where we started, Johnson was in fact terrible tonight. He couldn't find the plate. Not only did he walk too many, he was always pitching behind. Would he have righted the ship with better defense? Hard to say. But it would have helped if he exploited his wildness a little bit and drilled (I don't mean plunked, I mean drilled) Ortiz, somewhere in the region of his head; drilled Nixon, somewhere in the region of his head and drilled Youkillis somewhere in the region of his head. That was the thing about Clemens; if you hit him hard, he would hit you harder, which in turn made you a little less willing to score runs on him. At 6 ft. 10, with that whipsaw motion, Johnson could be firng 93 mile an hour fastballs from roughly 55 feet directly at Ortiz's face. Something tells me Big Papi would get a lot smaller offensively under that barrage, much as another great hitter, Mike Piazza, did.

Of course that brings us to what we might call the gestalt of this rivalry at this point in time. Until 2004, the rivalry was defined in terms of the Yankees calm efficiency and the Red Sox frenetic futility. But now the rivalry is defined in terms of the Red Sox grit and grind and the Yankees softness, for which their vestigial calm serves as a mask. Soft in the field, soft on the bases, soft on the mound. Thanks to Torre's managerial style, he Yankees have really become AROD's team rather than Jeter's, a team so gifted it never thinks to fight its way to victory; a team that thinks doing the little things--blocking the plate, laying down the bunt, diving for the ball in the outfield, getting nasty on the inside of the plate--will somehow compromise their cool, which is how they have come to define their swagger; a team, accordingly, that mows down inferior oppostion only to come unglued in tight games or confronting quality sides. A team finally that fails to inspire not just confidence, but even affection. There's a reason some of us view the retirement of Paul O'Neill as a gotterdamerung--not because he played like a god but because, never being deluded he was any such thing, he played like a mortal, which is to say as if his life depended on it. The way, in 1996, that Torre managed.

RJ Agonistes

There is talk of Randy Johnson retiring, thanks to a series of performances that make it evident that he is no longer the Johnson of old, or even the Johnson of last year. Although a chowderphile, if not a chowderhead, Skip Bayless put it pretty well I thought: Johnson can dominate every 3rd or 4th start but otherwise he's shawn Chacon, pretty good but not very good. When Johnson is not dominating, and I think Bayless's percentages are pretty close, I would submit that he is not as good as shawn chacon, not by long chalks. However, every 3rd or 4th start a gem is a formula for success on the Yankees, given their offense, provided the dominating performances come in the right spots. The Yanks need four things from Johnson for his contribution to be accounted successful.

1. He has to take the ball every fifth day, no questions, no exceptions.
2. He has to eat innings. roughly 7 per start
3. He has to pitch well enough to win most games, which doesn't mean he has to pitch well.
4. He has got to dominate in starts against quality teams, or at least teams with quality pitching.

If he does these 4 things, all four, then and only then he will be a success, and his era can be 5.50 or higher. It won't matter. So far he has shown he can do one through three. Tonight would be a good time to start working on number 4.

But not, I think, a crucial time. It is actually more important that the Yankees' bats show up and assert themselves against Beckett tonight. His ERA over the last 3 games is 9.65. The most important thing tonight is to continue that trend, to convince him and the chowderheads that he is a bum after all.

The New Millenarianism II

Now that Torre has won his 1000th game, the wankers at ESPN are speculating in their party-line way as to whether he is among the greatest managers of all time. Let me pose the question another way: has any manager, in the history of baseball, had the the kind of talent for 5 consecutive years that Torre has enjoyed and not won at least 1 world championship? I'll ask it another way, last year Torre had 5 likely Hall of Famers (Jeter, Rivera, Johnson, Rodriguez, and Sheffield), along with Giambi who has an outside shot. The year before he had 4 likely Hall of Famers and one guy with an outside shot. Can someone please name for me the last team--if there ever was one--that had 4 and 5 Hall of Famers in consecutive years and didn't even win the pennant? No, seriously, I'm really asking. Please let me know if you can think of any and if there is more than one or two. Because otherwise, I think we have to say that if Torre is one of the greatest mangers of all time, on the strength of 1996-2000, he is also one of the worst, on the weakness of everything since.

