HE'S CLUELESS TOO

Today Brain-less Cashboy declared, "It's been a bizarre season. I don't understand what's been happening." What's been happening is that you have been ruining the team with your total ignorance of baseball talent. You don't understand this because of your total ignorance of baseball talent. Today's salient example. During the off-season, the Pads wanted RJ so badly they were willing to give up stud set=up man Scott Linebrink for him. Braqinless elected to deal Johnson to the D-Backs instead for the woeful Vizcaino, in part because Cahsboy was cxonvinced Ross Ohlendorf could be his next big league ace. Well we know all about Brainless's idea of an Ace (see Mussina, Wright, Pavano, brown et al.) Ohlendorff is currently 1-3 with an ERA of 5.19. Just for comparison, Matt Di Salve, whom the Yanks had to throw back, is 5-1 with an ERA under 2, and Clippard is 4-2 with an ERA of 3. Even chasde Wright is 4-3 with an ERA under 4. I could be wrong, but it's looking doubtful Ohlendorf will prove a major league pitcher, let alone an Ace, and the Brainless Boy-Wonder blew a major opportunity to shore up a beleaguered bullpen. Defending Torre earlier this year, he said if we don't win, it's my fault. That may very well be his only 14 carat insight on any baseball matter in his entire existence.

NO, IT GETS BETTER

Tired undoubtedly of the futility with men in scoring position, the Yankees put noone in scoring position tonight, at least not until the ninth, when they were already down 4-0. For the record, they went 0-2 at that point to continue the abasement.


I thought the Yanks shouldn't have signed Clemens because they simply weren't play-off ready enough to need another aging pitcher. Turns out Clemens wasn't good enough to earn that kind of dough anyway. At 1-3, with a 5.32 ERA, Clemens adds to the interminable list of terrible pitching deals done by Brainless Cashboy. It's up to 282 mil in absolutely wasted money. Once George is down 300 mil, do you think he'll finally say enough?

Since we can pretty safely rule out October, the question now is will the Yankees ever get and stay over 500? I think you could actually argue no, that they have already given up on the season, at least inwardly, and that mind set will produce more failure. Even Joe sounded resigned after tonight's debacle. "At this point," he said, "you can't worry about the season, you can only worry about tomorrow." That's because barring the Flood, there will be a tomorrow, but there ain't no season left for this team.

NOTES ON A SELF-EXECUTION

1. Turns out Proctor already walked in the winning run this year (against LA) and if WHIPs were restricted to walks, his would still be almost 1.oo. The lesson is he's a middle reliever who hasn't the control or the nerve to pitch with the game on the line. This isn't a question of overuse but of limited ability. Slow Joe should go with (an underused Mo) in such situations. The meat of the order was coming up in thwe 10th; Torre should have given them a chance to win the game.

2. Proctor would still have gotten out of trouble if instead of hotdogging his catch of the bunt, he had taken the opportunity for an easy double off at second, as Jorge was screaming at him to do. Of course, the O's first run came on the lackluster defense of Bobby Abreau. Last night, I should have said No Offense, No Bullpen, No Bench, No Glovework, No Chance. There are just so many things the Yanks do poorly (No bunting too).

3. As JBAUER says, they are wasting an explosive year by AROD. But they are also wasting Jeter's 345, 410 and Posada's 339, 405. Cano, Matsui, Abreau have all been terrible and Damon is turning into another Giambi, someone whose defense is so bad yopu can only DH him and whose rep as a hitter far exceeds his real proficiency.

4 Clemens-Bedard tonight. I say they lose again.

5 What do all of these people have in common: Torre, Cashman, Guidry, Mattingly, Abreau, Rivera, AROD, Nieves, Cairo,Damon, Giambi, Matsui, Farnsworth, Proctor, Mussina and Meyers?

