SHUT UP AND PLAY BALL!!

This from the NY Times:

"Nobody discounts the possibility that Steinbrenner could fire Joe Torre. But if Steinbrenner did it, he would anger many of the players and threaten to poison an already sullen locker room. To the players, firing Torre would be foolish."

An already sullen locker room? What do these guys have to be sullen about? They're getting paid well to play poorly or to nurse injuries, all for a player's manager they claim to revere. Can somebody explain to me why we should care how this group feels about who has the manager's job? I think Torre should get fired for his inability to think in real time game situations, his addiction to the status quo, his continued =refusal to play small ball, his inability to run his bullpen, his unwillingness to fight to win games, which sometimes includes plunking people, the way he mollycoddles his players etc. But let's say I am entirely wrong and someone like Jeter is right, that the sad state of the Yankees is all the fault of the player's performance. Well, then, they're the ones who are getting him fired and they shouldn't be blaming Steinbrenner for merely executing what their failures demand. Either it's partly his fault or entirely their fault, but either way they should just shut up and play.

EXCUSES

EXCUSES.

Cashman continues to peddle the injury line, how they'll be fine once they recover from all their hurts. But they've lost 8 of the last 9 with thier line-up essentially intact, and half of those losses came with their #1 and #2 starters on the mound and another one with their # 4, who has also given them their only win in that string. The rotation of late has really only been short Mussina and since he hasn't thrown a fastball at better than 85 MPH all year, he is likely to be more of a liability than an asset at this point. The return to physical health has not entailed anything like a return to competitive health. Quite the contrary. The pitching remains mediocre to poor and now a whole series of bats have gone in the tank: Damon, Matsui, Cano, Cabrera, Mankiewicz. As a result they have developed new ways to lose.

When I tallied all the money Cashman has squandered on bad pitching of late, I should have included the 24 mil he paid for the dregs of Mussina's career. Mussina never received sufficient blame for blowing the lead they got him against the Tigers last year in game 2. He holds ion and they go up 2, they might well be the defending champs right now. He was good in then spring and early summer of last year but he wore down in the late summer and fall, obligingly leaving the handwriting on the wall that the Cashman elected not to read.

DOWN GOES

FRASIER!

UPDATE

Not 1 minute after the last post Mankieiwicz hits a 3 run homer. Amazing! I wish my denunciations of Yankee losers always had that effect.

MANKIEWICZ IS JUST ANOTHER NAME

for no will left to win.

As the Yankees trial 2-0, against Julian Taverez of all people, in what may be the decisive must-win game fo the season, it occurs to me that starting a first baseman who is still hitting 140 at this point of the season signifies a defeatism that all by itself warrants firing the manager. Especiallty when Josh Phelps, while no superstar, has proven himself a serviceable figure in the field and a solid presence at the plate. This is status quo-ism at its worst. Joe thought he was going to platoon them, so even though Mankiewicz is far worse against righties than Phelps will ever be, Joe just keeps doing it. Why the fuck do the pundits keep protecting this guy's reputation?

GENTLEMEN, STOP YOUR

Blackberries.

Word is that Jason Giambi and others have been text-messaging Roger Clemens in an effort to hasten his return to the Bronx. Well, you can all stop now. As I have said before, Clemens is not going to come back for a last round-up (and this is indeed the last, surely) with a team that has little shot at the postseason and none at a World Championship. But I have now come to the conclusion that the Yankees should not even be pursuing the Rocket, except perhaps for the purpose of driving his price tag in Boston upwards. The kind of obscene prorated money that Roger wants would only be well spent if he could lead the Yankees to the Promised Land. Leaving aside the sad fact that Moses himself couldn't get this bunch out of the desert, Roger is peculiarly unsuited even to push them to the next oasis. He has been for a few years now a 6 inning pitcher--maybe he's down to five at this point--which means he taxes your bullpen as the cost for procuring you victories. Obviously victories that further stress the Yankees bullpen would be entirely Phyrric, but that is presuming that the likes of Vizcaino, Farnsworth and yes Rivera could hold the leads Clemens would be turning over to them. All available evidence indicates they would not. At best, Clemens would become the mound-correlative of AROD: someone with breathtaking statistics (ERA, WHIP etc) that throw Yankee futility into further relief.
HEADLINE: CLEMENS GLITTERS, YANKEES FRITTER/ AROD MASHES, TEAM CRASHES

It's not a leader worth spending 15 plus million to read. So Jason, please stop writing.

IT'S OFFICIAL, THIS TEAM IS A DISGRACE

to the pinstripes. The Yankees keep saying there is no reason to panic yet. But that's all about the future. They sahould be worried that they are making fools of themselves in the present. There are newly minted fans out there and for them the NY Yankees are synonymous with incompetence, futility, passionlessness, non-competitiveness. George no sooner gives the keys to the Bentley to Boy-Brian and he wrecks the damn thing altogether. For those who cannot stand to look, Vizcaino has already been ruined in the Ron Villone mode; Proctor is already burned out for the season; Mankietwicz is now hitting .140, proving what we all knew going in, that he posed no solution to the problem at first base; Matsui still doesn't seem ready for some reason, and whoever is pitching (including Pettite) regards Yankee rallies as invitations to give back the runs in the very next half-inning. But for those who think Boy-Brian can do nothing right, there was bitterly ironic evidence to the contrary on display tonight. It's a good thing he didn't give Mo that extension. I mean don't look now but he can't get anyone out; he can't even get meaningless outs.

Is there no blame for Torre in all this? Of course there is.

1. He's the one who keeps running Mankietwicz out there, even though there is no prospect that he can hit big league pitching anymore. Another mistake that would be better admitted. I don't care what your offense looks like; nobody can afford a corner infielder who is an automatic out with absolutely no power potential. In his first at bat tonight, he looked at three straight strikes and went back to the dugout. And where are those legendary NY fans. they should be booing, cursing and throwing things at Mankietwicz until Torre can't play him for fear of psychic or physical injury. Given Mama Joe's tendency to mollycoddle, it shouldn't take that long.

2. I don't care if Mo needs work. Even before he fell off the cliff Boston was hitting him too hard because they had grown accostomed to his stuff. Why give them a further look when you don't have to? Perhaps Torre fails to remember that he wouldn't pitch Mo against the Sox in spring training for that very reason. So why waste him now?

3. He shows absolutely no anger, no disgust, no irascibility, at this performance. He should be holding some of these guys, not to mention himself, up to ridicule. I mean the fans shouldn't have to carry the whole weight in this regard. It will only be so long before we start ignoring them altogether.