By the by, the word pundit, which is what Gammons, Kruk, Phillips and Ravech fancy themselves, comes from the Hindi and Sanscrit word for a learned man, typically used to designate a Brahmanic scholar. Hmm, and you thought late capitalist society wasn't a sinkhole of degeneration. I give you ESPN, proof of Nordau's prescience.

The New Millenarianism

Torre's 100oth win Sunday garnered praise for his leadership from Bernie Williams, who is glad to be treated like its still Y2K, the splendid zenith of his career and the Yankees recent glory. Torre was also lavishly praiised by George Steinbrenner, but of course he believes that this is Y2K. There was also the familiar appreciation for Joe's even-temperedness, which is how his admirers choose to interpret his torpidity.

And while the Yankees won their fifth straight--a truly impressive feat when you consider how hot the Rangers were before the Yanks came to Arlington--old Slow Joe made one of those unaccountable decisions for which he is justly (in)famous. Having decided to give Matsui a DH break (fine by me), he puts Bernie in right and Bubba in left. Given the premium on a strong arm in right, why would this not be the other way round? How can Torre persist, on a purely elective basis, in putting baseball's worst arm in right field? The offense may spare him the consequences for a time, but in what looks to be the prolonged absence of Sheffield (the reason for all of this), run production is likely to wane some in the weeks ahead and the runs disgorged by all those opponents taking extra bases will likely convert into a couple of unnecessary losses.

And Torre will continue to be lauded for his leadership, precisely because he is way too calm to worry about such things, let alone act on them.

Chacon Wins, Chacon Wins

Apparently the audition is already over. Buster Olney reports that on the strength of tonight's performance, Torre will do Chacon the favor of keeping him as the no. 5 starter i in a rotation where he is easily the second best pitcher. Wrong Stuff will be exiled either to the bullpen, where perhaps he can audition for mop-up man with the dynamic duo of Sturtze and Proctor (now, that sounds like a law firm) or to another team. Presumably the Yankees would be eating all of the ridiculously high salary they pay this man. Signing Wright for big bucks, even after the shoulder showed up damaged, was quintessentially Cashman and evidence that he deserves a blog like this all his own.

In a prior exchange, I disputed the characterization of Jeter as a merely "average" shortstop, but I let the same description stand for Damon. Tonight's game showed why, even with his rag arm, he is above average in center. He really does go get the ball with the best of them and his defense unquestionably won the game. If say Bernie were in center, the Rangers would have had at least 3-4 more runs, and I confess to uncertainty as to whether my man Bubba would have gotten the first deep fly Damon ran down. Now if he could just cut the umbilicus with his Red Sox and start to actually play against them, we would be able to take full pleasure in his presence.

Hey Johnny, you're in New York now, where the people are on average superior in every way to those chowderheads from the whiteness capital of the East Coast. I know you basked in the worship they offered you, but you must remember what Hegel had to say about the praise and deference of your lessers: it ain't worth much.

These are after all the came clowns who were happy to see the greatest pitcher of his generation sent packing (until he came back to bite them in their ass as a Yankee) and just a couple of years ago could contemplate with equanimity the departure of probably the greatest non-juiced hitter of his generation. So let's not remember them as they never were--loyal, knowledgeable, large-minded--but as they remain to this day--hysterical, venal, and provincial.

I just had to share

The news of last night's game that BGW brings is so revealing and his summary comment so perfect in its contempt for Torre that I wanted it on the main page:

BGW:

If you listened to the radio broadcast of last night's game, you'll recall the announcers kept talking about how Torre was a genius for batting A-Rod fifth; according to the NY Times, it was a mistake! I quote from the article:"Rodriguez was batting fifth, the result of a lineup snafu. Torre had told the bench coach Lee Mazzilli to insert Gary Sheffield into the lineup and bump everybody down. That resulted in Rodriguez dropping to fifth for the first time this season.Torre did not tell Rodriguez initially, but he later found him and explained the mix-up. Rodriguez had no problem with it, and Torre saw no reason to change.