NOTES FROM A SELF-EXECUTION

1. Turns out this is the second time this year that Proctor has walked home trhe winning run. given that he is primarily amiddle reliever, this is an extraordinary stat. It sure doesn't speak to overuse. It speaks to the fac that he is a middle reliever and shouldn't be entrusted with game situations. Clearly he hasn't the nerve. Joe's always whing about Mo getting too little work. Well the top of the order was comiong up in the 10th. Send Mo out for the ninth, hope you score in the 10th and send him out again. If you don't score then send out Proctor. That way you've given Jeter, Matsui, Arod and Posada a chance to win the game for you.

2. Proctor made a great play on the bunt pop up in the ninth, but instead of whirling and throwing for an easy DP and a possible Triple, he styled it, making a spectacle and, ultimately, a loser of himself. he doubles Patterson off second (he was almost to third) like Jorge is screaming at him to do, the O's probably don't score.

3. The O's got on the board through the uninspired defense of Cairo and Abreu in letting a pop up drop: last night when I said no offense, no bullpen, no bench, no chance, I shouldn't have overlooked the mediocre defense. It's just that there is no end to the things this team does poorly (no bunt for example).

4. JBauer 2977 points out that the Yankees are wasting an explosive season from AROD. True. but they are also wasting a great season from Posada (339, over 400 OBP) and Jeter (345, over 400 OBP). They are wasting a good seasopn from Pettite (3.24 ERA) and some good play from Melky. But you have to look at the guys who have been down as well: Cano still at 270, Matsui at 278 and repeatedly striking out in the late inngs (killed a rally that way last night), Abreu (enough said) and of course Damon who, injuries or no has been just plain awful. If he ws the second coming of Jesus in Boston, he's the second coming of Jason in NY and I don't mean the slasher. I mean Giambi. Like Giambi, you can't play him in the field and like Giambi his reputation as an offensive force greatly exceeds the reality. Melky is actually better offensively aas well as defensively than Damon is these days. Have you noticed Damon is even spoiling pitces and running up pitch counts anymore. It's like he's defeated when he enters the box.

5. Finally, let's remember, the Yankees didn't just lose to the O's last night, they lost to the O's without Tegada, their only marquee player. 0=5 with runners in scoring position can do that to you, especially when you help the other team to score without hitting.

ANOTHER GRITTY EFFORT,

likely gone to waste.
Pettite gives up just 2 in seven, but the Yankees again fail to hit with men on base and only manage 2 of their own, with a couple of DP's (of course) and strike outs. Cairo is the type tonight, going 2 for 3, 2 hits with the bases empty and a pop out with runners on 1st and 3rd one out (the Yanks fail to score again). Now in the bottom of the 8th they bring in the big F..... Can you believe our set-up man has an ERA of 5.16? How is he still pitching in meaningful situations (by which I mean major league situations)?

Ninth inning, two men on, one out and both Abreu and Cairo fail to get the ball out of the infield. Late in the game, with winning runs on base you have to pinch hit for Cairo. The Yankees have no bench; I mean literally no major league talent on it at all! Now they have to hope for extras. I'm not holding my breath.

Proctor walks the lead off man. Have you noticed that the Yankees' relievers cannot throw strikes when they need to? Having given up a hit to
Roberts and benefitted from a gift pop out on a bunt, Proctor walked another batter to load the bases! Will he walk in the winning run a la Bruney?
He did it! He walked Hernandez to lose the game. Proctor faced 5 walked three of them, gave up a single and only got the guy who gave himself up. Ball 4 to Hernandez wasn't even close. This team gets worse and worse: no offense, no bullpen, no bench, no chance. They just lost 6 of 7 to glorified AAA teams.

C'mon George. Clean house. It stinks in here.

OFF DAY ITEM

As the Yanks prepare to take on the Orioles, it is worth noting that they are closer to this sorry team, which has already fired its manager, than they are to the wild card, and over twice as close to the O's than they are to the Red Sox.