OLD AND NEW

The Old

According to Bob Klapisch, the only man left in Carl Pavano's corner is Brian Cashman, probably because Cahsman was responsible for the disastrous signing in the first place and, even worse, for refusing to get rid of him when he had the chance. I adduce this as evidence that Cashman is indeed as crappy a general manager as I've been saying. In the wide and wooly world of free agency, you are going to blow it sometimes. Boston too wanted Pavano, badly. but you don't see boston insisting upon relying upon other bad recruitments they've made. They don't go inot this year depending upon Matt Clement as their 4th starter. They didn't go into last year depending on Wade Miller as their 5th starter. Cashman's refusal to concede just how gutless a wimp Pavano is and how wrong he was about this character has proven nothing short of disastrous. In the clubhouse evidently, Pavano's insistence that something is "grabbing" at his foerearm is being greeted with contemptuous skepticism. They ought to go further. They should make him clean out the latrines if he wants to get the money he will not pitch for.

The New

After a lackluster performance against the Jays, Phil Hughes might benefit from being refunded to Scranton. Or so the conventional wisdom runs. I disagree. I think that with his current assortment of pitches Hughes will likely not become a truly dominant pitcher any time in the near or even distant future. His fast ball is just too straight. In fact, I've never seen a straighter fastball, and that includes Dice-K's, which is pretty flat. But, and this is a big but (hence the italics), should Hughes learn to mix his fastball with a cut fastball, then we are looking at potential greatness. If with that curveball of his, he also develops a split-finger fastball, then there are no limits on what he can do. Who better to school him on the former than Pettite and Mo; who better to school him on the latter than Wang? Let him stay, let him learn, let him flourish.

SAME OLD,

same old.

At the end of last series the Sox were up to their old tricks in a different language, with Dice-K plunking both Jeter and AROD, the two mainstays of the Yankees' lineup. And what is the Yankees response to be one wonders. Well to judge from the comments of Jorge, it's more of Mama Joe's milquetoast from last year. To whit: "we don't have to hit anybody to send a message." Here's a message for you Jorge, yes you fucking do. This has been going on since the days of Punk Pedro, and whatever message you think you've been sending it hasn't been getting through. You not only have to hit somebody, but given the incorrigible nature of the BoSox beanball machine, you have to make it clear that you are willing to end someone's season and even their career to protect your teammates. And not just anyone, but someone with a season and a career worth saving, i. e. Ramirez, Drew or Ortiz. You Jorge are the common link among all those pitchers who have resolutely refused to stand up for their teammates since the admirably vengeful and unstable Rocket Roger left town. It is up to you to put a stop to Mama Joe's mannerly nonsense. As this blog has noted before, Joda doesn't want to struggle for victory or allow his players to do so, believing that it is somehow beneath their dignity. Well boys, you're in last place in a division that includes the most futile franchise in baseball history; you've been swept three series in a row; you just don't have any dignity left to lose. You are fast becoming a laughing stock, not least among the Boston pitchers who drill you at will. Have Andy begin this series with a high cut fastball that bears down on the face of a bailing Manny Ramirez. That will "get your message across" and what's more it will bring a warning from the umpires that will prevent the Red Sox from throwing at your lineup for the remainder of the game. Then on Saturday do it again. Then on Sunday, do it again. Make it clear that in your house, you get first crack at their baseball futures and you're going to take it every time. By now you should have learned what the Red Sox have known for a long time: there are no Marquis of Queensbury rules in a knife fight.

When Varitek sucker punched AROD ion 2004, it was the Yankees job to make sure he met with a season ending fate in the subsequent game. The failure to do so has haunted this team since. At this point in time, Jorge, when you're not really competitive anyway, you can at least create the optimum conditions for whenever it is you become so again. And the first of those conditions is, never be more encumbered by the injunction to show "class" than your rivals are.

Theory and Practice

As I have noted, Cashman must be regarded as a piss poor GM. That is kind of a shame, because his head is in the right place. He wanted to get faster and younger and hungrier, all goals with which I entirely concur. But I'm afraid that he is--whether constituionally or as an effect of having too much money to spend--just too damn soft. However Detroit feels about Sheff right now, they were desparate to get him in the spring, but Cashman did not extract product equivalent to their desire. Perhaps because he never takes fitness into consideration (Kevin Brown was yesterday's Carl Pavano), he allowed the Tigers to steal him blind, off-loading a conditioning/injury problem, Sanchez, on the Yanks and securing their nut (in every sense) in the process. The fans were not fully apprised of Humberto's dismal histrory with his body, but the Yankees knew. If Detroit wasn't willing to part with either of their 2 top minor league pitching prospects, Cashman should have said fine, we'll keep this guy until a good deal comes along, and certainly by the trade deadline it would have. They might have nothing till then, but now they just have nothing. Item 2: RJ wanted to leave and really preferred Arizona. Who cares? Cashman evidently. Because the best deal was clearly in San Diego, where Scott Linebrink was being offered. Boy, couldn't we use him now. Instead, Cashmen, in order to accomodate a pinstripe-bum, who never earned half his contract, especially in the post-season, convinced himself that Ohlendorff was the guy they really wanted--convinced himself, that is, until the Spring, when it became clear Ohlendorff was not ready for prime time and might never be.

The pundits have laid the decline of the Yankee dynasty at King George's feet, not unreasonably as he was the moving force behind some of their worst and most expensive free agent acquisitions. But the corresponding assumption that Cashman was in fact a sterling GM, hampered only by an unfortunate lack of the requisite organizational authority, has proved, well, baseless. Cashman espouses a sound overall philosophy, but being a GM is also about the art of the deal, and Cashman is a "mark" in that regard. To be sure, there is luck involved in some of these transactions, particularly where injury is concerned. But the consistency with which Cashman seeks or accepts damaged goods evidences some degree of culpability. Yes, Epstein is little better: he got unlucky with Clement, he got stupid with Wade Miller, and he wanted Pavano as badly as Cashman. But this year, the Yankees had 2 aging superstars with market attractiveness and Cashman had new-found authority to pursue his vision by trading them. And he came up, if not empty, nearly so, too nearly so for the Yankees to survive, this year or perhaps for the next 2 or 3, the consequences of his errors. For that reason alone, he should be made to fire Torre one news cycle before he gets the ax himself.

WHEN INTRODUCING A 20 YEAR OLD ROOKIE PITcHER TO THE MAJORS,

put your best team behind him. Derek Jeter was in the lineup for the rainout on Wednesday, how did a day old thigh bruise grow worse with the passage of another day. I swear Mama Joe's ideal player is none other than Carl Pavano, who lets Torre play it safe with him 162 games a year (give or take a start).