"To me, lineups aren't as important as they are to other people," Torre said." You mean, the same way actually managing the team isn't as important to you as it is to other people?

Bad News, as Wins Go

Another stellar performance from Mussina, who seems to have had a full blown resurrection form the whining nibbler we saw last year. But the real news, and it wasn't good, was Aaron Small. He simply doesn't have the stuff to come in with men on base. He's a bend don't break pitcher and if you bend it ahead of time, he'll get killed. If Torre keeps him in the bullpen much longer, he'll be sending him back to Columbus soon after.

The bad news is there looks like there's no chance Torre will let Small start. Word is that once Pavano comes back (OK, I know that will probably never happen), but on the off chance that it does, Slow Joe intends to run an audition with Chacon and Wrong Stuff Wright to see who gets the fifth starting job. Not only will Small be left out in the cold, but there's a chance Chacon will as well, and after Mussina, he's the second best starter on the team. Torre ought to make Johnson and his exorbitant ERA audition or Wang and his consistent inconsistency. But the one person who should have no shot is Wright, whose at his best when he's hurt and unable to pitch, which fortunately is pretty often. Oh, but that's the really ridiculous part: whoever loses the audition, the Yankees plan to trade. Now given the fragility of their starters, you'd think that the Yankees would just retain them all just to be safe. Did they learn nothing from boy-Epstein's "genius" trade of Arroyo? What really worries me though, is that if Wrong Stuff hasn't already lost this competition by, you know, stinking out Yankee Stadium for the last two years, I don't see how he ever could. And while trading him would be, well, impossible, cause no other team's stupid enough to want him, trading Chacon would be a tragedy. If it happens, I predict right now, they don't make the playoffs. If for reasons involving Torre's brain lesions, they remove Chacon from the rotation, why not put him in the bullpen, where he has been effective in the past. With the performance of not only Small but Rivera tonight, it's clear they could use the help.

5.02

That's Randy Johnson's era so far and he is, if anything pitching worse than this time last year. That he is 5-2 is a tribute to the awesome potential, unevenly displayed of this offense. Last night they scored ten runs with Jeter and Arod taking the collar and sheffield not even entering the game until the seventh inning. They also came from behind more than once to win. If they keep grinding like they have very recently--and against type--they might bring a smile to our faces yet. But I won't get my hopes up. Once the playoffs start Johnson will need to be greatly improved or be in the bullpen--behind Mussina, Chacon and Wang--and I don't think Joe would ever do that.

Towers is the worst pitcher in baseball, by far, much worse than Wright, and yet Gibbons keeps trotting him out there. He must have gone to the Slow Joe school of managerial inertia.

Apropos of nothing but my own disgust

In the attempt to fuse news and entertainment, the anchor/readers alwys thank their own reporters profusely for agreeing to appear on their show when in fact that's their fucking job! Then they fulsomely praise said reporter for the excellence of their product, a gesture of network self-promotion disguised as talk show amenity. Since when did the other guys/girls in the newsroom start getting treated like their "special" guests? This is actually a cable development because CNN/CNBC,Fox all treat their newsreaders as the nonentities they in fact are in order to frame, by contrast, their field reporters as the celebrities they in fact are not.

So That's It II

We now know the slender talents still possessed by two of our favorite whipping boys. Jared (Wrong Stuff) Wright can still pitch--against the Rays. Bernie Williams can still hit--lefthanders who don't throw too hard. Still a nice victory, coming from behind on the road to win a close game. And look at what that bullpen can do when the names Sturtze and Proctor go uncalled. The Yankees did manage to hit into three double plays, which is hard to do unless you happen to be them.

Meanwhile Pavano threw 58 pitches in a game in Florida, allowing 1 unearned run and getting his fastball into the low 90's. Was his velocity ever higher than that? Still they don't plan to put him back in the rotation until June! Here again Steinbrenner should be screaming bloody murder. He's paying this guy huge bucks to work on his tan in Florida. He's obviously ready to go but Torre, the old nursemaid won't let him. Sheffield has pronounced himself ready to return, but "Mother" Torre won't let him either. What the hell is this about. Someone ought to remind Joe he's their manager not their therapist. He's supposed to get them to play through pain, not rest after relief.