CONGRATULATIONS!

to Ken Griffey Jr. He passed Big Mac (supersteroidize me) on the all time home run list and he is almost certain to become the sixth player in MLB history to reach 600 homers and only the fourth to do so without the benefit of cheatjuice. That he did so in the steroid era, when many of the pitchers were juicing as well, only magnifies his accomplishment. With all the talk of Mac-Android, Barry the Bloat and, more recently, of (Honey, I Shrunk the Sammy) Sosa, I had forgotten--and I suspect others have as well--that Griffey always was and still remains the greatest slugger of his generation, indeed the greatest slugger since Aaron, Mays and Robbie hung em up. Considering all the injuries, he is managing to combine the margin of unfulfilled promise we associate with Mickey Mantle with the relentless home run production we associate with Aaron. That he did so clean in a dirty, dirty fucking era, that he did so while playing a truly spectacular center field--in his prime he was the second coming of Willie--that he did so, again in his prime, with a flair and a grace that Dimaggio himself would have envied (were he less profoundly narcissistic) make him the kind of player I count myself lucky to have seen. The pundocracy now routinely assures themselves they are giving him his props by pointing out that he's a certain hall of famer. Shit, Eddie Murray, Bruce Sutter, Robin Yount, Kirby Puckett, Dennis Eckersley are all of Hall of Famers, proving how debased that currency has become. Ken Griffey is an All-Timer,--greater than Sosa, Mcguire and even, in the end, Bonds. Congratulations Junior. I hope with this milestone and the 600th bomb to come, you finally get the credit you are due.

IT'S A NEW LOW; NOW CAN WE

fire Joe. He doesn't know how to play small ball anymore, but he knows how to be victimized.
The giants stole 5 bases, scored on a squeeze (which the Yankees seem to think is beneath them) and benefited from an error on Nieves. Since the latter nonentity may be the single worst offensive player in the league, his performance with the glove today really begs the question, what the fuck is he still doing on the team. Mussina turns in a Jared Wright-like performance, 5 mediocre innings, further straining the bullpen. And with the game effectively over anyway, the big F... commtted the baseball equivalent of shitting his pants in public--he gave up three runs without getting through a full inning.

A 7-2 loss to drop the series to one of the worst teams in baseball, after getting swept by another weak team. This is worse than anything that happened before the winning streak, not least because they have pissed away most everything they gained in the streak. They are once again a laughingstock and not just in chowderheadnation. This season is now almost half over (73 games) and they are still under 500, probably the most talented team to be this bad in the modern era.

What is to be done, Tolstoy might ask were he a Yankee fan, other than satisfying the desire for a purge by releasing the incompetent GM/manager team. So far as salvaging this season is concerned, the strategies for doing so now have all the credibility of strategies for salvaging victory in Iraq. They are comparatively easy to formulate and all but impossible to believe in. The one thing I would suggest on this score: instead of simply firing slow Joe, make it clear to the players, who always profess their love and respect for him, that they are costing him the job. Win 20 of their next 25 or he's gone and I'll bring in someone whose only task will be to make your lives miserable for the remainder of the season.

If on the other hand, George is prepared to face reality and give up on the season, he should really try to get rid of some of these players for prospects, beginning with AROD, whose market value has never been higher. I know he has a no trade, but I'm sure he is sick of being a career long loser and there are teams in the national league, like the Padres, who would likely be playing in the world series if they acquired him.

What George should know is that his fan base now requires some dramatic move on his part, if only to make it clear that he feels as aggrieved as they do with a management team, a line-up, a a bullpen and a bench that have gone beyond disappointing all reasonable expectations to disgracing the uniform they wear and the legacy carry forward.

PART OF PLAYING SMALL BALL

is what you do to avoid giving up runs. Secons and third, one out and Pedro Feliz, a decnt hitter at the plate. Following him is the substitute catcher, hitting 167 and then the pitcher. Anyone who knows anything about the game, knows you walk Feliz, play for the double play and if yuou get a strike out, or a opo up you face the pitcher. the Yankees, managed by someone who has forgotten anything he once knew. pitch to Feliz and give up a free run on a sac fly. Posada ain't playing, neither is Abreu, neither is Damon, and Jeter is hurting. One run could easily be a killer.

WHICH IS MORE SICKENING?

The Yankees play or Torre's reaction.

