I HONESTLY BELIEVE

that the pitch Mussina threw Manny in the first inning last night was the biggest meatball I have ever seen thrown in anger at the major league level--86 mph, right down the middle, no movement whatsoever, belly button high. Manny has been struggling this season, but even at his worst he's going to lose a pitch too fat for batting practice.

Well, the Yanks failed to hit Tavares yet again, just like BGW predicted, and afterr giving him props for his analysis, I began to wonder why. Well even with his 5.50 ERA coming in Taveras has been one of those rh's, like Pettite and MO, who are especially hard on left-handed hitters. They were batting just 212 aginst him. And as we all know the Yankees can't hit LH pitching this year.

But with that answer came another question. why don't the Yanks, and other teams for that matter treat pitchers like Taveras as left-handers and set up their line-ups appropriately. Why not play Phelps instead of Man-Cow, why not sit Abreu and let Cabrera go righty? Why not let Posada go righty? Baseball people always use the platoon percentages to show how smart they are. why don't they think it through to the next level? doesn't it matter more that Tavares' ball moves like a lefties than that he actually is a lefty?