ANOTHER DAY,

Another defeat.

The Yankees went down again, for the 4th time in the last 5, and went down listlessly, effortlessly, indifferently. They were not inept, but they were totally flat. They didn't show up to play. They lost to a Triple AAA pitcher named Danks, a man without much of a fastball and an inconsistent curve, who has had precious little success at the MLB level. They lost to a team who fielded not a single player with a BA better than 260 and 2 with a BA under 200, including Konerko. They lost in a familiar way, with AROD striking out in a key situation because having fallen in love with his own April, he now disdains to swing for anything but the bleachers. They lost playing station to station ball, the failure to send Damon in the fifth costing them a key run when Jeter singled. But most of all they lost because Mussina's return to the rotation is no solution for what ails Yankee pitching.

Allow me to elaborate. Mussina is okay so long as he is very efficient with his pitches in the early innings. that happened alot last year in the early going. But teams caught on and by the end of the season, we were back in 2005, when he couldn't get past the 6th to save his life. Game 2 against the Tigers was a classic exhibit. The White Sox know, as most teams now do, that if you make Mussina work a little early, he will be gassed in the middle innings. He will start pitching away from contact, run more counts, get that much more tired, and ultimately lose enough velocity on his fastball that waiting on the breaking stuff and especially the change-up becomes pretty easy to do. And then he gets hit. Of course the problem is exacerbated by the strain under which the Yankees bullpen has been working, and today those two problems came together to cost the Yankees the game. In the fifth Mussina gave up a run on two ropes, putting the Yankees down 2-1. With two outs, the batter hit a towering fly to left that Melky brought back from over the fence to end the inning (Matsui never makes that play). The Yankees tie it in the top of the 6th (they should have gotten more). Mussina resumes the mound and gives up a towering fly to the same place in left by A. J. what's his name, only this one flies five rows back into the stands. 3-2 Sox. Four of the last five baalls have been ripped and it is surely time to bring the Moose out, even though he's only gone 5. But Torre doesn't, maybe because he feels he has abused his relievers enough. Long story short, Mussina hangs a couple of curves, fools noonne with his change, and gives up 2 more runs while only getting one out. So Torre hasn't saved any tread on his bullpen and now he has lost the game as well. My point is that Mussina has become a part of the bullpen problem in a way that neither Di Salvo nor Rasner have been. But when Hughes or Clemens returns, whichever comes first, a bold and astute manager would make Mussina part of the solution, by making him the yankees main man in middle relief. The guy is a really good pitcher for 2-4 innings. But he's not a starter that can take you deep anymore, and with the Yankees' bullpen problems, they can't afford somebody who just falls off the cliff in the 5th or 6th inning (you can actually see it transpiring on a pitch by pitch basis). The move I suggest won't happen (I said a bold and astute manager, not a slow and status quo Joe), and if the move was made, it wouldn't suddenly turn the yankees into winners--something must happen in the team culture for that--but it would, literally, provide a double measure of relief, turning a source of need into a source of replenishment.

It certainly a better idea than say bring back Ron Villone, which is exactly what Cashman did today, in what I can only hope is his last act as Yankees GM.