I was watching the Bosox last night and was struck by the fact that even with their entire infield and almost their entire bullpeb=n replace, with %40 of their rotation new and two new centerfielders, they remain the exact same team! They are still the best grinders in the business, with Lowell giving up on being the power hitter he was years ago to channel Bill Mueller, and they still have a shitty bullpen, with Foulke, Taveras, Seanez all terrible and Timlin far more limited than he used to be. Papelbon has been hot, but watching him in juxtaposition to B.J. Ryan illuminates how straight his hard stuff is, how little movement it has in the strike zone. If people start laying off his off the corner pitches, like the Jays did last night, they will discover he's no Goose Gossage.

The biggest upgrade on the Sox was supposed to be the rotation, but with Wells giving them zero wins this year instead of last year's 15; with Beckett making up for, but not really surpassing Arroyo, with Clement already looking like the September model of last year, I don't really see it. Their defense is much better, particularly in the infield, but this remains a team that must outslug you to win on most nights and, while still asgodd and determined they are not quite the offensive force of the past few years.
All in all that boy genius stuff about Epstein seems a little hyped. the trade of Arroyo has to be one of the worst in memory. With his age and stuff, he could have been the Sox no. 2 for the next 15 years.

Finally, I think we've seen the last of Jason Varitek as an all-star catcher. He's 33-34, the age when most catchers start to fade (Posada certainly has) and his body has shrunken somewhere between 15 and 20%, indicating that he's been juicing all these years. His bat has lost the pop that comes with the juice as well. Couldn't happen to a bigger asshole. Well except for Barry Bonds, of course, but at least he plays for a cool franchise.

So that's It!

Some of you may have been wondering (I know I was) why slow Joe would skip Chacon, his second best pitcher this year in favor of Wright, one of the worst starters in Yankee history. The answer it turns out is that the one team Mr. Wrong Stuff Wright has had success against is Tampa Bay. He's 3-0, last year. All of this seems to be done on the idea of salvaging Wright's career, such as it is, when the Yankees should be looking for a way to part company permanently. There's is just no future there, and if they wind up losing this game unnecessarily (with Williams, and Phillips in the lineup, I'm even less hopeful), it could come back and bite them big time in what promises to be a clse race among two (or three) less than stellar teams. As bad as Wright was last year in the brief time he pitched, I think he's even worse now. Plus, why would you risk getting a hot pitcher like Chacon out of sink by skipping his start. That's just the kind of senseless mistake that makes Torre's continued presence such a mystery.

Silver lining II (real rainclouds)

The rainout tonight was a good break for the Yankees, for a couple of reasons. In addition to the home field advantage (which is lessened in a day/night doubleheader), the Sox had a pitching advantage the way the rotations had shaken out. In Game one, their number three went against the Yanks number four. Admittedly the Yanks should have won anyway, but they didn't , and tonight their number 2 against our number 3 would have presented a greater challenge. All the more so since Sheffield probably would still have been sitting and Torre would have probably felt compelled to play Bernie. Of course they'll have Crisp back next time, but I like the trade-off. Sheffield's average against Boston is 395 and he regularly goes over the green monstrousity. Finally, the extra day off means that Torre can, and should, go directly from Chacon to Johnson and Mussina. Do not pitch Wright; do not go to jail. Of course the Sox will be able to skip Denardo, but they've been overpitching Shilling (133 pitches on game) so they probably won't.

Oh and one more thing, maybe by the time the rescheduled game is played in August, Johnny Dreamboat will have figured out that Boston is the the opposition now and he's supposed to try and beat them. He certainly wasn't playing that way last night, when he seemed far more concerned with preening for the crowd than displaying his legendary hustle.

Meanwhile the AL Central now has three teams you would have to favor over the Yanks or the Sox in a playoff series--Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago. Add in the Angels, whom the Yanks can't ever seem to beat, and the A's whom neither the Sox nor the Yanks fare well against, and the rivalry seems to be a pretty intramural affair this year.

silver linings?