Boy is this team in trouble. You knew they couldn't keep hitting like they were (who could) so now even if the pitching improves a little (how could it not), they'll still be losing (as indeed they are). I know this "series" was just one game and TB only 2, but when was the last time, can someone tell me, when the Yankees were swept in three consecutive series, one of which was at home? I'd be interested. Right now I would put the Yankees chances of finishing fourth, behind Boston, Toronto and Baltimore, to about the same as their chances of finishing first.

IF YOU STILL DON'T THINK JOE BLOW IS COMLETELY INEPT,

then you tell me what in the world Meyers is still doing on this team. He can't get anyone out.He's a specialist in allowing lefthanded batters to break up the game and ensure Yankee defeats. First Ortiz in Boston now Crawford in Tampa Bay. Any idiot cansee Meyers has got nothing left at all. If you can't grasp that obvious fact, you shouldn't be allowed to manage Little League. To put Meyers in with the game on the line is, quite simply, to refuse to win. Meyers must be cut and Torre must go with him. This is a fact too indisputable to require argument or eloquence. I don't know about the players but Torre deserves to be in last place. And so it would seem do many Yankee fans. The comments on ESPN were all about how awful Vizcaino is. But all he did was give up an intentional walk to set up the DP and then get an out. Instead of lettingn him finish the inning, Torre goes to Mr. Automatic Disaster himself. Then he talks about how we have to keep plugging. Of all the poor personnel decisions the Yankees have made recently, failing to fire this moron when they had the chance ranks first.

IDEA FOR A BLOG: F@*&# BRIAN CASHMAN

Sanchez is done for the season with reconstructive elbow surgery--and if you add him to Johnson, Ohlendorff and Pavano, you have to say Cashman is nearly as bad at his job as Torre is at his. None of the pitchers he acquires is either any good or very durable. Vizcaino looked lousy again tonight. Farnsworth certainly hasn't panned out. Jared Wright was awful. Bottom line: everybody agrees the Yankees pitching is in disarray, and if the blame for the bullpen goes to Torre's management, the blame for the overall situation must be shared with Cashman. He really has acquired a large number of pitchers over the past few years and almost all of them have been flops. Right now we have no major league return on Sheffield; we got nothing for the huge Johnson contract and nothing for Johnson in trade; we got nothing on the huge Jared Wright contract and nothing for Wright in trade; we've gotten nothing for the huge Farnsworth contract; nothing, of course, for the huge Pavano contract, and we couldn't trade him at this point if we tried. And let's not forget the obscene amount spent on Kevin Brown for three awful years. Brian Cashman has thrown around a fucking amazing sum of money for pitching and gotten squat in return. Let's see, 50+ for Johnson, 45+ for Brown, 38 for Pavano, 47 for Igawa, 36 for Farnsworth, 26 for Wright, that 's 252 million dollars for 3-4 years of miserable pitching, with only Igawa holding out any prospect whatever of panning out. Cashman's record of futility in this area is stunning and perhaps unprecedented. On the basis of these numbers, I think that someone could fairly respond to my repeated calls for Torre's head with the sentiment "not unless Cashman goes too."At different points ove the past 2 years, Steinbrenner wanted to fire both of them. If we weren't currently suffering under the all too gentle madness of King George he would have done so, and Yankee fans everywhere, whether they know it or not, would have been much better off.

WELL IT'S ALSO SCARY HOW WRONG I WAS

about Igawa. At least for tonight. His breaking pitch had no bite and his fastball no movement. Over the last 4 games the Yankees have averaged 6.25 runs per game, a pace of over 1000 runs for the season, and they lost every single game. That's actually hard to do. At this point, I have to say its getting very difficult to feel assured that they can even compete for a playoff spot. Wang will probably be fine and Pettite's been quietly wonderful. But Pavano won't be back for weeks and won't be back for long when he does return. Igawa's second awful outing in four tries leaves little room for hope in that quarter, and there is no reason to think Mussina will be more than adequate when he comes back. And I don't see why in the world Clemens would want to walk into this mess. Yes, he'd get run support and win his games, but he wants to play in the series and that looks unlikely. This is like a team from the height of the Mattingly era; they score runs by the bushel, but they can't score enough to keep up with the Doyle Alexanders of this world. Given what is happening to this bullpen, the Yankees not only need a viable rotation going forward they need a good one. And I only see that happening if Wang comes back strong, Mussina comes back strong, Pettite continues on, Hughes proves to be the real thing right now, and Pavano comes back soon and gives the good starts necessary to make the Yankees look like they've righted things enough for Clemens to come on board. If the rotation was Pettite, Clemens, Wang, Hughes and Mussina, with Igawa as the long reliever (and Pavano back, I assume, on the DL), then we might have something.

I'M SORRY BUT IT'S SCARY

just how right I've been. Which is to say just how bad a field manager slow Joe is. The Yankees lost this game because Torre went to Proctor for the third time in as many games and his velocity was down 3-5 MPH. And why did Joda feel compelled to do that? Because having burned half his bullpen needlessly in a game Pettite was winning, he had no back up left for the novices he was starting on the weekend. Like yesterday's game, Torre lost this one on Friday night. I mean if Pettite can come back and pitch 2 days later, he sure could have stayed in the game when we needed him.

Having said that, it's not like Joda's decisons tonight didn't stink as well. When he brought Petitte out for the sixth he surely must have expected that since Andy was facing Youkillis and Ortiz, and since Andy pitches away from contact and doesn't mind putting people on base, that he was in for a 20 pitch performance anyway. When Pettite got through the inning in just nine pitches, why not bring him back to face Manny and Drew. Does anyone know just how much trouble Manny has with left-handers? He's really pretty bad against them, which is why the Sox have had trouble generally against southpaws. Manny is no better against them than Ortiz, or Drew for that matter. Instead old knee-jerk Joe goes to Proctor, again, because he's the person he always goes to, which is why Proctor can look so bad at times, like tonight. Status quo Joe was not even deterred at Manny's lifetime .375 Homer Average off of Proctor (8 at bats, 3 dingers). Nor was he deterred by the 22 pitch outing Proctor had yesterday. If Manny's 2-out single (9 at bats, 13 total bases) didn't convince Torre that Proctor should be pulled, how about Drew's 2-out wall banger on a pitch 6 inches wide of the strike zone. If Proctor has his normal juice that pitch is unhittable. NO, Joe waits for the inevitable big fly to admit the disastrousness of his bullpen choice. If he just had to take Pettite out, well, Vizcaino didn't pitch yesterday. Why not bring him in in the seventh? Why not bring Henn in earlier, when he could have done some good. Why is Craig Britton up here if you have no intention of using him?