Everything that make this Yankees squad such a disgrace to the franchise was on display today. They left 50 some runners on base, the bullpen imploded, walking three batters in a single inning to give away the lead, they failed to come up with the big hit time and again, including a pathetic strikeout from Jeter, Torre refused to play small ball when he had the chance, passing up at least two squeeze opportunities that would have won the game (Lou won a game today with the squeeze in Chicago), Torre failed to take out Bruney (who clearly couldn't find the plate) until after maximum damage was done--in sum the Yankees blow a four to one lead against an awful team then fail to rally behind AROD's 9th inning home run or, more significantly, his 11th inning double, and lose the game in 13. They should have won easy in nine, should have won hard in 11 and they lost altogether. They scored four in four and then went a full game scoring only one more despite hit after hit after hit. It's the kind of game only losers can manage to lose, particularly when they are playing against a bunch of losers like the Giants. The entire Rockies series did not disgust me as completely as this one game, as watching Cano blow chance after chance to win the game, as watching Matsui strike out in the 11th, against a shitty pitcher, when almost any kind of contact would have won the game, as watching Jeter swing and miss at an obvious ball four to kill a likely rally, as watching Meyers and Bruney throw ball after ball, none of which were even close (Bruney walked in the go ahead run, despite the fact that Bonds swung at 2 pitches out of the zone; in other words with the bases loaded and the game tied late, Bruney threw 6 straight balls). Seriously, at various points in this game I felt physically ill.

But what about that other Joe, you know the one getting paid a king's ransom to extract the highest caliber of play from his similarly well-compensated charges? What was his state of mind, having witnessed this debacle up close? What were his sentiments as the easiest road trip possible just went to 1-4, ensuring that the west coast portion can at best aspire to a 333 winning percentage? How unacceptable does he find the fact that the Yankees season is going down the drain (now 6.5 out of the wild card) against such seemingly unworthy competition? How enraged is he by the team wide epidemic of choking from which ironically only AROD, the erstwhile choker in chief, seems immune?

Well Joe said, a) "I guess it wasn't our day" (it wasn't the day that gagged, it was you and your team), b) "I have no complaints other than the final score" (how'ja like that limosine ride, Mrs. Kennedy) and c) my person favorite, "You can't blame the bats today" Why not? "We got 17 hits" (the object of the game is not to get hits but to score runs, and when you have a lot of the former and few of the latter, the bats are to blame). How does the greatest franchise in sports come to be managed by a clown who doesn't appreciate the significance of situational hitting. If you're leaving a ton of men on base ( and the Yankees outdid themselves in this sorry regard), then you are not hitting in any meaningful sense--by definition.

How can Torre remain comparatively satisfied with his team when thery are falliong further and further behind by letting games they have in hand slip away? And how, short of the Alzheimer's explanation, can George remain satisified with a manager unfazed not just with losing but with losing pathetically, as they've done this entire trip.

For myself, I am finally coming to realize that no amount of calculation can explain why this team will not play in October or justify any residual hope that they will. All you have to do is look at the production of Matsui, Cano, Abreu, Cairo, and Damon in innings 1-5 vs innings 6-9 in close games. Look at the Whip of the bullpen pitchers once they have at least one man on base. Look at the deplorable record in 1 run games, among the worst in the majors. The numbers tell you the kind of thing numbers ordinarily don't: that this is a team without much heart. Until Torre calls them on this lack, and stops praising their "effort," he will be worth even less than usual.

So the answer is....BOTH.

YOU CAN'T CURE STUPID

There is no time like a victory for analyzing slow Joe's deficencies as a field tactician. One can take pleasure in the recognition, without the bitterness that attends defeat.

