FOR THOSE WHO IMAGINED THE YANKEES HAD TURNED A CORNER

with theBoston series, think again. And the reason why they haven't and won't and can't was plain to see tonight. Here's the telling statistic: Jered Weaver, 5 innings 3 earned; Tyler Clippard 4 innings, 3 earned. The main difference was in the bullpen, or the Yankees utter lack of one. And this isn't a question, or merely a question, of overuse. Di Salvo gave up 3 earned without recording a single out, and he hasn't pitched for a full turn in the rotation, having gone only 3 in his last start. then Vizcaino, who mercifully has pitched very little of late, gave up 4 earned in just a single inning. In other words the bullpen is back to where it was 2 years ago when John Sterling famously said, "Well the Yankees' relievers are simply incapable of getting anyone out."
Why are we here? Well Joe's mismangement is one glaring reason. But the case of Vizcaino points to another, aptly highlighted by the Boss earlier today. This is not only Brian Cashman's team, the one he put together, it is Brian Cashman's bullpen. He was the one who could have dealt Randy Johnson to the Padres for a prospect and Scott Linebrink, a successful set-up man. Instead he went for three prospects and Vizcaino from the D-Backs. Since only one of those prospects was supposed to be any good, one has to wonder why he didn't go for the better reliever. The fact that that one prospect, Russ Ohlendorf, is apparently yet another disaster, means that Cashboy effectively gave Johnson away and now has no bullpen to show for it. The best one can hope for out of Clemens, for which Cashboy so overpaid, is a line like this, 6 innings, 2 earned or 5 innings 1 earned, but with the likes of Vizcaino and Farnsworth, Meyers and DiSalvo, the Yankees will be losing those games 7-5 anyway. The recent failure of the bats has made people forget about how truly bad this bullpen is, how mediocre their defense, how injury prone their players (Giambi, Damon) and how shaky much of the starting pitching (Mussina and Clemens in particular) remains. Yes the Yankees will hit in the nend, but that doesn't mean they'll win. Not by a long shot.

In a rather grim paradox, it now looks like Cashboy was not stymied by the old George's proclivity for high priced obsolecent talent; he was protected by it. Everyone claimed Brian knew what he was doing bu didn't have the authority to effect the right moves. Now that George has gotten out of his way, so to speak, Cashboy is not liberated but exposed, exposed as a fraud, whose baseball judgement ranks right up there with Danny Ozark. Let me list some of the names and contracts for which the Cashboy has been primarily responsible Pavano (DL), Sanchez (DL), Ohlendorf (no good), Jared Wright (awful), Britton (no good), Vizcaino (sub-awful), Skanky Manky the almost Yankee (enough said), Nieves (1 for the last five years, and thrown out trying to stretch it), Villone (is he still here?), Farnsworth (a working man's Pavano), Clemens (is he still alive?), extending Mussina's contract when God himself couldn't extend his career. By contrast, George was responsible for Johnson (a big disappointment but not a disaster), Giambi (a mixed bag), Matsui (a big plus), AROD (an AROD), and Kevin Brown (the worst thing until Pavano). I think George's record was pretty bad, but Cashman's is even worse despite his sharing Michael's philosophy of player development. He has managed to do what George hadn't done since the late 80's: produce a Yankees team where sufficient improvement in the near term seems almost impossible. I think that corner won't get turned next week, next month or even next year. The ext really good Yankees team migh not come until 2010, by which time we can only hope Cashman is the general manager of a bowling alley in Akron.