It's like he's challenging his players: you think you can win despite my complacent stupidity, try this blunder on for size and see if you can overcome it. I mean did you see the meatball that Drew hit out of the park after Manny's bomb? Wright's evening should have been over right then and there. We should have to had to wait for the single fattest pitch I've ever seen thrown in anger, the lob to Varitek before switching horses. In every single game Torre's bullpen decisions cost the Yankees at least one run and in 2 of the games that was the margin of victory.

Of course the fact that these games were so close is part of the frustration. The Yankees could actulally have swept the series despite the huge differential in starting pitching. And boy would that have been a statement. As it was, they did in fact put a hurting on each of Boston's big three. Six against Schilling in seven, six against Dice K in seven, all earned, 5 against Beckett in 6.1, 4 earned. Boston had to come from behind in each of these games, which is weird considering their huge advantage in the rotation right now. The Yankees made Schilling look as ordinary as he in fact is these days, they made Beckett look as ordinary as he was last year, and they made Dice-K look as ordinary as he might turn out to be. But Boston was able to come back in each game, which is weird considering the Yankees theoretical advantage in the bullpen, an advantage only Dodo Joe could render quite so nugatory in practice. Torre has the reputation of blowing out his bullpens over the course of a season. He's contrived to blow this one out over the course of April and without any meaningful wins to show for it.

LIKE I SAID,

Torre lost today's game last night. If he leaves Pettite in and doesn't use half his bullpen, he would have been willing to take Karstens out in the second inning like he needed to. I mean having given up 4 runs in 2 innings and having been lucky to not give up more (Abreu brought back an Ortiz homer) Karstens should not have been pitching to Ortiz in the fifth. Did you see the stuff he didn't have on his pitches. Did you see the middle of the plate locations he was hitting. He just didn't have it today and Sean Henn should have been in there early, handing off to Bruney, Proctor, Vizcaino and Farnsworth for the mid to late innings. If Torre leaves Pettite in last night, they might have won then and they might have won today, but the odds are they would have gotten one of them, which is all they needed for the series. Now they are facing the likelihood of a sweep and a sub-500 record. A sub 500 record! With Arod hitting out of his mind, Posada at 350, Jeter well over 300 etc etc.

On the larger scale,

I can root for a team that loses; I find it damn hard to root for a team that isn't even trying.

Item: every time Ortiz comes to the plate today they pitch to him, and I mean they feed him strikes. Manny is hitting fucking 179 for Chrissakes. At this moment Ortiz has no protection whatever. Make Manny beat you. Don't just throw in the towel and surrender the runs you know Ortiz will produce.

Item. If Damon can pinchhit, Damon can play. If Damon can't play and Matsui can't play and Posada can't play, then you have to get some offense elsewhere. Phelps can catch; have him catch. Nieves hasn't had a hit in the majors since 2002. He's got to be the only position player in baseball who has gone o for the last 5 years. He gives new, or I should say literal meaning tto the phrase automatic out. He can't be playing at the same time you are playing a second string outfield and the weakest hitting corner infielder in the major leagues. Not at a bandbox like Fenway.

Item Matsui was eligible to come off the DL by now. Why the hell isn't if off the DL? He's better, I know that. He's coming back to take on the Rays! By all means, don't bring out your best for Boston.

Item Wang has been eligible to come off the DL for some time. A week ago he completed a successful rehab start. Instead of bringing him up for this series, when they so badly needed him, the Yankees send him out on a second rehab start and propose to bring him back for the Rays! Why pitch your number one starter against the Red Sox when there's a thursday night game in Class A Greenville or something.

What is most sickening about all of this is that Torre gets a pass because the team has been so "plagued with injuries" when in fact he milks these maladies like a schoolboy confronting a math test. It's not that he doesn't rush people back, it's that he delays bringing back those who have been pronounced healthy. He insists upon sitting people for minor bruises and strains. And he refuses to allow the completely healthy, like Pettitte, to perform for the full duration of their prowess. If you put all these things together, you have to say that he doesn't really try to win, or at least he absolutely refuses to struggle for victory. He refuses to push his millionaires or, in the case of gamers like Matsui, Pettitte and Damon, he refuses to allow them to push themselves. And I have to tell you, as someone who a) pushes myself at my own work and b) sweats the fate of this team on a daily basis, I feel not disappointed in Torre, not only disgusted with Torre, I feel, frankly, ripped off by Torre--and by his enabler Brian Cashman.

Steinbrenner was frequently a buffoon, always a blowhard and usually a terrible evaluator of big league talent, with an overdeveloped fetishism for big name vets past their prime. But at his best, and even at his worst, he understood that for the fans who were paying the freight for the endeavor of Yankeedom, it was more than a game, more than a pasttime, that it demanded of them a great deal more than time and the willingness to be entertained, and that as a result he and his organization owed them something in the way of unremitting effort. When I look at the Yankees this year, I feel like that ethos is as dim a memory as Steinbrenner's own has become.

Remember how George became a figure of national fun for his hair trigger firing of managers. Well there's nothing funny, or fun, about his senility-induced failure to fire this one. For the last 2 years, Joe Torre has ruined a team. But now, with his fully developed, fully sanctioned, win at no cost attitude, he is ruining a organization.

I DON'T BLAME TORRE FOR THIS COLLAPSE,

I blame him for the losses to follow. With an already stressed and overworked bullpen, torre removes Pettite in the 7th inning despite the fact that he had just struck out a batter. With a 6-2 lead, slow Joe simply has to rely on Pettite to get him 8 innings. If you lose by that strategy, so be it, but you now have rested a bullpen that badly needs it, and tomorrow is, as Scarlet O'Hara has it, another day. What Joe did was rely on the overworked by overworking them further, and now there's noone left to go to when Karstens and Wright need help. Andy Pettite was the only starter in this series with the experience to go deep in Fenway. If he fails to do so, well fair enough. But he was succeeding. Why in the world would you yank him? For Meyers? Bulletin to status quo: Meyers can't get anyone out when it counts, including Ortiz. For Vizcaino? No he just threw 30 pitches yesterday and got lit up. For Mo? Yes, but only to start an inning. I don't know if Boston would have gotten to Pettite, but there were no other reasonable options, and even if they did we'd be better off than we are now with the bullpen taxed to the breaking point. With respects to BGW, this is more of Torre's sentimental tomfoolery. He tries to assure his starter's won't lose well pitched games by pulling them at the first opportunity. The result is that they, and the team, win less of their well pitched games than they should.