Top of the eighth. Proctor has just finished a nice 2/3, but now his ass is on the pine, from which, as we know, it never returns the same. The Yanks lead 6-2 and Cairo leads off with a double. This is the perfect time to squeeze out another run, late in the game with a weak bullpen at your back. One of the few Yankees that can actually bunt, JD, is available to pinch hit and Melky, whose been great at making contact, will follow. Needless to say, slow Joe lets Proctor bat. He doesn't get it done, Melky's grounder can't get the run in and the Yankees don't score (thanks in part to yet another base running snafu). The lead remains 6-2, and Proctor goes out and gicves up a homer to Bonds and a single to the following batter, necessitating a 2 inning stint from Rivera. They could have been up 7-2, Bruney could have gotten them through the eighth etc. etc. Instead the Giants actually had the tying run up to bat in the 8th. Ultimately no harm done, but a game that could have been lost on the sheer obtuseness of the manager. He won't play small ball, even when it's the obvious option and he can't learn from the patterns of his bullpen arms in order to manage them effectively. Torre is living proof that Ron "Tater" White is entirely correct: you can't cure stupid.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY

I so revile Torre, a you need to look no further than today's game. A must win, with an advantageous stretch threatening to go up in smoke thanks to tgheir failure to grind at the plate, it is up to the manager to make sure they are playing with the focus and urgency necessary to keep their season afloat. Instead they lose yet another one run game, this time thanks to a handful of baserunning errors! Cano, Jeter and Abreu all screw up at different points in the game and Torre is left insisting they kn ow how good a team they are, as if their self-image is the ultimate issue. The truth is they are NOT a good team. As Bill Parcells says, you are wht your record says you are and a 500 record says you're mediocre. They ARE an immensely talented team, which makes their mediocrity all that much more the disgrace.In baseball, the difference between being talented and being good typically involves tending to the local: to the here and now of a baserunning situation, a pitch choice, the position of your fielders, the wasting of a single pitch to getg one that's hittable. When you are talented, certainly as talented as this team, playing well is frequently aboujt just keeping your head in the game, completely, for nine full innings. Too often, this team has its head up its ass. And at the end of the day, that's a firing offense--for the manager.

THE YANKEES BELIEVE THEY CAN WIN EVERY GAME,

or so they say. But if they don't reinforce that belief with early, abundant offense, they tend to lose, and look bad doing so. One of the ways of understanding that this team, recent winning streak aside, is still not all that good, is that they only know one way to win. Blow teams out over the first 6-7 innings and then watch their bullpen give some but not all the lead back.

This is bad. Over a road trip where they had a significant advantage schedule wise over Boston, they've already dropped 1.5 games further back. Without a significant turnaround over the next 7 games, and they will have blown an opportunity they just can't afford to lose.

CRUNCH TIME

I know we can't expect the anks to keep up the recent pace, but tonight was still a brutal loss for a number of reasons. Anytime Mussina pitches that well they need to win. Melky got 2 hits in the leadoff slot, which they have to cash in. And finally if the remainder of the season is to be about more than the wild card (they are still in excellent shape there, only four back of both Cleveland and Detroit and virtually even with the A's and Mariners), then this is the time to amke a move. The Sox have the Braves, the Padres and the Mariners, while the Yanks have the Rockies, the Giants and the O's. Both are on the road and the Yanks have historically been the better road team, so it is imperative that they make up a couple of games over this stretch. After tonight, they have lost a half game--from 8.5 to 9-but remain 8 back in the all-important loss column. If they can reduce that gap to 7, 6 in the loss column, then they only need to pichk up another game or two to put the remaing series decisvely in play. The key is to win each of these series, which means taking the next two. They definitely blew one tonight, with the ols situational hitting bugaboo returning. But if they really have their confidence back at the plate, they should be able to shake it off. This is the most important stretch of the season before the actual stretch drive. It's not now or never, but it is now or now or never.

BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE

It's nice to have a winning streak to assess for the first time this year. As BGW pointed out a few days back, the key was game three of the streak, the finale against the Chisox, which set them up for a return home, a weak opponent and Roger's return. In that game, they got pretty lucky, one would have to admit. Torre sat both Jeter and Posada, leaving the Yankees with no offense to speak of, while starting Mussina, who has needed more offense than the Yankees can provide. But then the Sox, with Erstad and Crede on the DL, decided to sit Dye and Uribe as well, leaving them with only 2 hitters in the line-up likely to hurt you. As a result, Mussina was able to challenge hitters keep his pitch count down and last 6 fullinnings instead of the ususal 4 and a third. He couldn't get anyone out in the seventh and coughed up the slim 1-0 lead, but kept us in the game. It is worth noting, however, that the Yanks were unable to win the game until Torre put Jeter and Posada in.

