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.