This was on any account a crushing defeat, particularly since this was the one matchup in the Yankees' favor. Pettite is a better pitcher than Schilling and with the Yanks line-up, they need to win games like this. But any projection of Yankees' success over the long term of the season was predicated on Mo being Mo. Yes, he's had slow starts before. But I cannot remember him ever having an 8.5 ERA, nor blowing 2 leads of this magnitude in this fashion twice in a row. It is reasonable to wonder if we are witnessing the beginning of the end of an era of late-inning dominance, which would mean a continuation of the Yanks time in the wilderness of losing.

Before the series, I thought the Yanks would lose 2 games to 1 , and that would be fine given the state of their rotation and the imminent return of Wang. But when you lose a game like this to the bats of Crisp, Varitek and Cora, a sweep seems the only rational expectation. Weak starters and a depleted bullpen strengthen that expectation. And if that happens, the Yankees might well be playing for their season next week at the stadium. If they are 5 or more back at that point, the likelihood of their securing Clemens diminishes dramatically, and the likelihood of Boston signing him increases proportionately. I really don't see any way of conceiving what Joe Torre did to this team tonight as anything other than disaster. If the Yankee fans want a target for the venom they have in reserves owing to AROD's resurgence, Torr is their man. Let's see if we can drive him from the game.

EVEN BETTER

than AROD'S heroics were the heroics that enabled them. Down 6-2 coming into the bottom of the ninth, and posting 2 quick outs, the Yanks put AROD in a position where a single would have won the game, a circumstance which doubtless made the homer easier to produce. Phelps homers, Posada singles, with 2 strikes, Damon goes 2 strikes and walks, Jeter singles, Abreau singles, with 2 strikes, Jeter and Abreu advance on a wild pitch. If you closed your eyes and transposed some of the names, Posada to Brosius to Knoblach to Jeter to Williams to O'Neill, it was something you can imagine the 1998 Yankees doing. Except they never did. No Yankee ballclub in the glorious history of the franchise ever came from 4 down with 2 outs and noone on in the ninth inning. Never. And while the pundits rave on about AROD's amazing start, and I am happy to give him the considerable credit due, the best thing about today, the most promising sign looking forward, was that string of ripped lined drives--Posada, Jeter, Abreu--interrupted only by Damon's walk. Championships are won by contact hitting in the clutch. That's why the Yanks won in 1998 and not the Tribe of Belle, Thome and the Alomars. So far this season the Yankees offense has been behaving like we begged it to all last year: drawing walks, making contact, and punctuating things with the long ball instead of depending upon it. Jeter, Damon, Posada, Phelps, AROD, Abreu, 6 of the nine starters are over 300 and well over 300 and that without Matsui in the lineup and with Cano yet to reach the level he surely will. The pitching is not up to Cone, Wells and Pettite, though it may get close; the fielding is well below that of the 98 squad and will doubtless remain that way. But for right now their offensive approach is the same and their offensive talent is even better.

TO QUOTE DAVY JONES,

I'm a believer. I know it's still April and I make no prediction about the post-season, where AROD has never proved himself, but at least as far as the regular season goes, I think he is back to the Texas-Seattle AROD. Yes he hit another walk-off today and at a certain point the sheer quatity of his heroics has to force a re-examination of the quality of his baseball character, but what struck me today was that in the top of the ninth he made an error that cost the Yankees a run and seemed to put the game out of reach. That he didn't add to his ignominy by making the final out in the bottom half indicates that whatever else he might be, this is not the same AROD from last year. moreover, with every big hit he creates a bigger margin for future failure and the bigger the margin of failure the less likely he will need it--precisely because he is not an inveterate clutch performer.

For right now, anyway, he's George Kostanza on Seinfeld, doing the opposite and gaining momentum thereby. Since my life as a Yankee fan has been-- saving the 5 game sweep in fenway last season--one extended puke since he's been here, I think I'll enjoy the feast while I can. And if that requires a certain measure of deliberate self-delusion, I can live with that. If my colleagues at the U. of I. can actually convince themselves our department doesn't suck, I don't see why I can't do the same thing with AROD.

HOORAY!

for Kei. I told you from the start that I like Igawa and I think he is going to be a solid if unspectacular addition to the rotation. The key is whether he can be a number 3. Mussina is in my view a back of the rotation guy now, even when healthy, and while Pavano could be a solid 3 if healthy, he never is. Eight good starts and counting after last night. The moment of the game came in the 4th inning. Igawa had given up 2 and looked shaky in the third; the Yanks scored fivee in their half for a 6-2 lead and the question was would Igawa blow up and give it all back or let them back in by inches. He did neither, slamming the door over 4 scoreless innings and giving the bullpen a needed rest. He strikes me as a competitor, which he'll need to be given the absence of a power pitch.

SEVEN

and counting. That's how many good to excellent starts in a row the Yankees much maligned and thoroughly depleted rotation has delivered. With better fielding and better (or less) work from Farnsworth, they could be 9-3 right now. Can it last? Maybe not. But it is just as likely that the rotation can improve both because of the injuries and in the ordinary course of things. So many injuries force the Yankees to try out a smattering of differnet young talent. One or two of them might just turn out to be upgrades over Mussina, who may be done in my view, or Pavano, who may be permanently unable to stay off the DL. Karstens was pretty good last year and great in spring training. I've been eagerly anticipating his return. Wright was decent tonight and since the big knock on him is woeful inexperience, continued improvement does not seem an unreasonable possibility. I've never thought too much of Rasner and while I've hoped for his success, I haven't really expected it on a sustained basis. But Wang is coming back, Pettite looks like he's all the way back to prime form, and I continue to believe Igawa will be a solid contributor. The makings may be there for a rotation that can succeed admirably given the potency of the offense through the regular season. There is little if any power in the starting staff, which means the fielding will have to improve, but even if they don't scare anybody (and that's what all the experts say), they may well win without doing so.

Even if this hopeful scenario pans out however the post-season is another matter. Powere pitching rules in October, which is why Maddux-Glavine brought just one ring to Atlanta despite Smoltz's heroics. If the Yankees big three were Clemens, Wang, Pettite, then a WC would seem a real possibility, especially given this bullpen. Otherwise Hughes will have to be ready sometime before September if the Yankees are not to play soft-toss in the playoffs (presuming, just for the sake of argument, they can get there).

