So Far...

it's all good. In addition to the 385 batting average, and the 400 plus OBP, Abreu's ability to work the count--something he always did manage with the Phillies, even when he wasn't producing--has Buster Olney comparing him to Chuck Knoblach (pre-meltdown). More importantly Lidle, jst made his 5th consecutive quality start. If he keeps this up, he will give the Yankees more than they could possibly have expected--not just Wright as a no.5 (instead of 4) but Randy Johnson as a 4 (instead of the 3 he had become). Moreover, one of the worries BGW expressed about the trade involved the resentment Sheffield would likely feel and the counterproductive response he might have. I allowed that Sheffield was never much of a team player so that his predictably aggrieved reaction should be discounted. Well it turns out we were both wrong. In the wake of the Abreu acquisition, Sheffield has taken to learning 1b as the Yanks have requested. On the other hand, the doctor has set his return date back to mid-September, leaving me confident in my belief that we will not see him again this year. Here then is the potential line-up for the Yankees come late August/September.

Damon
Abreu
Jeter
Giambi
Arod
Matsui
Cano
Posada
Cabrera/Wilson

There is no doubt this is an awfully good line-up. Is it good enough to overcome its own defensive liabilities and softness on fundamentals? That depends, I suspect, on how self-satisfied the Yankees allow themselves to be, which is in part a function of how passive and push-button a manager old stus quo Joe allows himself to be. Give this much to Brian Cashman, in this the first year of his professional adulthood, he's been neither passive nor satisfied, but has enacted a kind of sane version of the impatience that Steinbrenner lost with his memory.

Meanwhile, lost in the midst of the pandemonium in Chowderhead nation and on chowderhead network about the dramatic walkoffs this week is the fact that the Sox just split a series in Fenway against a very bad Cleveland team (before tonight not one pitcher on their staff had ever earned a major league save), a series in which they lost Jason Varitek on top of Trot Nixon, saw Josh Beckett surge to the lead in gopher balls allowed (ERA, 5.00), saw Mike Lowell's batting average continue to slide from the 330's to the 280's, saw David Wells get slaughtered in the mid-summer classic, Return of the Fat Man, saw Lester get roughed up from the 2nd consecutive outing, saw Clement get placed on the 60 day DL, and featured Jason Johnson's display of exactly what it means for a team to have no 5th starter. They are still an awesome late inning team, with Ortiz and Manny at the plate, Papelbon in the pen, and a fine defense, but all is not well in the People's Republic of Massachusetts. The Yankees did them a huge favor in certain respects by shoving the Jays to the brink of extinction in the wild card as well as the division race, becasue it is now possible that the Sox, no less than the NY, Chicago, and Minnesota, really are fighting, fair field and no favor, for their postseason lives.