Still, the game did feature one of the hallmarks of this streak, the Yankees ability to produce in the late innings. for this stretch, they have been refusing to give up at bats; Pirates manager Tracy even referred to their incredible grinding ability, which was of course entirely AWOL in May. They have found a balance, patience without passivity, which they have been unable to strike previously. When the season began, they were passive, except for Jeter, AROD and Posada. Once losing set in, they were impatient, except for Jeter and Posada. But now they seem willing to take pitches, including strikes, but aggressive in their swings. Why this has happened is difficult to say. I would assert that the replacement of Giambi by Melky has been a big help. Giambi walked too musch given his slowness afoot, struck out too much, and refused to try and contravene the shift. He really was a much too quiet at bat in the middle of the order. Melky allows Posada, Matsui and Cano to move up, and for his own part makes solid contact, particularly with men on base. He's really a much better player, in every phase, as a regular than as a parttimer. He is not only a great improvement on Damon defensively, by playing CF, he makes Damon a better player offensively. Lastly, one of the big problems the Yankees have had in recent years is a tendency to wait for the home run. This line-up will have problems--like a low hit to run ratio--but that won't be one of them. AROD is now the only legitimate power hitter in the line-up. Little Buster Brown Olney has pronounced this a great problem, but I'm not so sure. I think the team as a whole is less laid back offensively without all the boppers, and players like Posada and Matsui can still get you 20 bombs apiece.

Torre so rarely makes a tactical move worth praising that I don't want to pass up the opportunity to notice when he does. Having just sat Posada a couple of games ago, it might hqave seemd unwarranted to do so again today. But ther truth is the Pirates are the kind of team you can afford to be undermanned against. This way Posada can start the next 6, D-Backs and Mets without a problem (and with another day off).

UN-FUCKING-BELIEVEABLE

For the reasons cited, both in my posts and in your commentaries, this is a huge game, made all the bigger by boston finally getting off the schneid today. So what does this bumbler do but make it clear he has no clue, no clue whatsoever. He not only sits Posada, which one must on occasion, but he sits Jeter as well, much against the latter's inclination. Torre's way of proving that the Yankees are not just a 500 team seems to be creating conditions whereby they will be at best a 500 team but with qualifications. there is the less is more philosophy and then there is deliberately creating conditions for the "excusable" loss. They had better be really hot, because with Moose pitching and a lineup that features not a single 300 hitter, they are already in real trouble.

LESS IS MORE

Have you noticed that the Yankees picked it up offensively as soon as Giambi went down. It's not that Giambi was unproductive (although he was); the truth is, they are getting just about the same, maybe a little less, out of Melky than they were getting out of him (21, 000, 000 doesn't go as far as it used to). It's because the rest of the team expected Giambi to produce. Now that the Yankees see their lineup depleted, each individual takes responsibility for putting the runs on the board. They adopt the grinder mindset they needed all along. We saw the exact same thing happen last year. Matsui and sheffield went down and then the little injuries--Damon, jeter, Posada--piled up in late june and July annd the Yankees just kept winning, inspiring a Dr.Seuss ditty on my part. Look at the kind of at bats you're getting from Cano (he's actually laying off pitches), from Abreu (he's actually stepping into pitches), from AROD (he actually looks concerned to make contact first and the seats second), from Cairo and Melky (who have actually been assets at the bottom of the lineup recently). But BGW hits it on the head when he says tonight is key, a 3-1 series win over the Sox following a series win over the chowderheads would give the Yanks some real momentum going into a series with the weak Pirates and the return of Roger. It was 14.5 games five minutes ago; now it's 10.5. This swing gives me no hope that the Yankees, given what they are, can catch Boston, but it gives me pleasure to know that the swing is enough to to create some anxiety, much denied anxiety, in Boston. Oh I know how they say 2004 changed everything, but the fact that they say it, the fact that they say it more often and more vociferously since the massacre of 2006, proves that it may have changed something (they are more obnoxious than ever) but it hasn't changed everything (their obnoxiousness still arises from their insecurity and, as Z notes, thei ressentiment).