Final note: Matsuzka is no Martinez (see earlier post) but the Sox sure hit (or don't hit) behind him as if he is. With all the talk about how bad the Yankees rotation is, Dice-K has more losses than anyone in it.

The one thing we're not short on is

irony.

Readers of this blog last season might remember that I did a little Dr. Seus memorial to the mid-season Yankees who kept losing player after player to injury (Sheffield, Matsui, Jeter, Damon, Posada, Pavano, Rivera etc) and yet kept winning. It was the high point of the season.

This year the Yankees rotation is crumbling all around them (Wang, Pavano, Mussina,, a missed start for Pettite) and yet the performance of the starting pitching has been excellent since the walls began to fall (3 consecutive high quality starts in Minnesota, two brilliant starts and a good one in Oakland) and yet the yankees have only gone 500 in that stretch and have still lost more than they won over the season. Today was a killer; you just don't lose up 2 with 2 outs and 2 strikes and Mo on the mound. Still they would have won the game for sure had Jeter not given away a run in the fiorst inning with his 6th error of the season. I'll tell you what if he was AROD, hell would have no fury like the (entirely justified) wrath of Yankees' fans. Jeter is being paid over 21,000,000 dollars this year, and the girl who plays shortstop on my softball team is playing much better. Nobody is saying anything, but it has a profoundly demoralizing effect when game after game your Gold Glove shortstop commits errors for which Goob in Meet the Robinsons would get beat up by his teammates. And with 60% of their rotation on the DL and series coming up with Cleveland and Boston (and then Boston again), the Yankees have to worry about falling out of the race early.

At one level, they just seem snakebit and you have to acknowledge that there are some circumstances you have to play through but may not be able to overcome. On the other, one wonders what can be done to improve prospects in the near-term. The rearrangement of the bullpen recommended earlier would be a start. I would also say that they should let Matsui come back as a DH as soon as his 15 days are up. Don't mollycoddle him, he doesn't want it. Let giambi play first until Matsui is all better and see if G's hitting improves any. Right now he is the hole in the center of the line-up that AROD was last year. If his hitting doesn't improve, then I think you have to drop him to eighth. Bat Matsui in the 5 hole, Cano sixth, Posada seventh. As for the starting pitching, I don't know why Cashman won't take the hint fate is giving him and bring Hughes up? Wright is clearly a second or even a third choice. I will never understand why the Yankees, when injured, insist on playing as undermanned as they can possibly be. Hopefully Karstens is just about ready, but they probably are unwilling to let him throw until he hasn't been injured for at least 2 weeks.

Final note: When they re-acquired Pettite, I said he was a true Yankee, and he has quietly been more dominant so far than anyone could have expected. His era, in case anyone has failed to notice, is lower than Dice-K's, lower than Beckett's, lower than Schilling's. That he doesn't post a win today is more than a shame.

To Paraphrase the ol' Perfessor,

Can't anybody here play the field. In a game where the Yankees got another heartening performance out of a starter, Rasner, a brilliant game out of the entire bullpen, and manged to scratch out an extra-inning win, the inability of this team to catch and throw remains a big and troubling story. Jeter committed two more errors, for 5 on the season, and he's supposed to be the most dependable infielder we have. I have defended his gold gloves in the past, citing his brilliance on balls to his right, balls anywhere in the air, and his non pareil work as a cut off man. Plus he was so solid on the routine plays. Not anymore. All of his botches have been really inexcusable--I hate to say this, but he looks more like AROD out there than AROD. Another error from Abreu tonight as well, and he's supposed to be our most reliable outfielder. Four errors in all, another insupportably ugly night in the field.

I'm waiting for the frauds over at Red Sox Network to issue some sort of retraction on how dreadful the Yankees starting pitching is this year. All three of the starts against the Twins were excellent, as was Rasner's tonight. Igawa's last night was certainly good, even very good. Every single starter that looked bad the first time around has come back with a strong performance this go round, and Wang will be back in 10 days. I'm not ready to pronounce this rotation sound, and I cwertainly think they could use help from a Hughes, but reports of their demise were certainly premature. The patient looks like he might be recovering and is clearly out of immediate danger.

Final note: having hit his 7th homer this season tonight, AROD popped out in a key situation, 8th inning , 2 down, bases loaded. The announcers were quick to point out that he can't come through all the time, which would be fair enough if he hasn't failed far more than he has succeeded in the late innings, even during this hot stretch. Having said that, I wouldn't be upset with this out if it weren't so obvious that it occured becasue AROD was swinging for the fences. I don't think he choked, at least not in the classic AROD style, he rather got overconfident with his swing, as Gary Sheffield was so prone to do in his last years with the Yankees. And like Sheffield, the result is a skyball. A single scores 2, and at that point in the game 2 should be all you need. There's no percentage in overswinging.

OH "IT'S A SHAME"

alwright. Joe Torre was heard to say after the latest wasted game that it was a shame that Igawa, who allowed 3 hits and 2 er over 5.1, "couldn't get the win." The underlying shame is that Torre was allowed to continue managing this team after last year made his incapacities so abundantly clear. His knee-jerk bullpen strategy alone is cause for dismissal. At the star to fhtis year, he stated that he was going to be careful not to over use Farnsworth. It had come to his attention that the big F.... did not pitch so well on consecutive nights or if he logged too many pitches. So having pitched consecutive nights in Minnesota, the second of which resulted in a four run blowout inning that cost the game, the big F.... was back in there last night in the seventh losing another one. Listen, Bruney is a one inning stalwart and was again last night, Vizcaino is literally the best thing to happen to the Yankees bullpen since Ramiro Mendoza lost his sinker, Nelson lost his slider, and Stanton lost his nerve. Mo should have had the ball in the ninth with a one run lead and the game all but over. Instead Torre winds up burning Vizcaino for 2 innings, Bruney for 1.1, Meyers, Procter and the big F.... all in a loss. Now his bullpen is stressed and he's got nothing to show for it other than a temporarily overrested Rivera.

At this point, I am ready to concede that the biggest problem we have is not that Torre is a bad field tactician, which I have been proving chapter and verse since this blog began; the biggest problem now is that he is a terrible manager for this team. First of all, we should be starting a youth movement, particularly on the mound, where Karstens, Hughes, Sanchez, and others should be getting their shot. But Slow Joe, to quote myself, believes youth is something you need to outgrow. Not the manager for this moment.