Z points out that at least Slow Joe played Bubba in right last night and his diving catch save (at least) a run. Bubba also had a hit, which is more than Bernie would have had. Sheffield really likes to DH, and I'm thinking he should, at least on those days they elect to play Giambi in the field.

But there were other positive signs in the game I thought. One was the defense of Robinson Cano: a great play to start a twin killing and then a great snatch of a line drive. If this is representative of improvement in his fielding, The Yankees could have a reasonably solid infield by mid-summer. He also had 2 hits to lift his average to 329. Although Small took the loss and begins the year with a high ERA, thanks to Sturtze and Myers, I actually thought he did his job very well last night. His job as I define it was to get them from Wang to the set up man. In this case, it meant pitching a solid 6 and 7 inning, which is where they had so much trouble last year. He gave us two scoreless frames and should never have bben brought out for the 8th. When the game is close that's Farnsworth's territory, as it was Gordon's last year. Torre seems to have some kind of phobia about this guy, but if he gets regular work he will, I think, be better than Gordon was. I still think Small should be starting--that's what he does best--but if he stays in the bullpen and Dotel comes back strong, and Torre ever gets his head straight with Farnsworth or if George finally remembers to fire him--all big ifs--then they might finally have that "bridge to Rivera" that we had all assumed had the same metaphysical status as Sasquatch.

Why I'd rather see Bgw manage the Yankees than Status Quo Joe

On the one hand, there's little reason to worry about this one ugly loss to the Red sox at Fenway. the years preceding the Sox finally winning the series were filled with their early season heroics against the Yankess, which were followed by a late season or playoff swoon. Actually, 2004 was a year the Yankees played the Sox unusually well through mid season , only to fall apart after Arod infamously elected to tussle with Varitek in his catcher's regalia instead of kneecapping him with the bat and ending his career properly.

But what was disturbing tonight was the apparent lack of seriousness with which Torre appears to regard this rivalry. It's one thing to rely on Tanyon Sturtze in inappropriate situations against the rest of the league (i.e. anytime the game is remotely within reach for either team), it's quite another to call on him with the game on the line in the eighth inning at Fenway. Bring him in then and you deserve to lose, and they did. The only way Loretta gets a hit in the clutch is on a nice fat pitch, which coincidentally is the only kind Sturtze knows how to throw in the clutch. Why are the Yankees paying Farnsworth a big salary if they aren't going to use him under just those circumstances. How bad does Sturtze have to prove himself before Torre looks elsewhere (for the answer, see Jared Wright). Why do the Yankees bother to expend resources building an All-Star team if Torre is going to go to the margins when it counts?

To be fair, there was a certain amount of bad luck involved in this loss. If the pop-up in the seventh doesn't get blown off course, the Red Sox start the 8th with Lowell, Pena, Mirabelli and Cora, and we probably never get to the increasingly narrow slice of their line-up that can hit (Youkilis, Ortiz and Ramirez). But confronted late in the game with their best, why wouldn't we not put in our best? Because Torre has grown accustomed to Tanyon Sturtze's face and will keep asking to see it until George and Cashman pull one of them off the team altogether. I say go for two!

One more thing. Unless Sheffield's hand is actually broken, he's got to be DHing against the Sox. he hits them better than anyone else on the team.

Strange!

The Red Sox reacquired Mirabelli for Bard, who was supposed to be their catcher of the future (they gave up Kelly Shoppach for him), just to catch Wakefield, which Bard, like Varitek, just couldn't do. I suppose this deal would make sense if they really had a chance to win it all, but barring the return of Clemens I rate their chances of a world championship slightly below the Yankees, which is to say pretty damn low.

On the other side of the coin, The Yankees announced that with Sheffield doubtful, they would be playing the hapless Mr. Williams in right. That's correct, right field in Fenway (and after yesterday's double-blunder, which BGW details in his lates comment). I can only imagine the laugh Dwight Evans is having over this.

You know it's as hard to believe Torre is still running a big league club as it is to believe Bush is actually president, and for the same exact reason. You'd figure rising to the level of ordinary American stupidity would be a must in either job.