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.