Secondly, and more immendiately, Brian Cashman secured the Yankees some real bullpen depth this off-season. He deserves kudos for that--but total brickbats for supporting the one manager most likely to squander the resource. With all that relief possibility, a subtle and flexible straegy of deployment is increasingly necessary. A slow Joe is a rigid Joe, which is why we'll never see any such thing out of him. I'll give you my one example. What pray tell is the biggest weakness of the big F.... (not counting his mind or his lower back)? Why it's the proclivity for giving up the long ball. 100 MPH pitchers with too little movement are funny that way. What is the greatest strength of the big F.... (other than extracting excessive compensation for uneven work)? why overpowering the singles hitters and the weaker hitters. What pray tell can we learn, strategically, from this rather obvious set of facts. I don't know, how about you pick your situations, look at who is coming to bat for the other team, and adjust your bullpen rotation accordingly. For the moment, you pitch Vizcaino and Bruney in the tougher set up situations, Procter and Henn in the medium tough situations and Farnsworth and Meyer where teams look weak. Sometimes that will mean bringing Vizcaino in earlier--so what, is he addicted to the 8th inning? This know your role crap that the espninnies trot out is so overblown. Vizcaino's role will be to get out the meat of the other teams lineup whenver it shows up from the middle of the 6th to the 8th inning. The big F...will be charged with getting out the less dangerous segments over the same period etc etc etc. To trumpet "roles" in defense of the likes of Slow Joe is really to defend designating roles strictly on a rigid and arbitrary inning-identified system. That may define the limits of status quo Joe's imagination and it certainly defines the limits of the espninnies', but it is not a necessary nor, in this case, a productive or even acceptable managerial mode.

I really think this is the best bullpen the Yanks have had since the glory days of Nelson to Stanton to Ramiro to Mo. But it is also a more complicated and fussy machine than that one. It's like a Fiat which is currently being serviced by a superannuated mechanic at Ford motor.

SPEAKING OF THE BULLPEN

depth, can somebody tell me why Vizcaino isn't the set-up man for Mariano. The further Farnsworth gets from crunch time, the better he is. I'd like to see he and Henn share the sixth inning, Bruney in the seventh, with Procter in games less close, then V and Mo.

Speaking of Henn, they're going to start him in Mussina's place the next time through. I was hopinjg for this at some point, but I wish they'd take Mussina's breakdown as an excuse to bring up Hughes, Sanchez, or both.

Watched the match-up last night, and if it's not too early to say Dice-K is the real deal, as almost every pundit is tripping over themselves to do, then it's certainly time to point out that he's probably no Pedro either. His fastball is a couple MPH slower than Pedro (and carl Pavano, apparently) and it has no movement at all. When he locates it, it's a plus pitch, but otherwise it's a gopher ball in waiting. I know he has a lot of different breaking balls, but they don't really look all that different from one another or from what you see around the league. What he doesn't have, which made Pedro and Santana what they are is a real good change-up. My bottom line is he will be good-very good, an All-Star in fact, but not Johnson or Pedro or Santana or Clemens, or even David Cone in their respective primes. I'm thinking Lui Tiant.

I like the number

zero next to errors and next to earned runs for Pettite, the number 96 for total pitches by the starter and the number 1 for bases on balls. Oh and Kevin Thompson's OPS is 3000.

You have to like the depth of this bullpen. After just two games in which the starters went 6 and 7, Mo is totally rested, as are Henn and Myers, Fahrnsworth and Bruney are reasonably well rested, and Vizcaino and Procter can take tomorrow night off.

Speaking of Procter, he's the one reliever giving up runs. It's clear slow Joe ruined Ron Villone's career with overuse last season. Did he do the same for Procter I wonder?

One other nice note. Usually when pitchers get bombed they cite a lack of location, too many mistakes etc. Bonzer said I was making good pitches and they just hit them. The thing is with Abreu hitting third and Cano a full fledged contender for a batting title, this line-up becomes really wearying for pitchers if Arod is hitting. Too often last year, he made a hole in the center of the line-up.

Beautiful opposite field RBI single by Giambi by the way. If he could learn to beat the shift that way, he could become 285-295 hitter again.

Pavano Wins, Paaaavano

Wins? Yes, apparently, but that's not the weirdest thing. On espn last night, I saw the number 95 after his pitches, and more than once. Is there gun-inflation going on here, or did his off-season conditioning really lift his velocity 3 miles per? If the latter, he can stop nibbling and start challenging batters, which would mean I'd be putting up that unlikely headline again. We'll see.

I'm afraid nothing is going to make me really like this team though. They cannot field, they cannot throw, and many of them cannot run. AROD and Jeter have scattergun arms, AROD has an erratic glove and Jeter can't go left. Cano is inconsistent in the field, Damon throws even worse than Bernie, I think. Matsui is dizzy, Posada looks like the weaker, 2005 version. Watching Giambi, Mankietzvich, and Posada on the bases is positively painful. If their pitching comes around, the Yanks might be good, but they'll never be aesthetic.

I wonder why

with all their statistical technology, MLB teams do not discern things obvious to the committed fan. I refer to the Sox-Rangers game on Sunday night, in which Ortiz provided 2hrs and all the offense in a Sox victory. what I can't figure out is why anyone pitches to Ortiz in April and into May. He's an amazing spring hitter and Manny, the greatest hitter of his generation, is a slow starter. He really does not provide the protection for Ortiz that peple imagine until the middle of the second month, at which point Ortiz has typically cooled off a little. Don't pitch to Poopi until then; put his fat ass on the bases where he can be the first relay leg in Manny's early season double play balls.

We finally found the team

that even slow Joe can't screw up.

Torre's worst trait as a field tactician is the way he overuses his bullpen, ruining pitchers for later in the season. But with starting pitching this bad, really what choice does he have? It is early, of course, and things are bound to improve, but any rotation that can go through an entire turn without even one if its members completing the 5 innings necessary to secure a win is probably not very good. Rasner's performance today was really disheartening, because they spotted him a three run lead in the first, which should make a pitcher more effective. I'll say it again: we need to see Karstens, we need to see Hughes, we need to see Sanchez, we might even need to see Clippard, and we need to see Henn try starting again. And once we do, we will have a team, for better or worse, that slow Joe can screw up. And then we can begin to call for his head once more.

Note to Brian Cashman: if you're not fielding a team that makes you want to fire Torre, well you're not really trying.

Ironic sidebar: with this offense, the Yankees can be competitive in every single game without, given the present state of their rotation, remaining competitive in the divisional race. Accordingly, AROD will be able to complete the monster season he has started (60+ home runs seems possible) and will even be able to hit in "clutch" situations since the games themselves will grow increasingly meaningless. Everyone in the Press will continue to love AROD and most in the stands will begin to concur, and there will be no counter-argument to be found--except for one inconvenient truth: he will still be as ringless in Gotham as he was ringless in Seattle. That can only change if he produces in the playoffs, an unlikely event made more so by the Yankees' all too likely absence.

ANOTHER VICTORY LIKE THIS

and we are done for. Thus spake Pyrrus sometime before the birth of Euro-America's all-time Save-King. Forgetting about the dangers of relying on AROD for 2 out hits, let alone homers, the bullpen, which was brilliant once again, just can't take this much wear on a regular basis (although it is worth noting that Proctor, Farnsworth and Henn all had the day off and noone went more than an inning). BGW notes that the entire rotation looks like Jared Wright, though as I remember it, while he never went more than 5, he usually only gave up a couple. This rotation looks more like the last sad days of Chacon and Small.

But as dire as the pitching is, as weak as Mussina and Pavano might turn out, as impatient as we may be for the return of Wang, as desparate as we may become for the debut of Hughes, Sanchez and Clippard, I have to risk sounding like an idiot and affirming my continued faith in Igawa. Remember he looked awful his first start in spring training, but settled down after that and was quite effective. Today he got shelled not for a lack of stuff, but because he was wild with every pitch but his fastball, and there is seven years of control pitching in Japan to suggest that he typically has command of his breaking stuff. When he's putting the change and the curve over and he's getting rocked I'll start to worry. But for now, I would note that his fastball was coming in at 91 mph. If he can bring it at that level and spot his change up, I think he'll be awright and maybe better than that.

Rasner tomorrow, and you have to hope that a good effort by him might lead to a greater willingness down the road, a short piece down the road, to hitch the Yankees star to their suddenly vibrant farm system.

Mea Maxima Culpa

Clearly I have made my first (and not my last) big blunder of the blog-season, and BGW has correctly called me on it. I stated that the Yanks rotation was better than advertised, but since noone has made it into the 5th inning yet, that can only amount to wishful thinking on my part. I'm not worried about Pettite, not yet anyway, Wang will be solid, and I continue to believe Igawa will be an effective starter. But Pavano can't be depended upon and given his terrible spring and a performance ESPN described as inept, Mussina may already be in a more significant decline than previously thought. The bullpen has looked good so far, but they are bound to get seriously overworked in short order.

Looking at this pitching staff, we might well be in for another disappointing,perhaps even disastrous season. Unlike BGW, I'm not especially worried about the Red Sox pitching. Wakefield always looks good in April and then falls apart when the weather gets warmer and the winds die down; Beckett always looks great in the start just before the one he blows up; and while Dice-K may indeed be an ace, there is reason to believe Schilling is not one anymore. And then there's Tavares. There are, however, at least 2 teams that I would say are plainly better than the Yankees right now. One is the Tigers, who have Maroth to replace Rogers and still boast Verlander and Bonderman, along with an improved offense, and the other is the Angels, who suddenly have a healthy Garret Anderson to go with Vlad, awesome starting pitching and a lights out bullpen. Once Figgins gets healthy, you may be looking at a team the Yankees just can't beat.

In the meantime, I'll just say this, if the Yankees' pitching is going to fail, let it fail on the path of apprenticeship. Let's see Hughes, Sanchez, Razner, and Karstens vie for places in the rotation alongside Wang, Igawa and, as the eminence grise, Pettite. There is such a thing as losing productively, but not if you are doing so with Mussina or Pavano on the mound. Give them the next copupla weeks to work it out, but then start rebuilding the staff. One more reason they shopuld have fired Torre when they had the chance. You know ol' status quoain't going to lead no youth movement. If it were up to him, Bernie Williams would still be the world's only arthritic centerfielder.

THE BRONX BUTCHERS

AROD gave us all another reason to hate him last night, popping out in true gacker fashion with two out and the bases loaded. Most disturbing is that while AROD lacerated himself for missing such a fat pitch, I'm not certain he should have been swinging at all. It looked high out of the strike zone to me.

But then again that's not finally the reason they lost. Three more errors (6 already) to go with two wild pitches ensured that even the 6 runs they scored wouldn't be enough. I know it's early and all, but people we've got a problem. The starting rotation, which I think is better than advertised, is filled with guys who pitch to contact: Pettitte, Mussina, Wang, Igawa and Pavano. There isn't a power pitcher in the mix. If the glovework continues this shoddy--and really they're just picking up where they left off last year--the entire staff is likely to be demoralized by June. This team can and will score runs, but so did the Yankees at the height of Donnie Baseball's career, and they never came close to a championship. They didn't have this pitching staff, but neither did they have this collection of weak arms and porous gloves.

THE BRONX BUTCHERS

AROD gave us all another reason to hate him last night, popping out in true gacker fashion with two out and the bases loaded. Most disturbing is that while AROD lacerated himself for missing such a fat pitch, I'm not certain he should have been swinging at all. It looked high out of the strike zone to me.

But then again that's not finally the reason they lost. Three more errors (6 already) to go with two wild pitches ensured that even the 6 runs they scored wouldn't be enough. I know it's early and all, but people we've got a problem. The starting rotation, which I think is better than advertised, is filled with guys who pitch to contact: Pettitte, Mussina, Wang, Igawa and Pavano. There isn't a power pitcher in the mix. If the glovework continues this shoddy--and really they're just picking up where they left off last year--the entire staff is likely to be demoralized by June. This team can and will score runs, but so did the Yankees at the height of Donnie Baseball's career, and they never came close to a championship. They didn't have this pitching staff, but neither did they have this collection of weak arms and porous gloves.

Same old,

same old?

Well they still can't play the field: everybody in the infield but Cano made an error. Posada threw nobody out and the Rays ran on the OF arms at will. Pavano still can't be counted on. BGW was prescient; Pavano did look like Wright redux. But I'll say this much. At this time last year if the Yankees blew a lead in the middle innings, they folded. I called it bully ball. But the addition of Abreu, the return of Matsui, Giambi another year away from roids withdrawal, and the maturing of Cano may just mean their vaunted patience at the plate reaches the sort of critical mass necessary to score runs in bunches. Of course the critical hit, a wo-run single to tie things in the 7th, was delivered by Jeter, and we already knew he can do such things. All in all, though, to beat a fine lefthander like Kazmir with the left-heavy lineup the Yankees field is pretty gratifying, especially when you've got your number 5 starter going. Of course Schilling stinking out the house is just icing on the cake.