A BOLD PROPOSAL

BGW anticipated my commentary on the importance of being Melky in centerfield. After a strong throw Tuesday night, he gunned down the speedy Owens last night in what could well ahve proven a game saving play for the Yankees. Melkty is getting to balls that Damon couldn't hail and Bernie couldn't even track without a radar device. He has transformed the outfield in the process and reminded all of us who didn't need reminding how important outfield defense is and how underserved it is on the Yankees. Here is my proposal: if Damon can play first base effectively, or even adequately, and I don't know that he can, but if he can, I think the Yankees should make Matsui their DH and give Kevin Thompson a try in left field. He can definitely play the position annd it would give the Yankees a reasonably tight outfield for the first time since soome jackass decided it would be a good idea to move Chuck Knoblach to left.

Speaking of defense, AROD made a bone head play Tuesday night, leaving third base uncovered on a grounder to short and allowing Dye 2 bases on an infield out. But I must admit the play only served to remind how comparatively solid AROD has been in the field this year. Even as his batting average plummeted from 356 to 290 over the month of May, he didn't let it affacet him in the field and you have to give him credit for that.

Wang looked great last night and he showed what difference velocity makes--he can throw strikes without fear, unlike Mussina who has to get the batters and the umpires to concede him a Maddux-Glavine like margin for error--and what a difference movement makes: his 92 mph fastball is more effective than any triple figure heater thrown by the big, straight F.....

"HE COMPETES, HE'S NOT AFRAID OF WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN"

said slow Joe of the Yankees newest pitching hope, Tyler Clippard. but evidently Joe is afraid, very afraid. After the yankees jumped to a 5-1 lead in the top of the 6th, Joe inexplicably decided not to send Clippard back out to finish the quality start he was in line for. I say inexplicably for three reasons:

1. Clippard had only thrown 89 pitches. That's alot for five innings, but even at that rate, he would have finished the 6th with 107.

2. A crucial part of being an effective big league pticher is shutting the door on the opposition in the half inning after your team spots you a lead. It's somethng the Yankee pitcheers have been just dreadful at, particularly the dying Moose. This was a great opportunity to test and train that intestinal fortitude that torre brags on Clippard about, since the new lead was a comfortable 4 runs. Why waste the chance?

3. The bullpen is in shambles in case como-Joe hadn't noticed--partly cause they suck, but partly because he makes them suck every stinking night. If you're not going to rest your bullpen when your starter is faring well and you've got a big lead, then you have committed to exhausting them and losing games all August and September as a result. Torre would up using Procter for 2 innings lst night as well as a subpar Bruney (is he getting tired) and a typically ineffective big F.... before closing with Rivera.

Well, let's hope Wang gives us 8 tonight, cause you know Moose will be done in 5.

HOW DOES HE KEEP HIS JOB?

I'm sitting here watching the game on my computer and after Cano draws an uncharacteristic walk to put men on first and second with noone out, I start screaming, "Have Phelps bunt!" Phelps is okay, but he hits the ball on the ground alot and he is slow as can be. I know he's a double play waiting to happen, and if he just bunts the guys over, you've got 2 cracks at a single that will plate 2 and one shot at a sac fly or run-scoring ground out. I mean they'd play the infield back this early. but Joe doesn't have him bunt. Joe is fucking comatose over there in the dugout. so what happens? Phelps grounds into the DP I predicted and they wind up scoring nada. With Di Salvo on the mound, they have to keep up the offensive pressure and they didn't. We'll see if Joe has just cost them another one.

Once again no hindsight here. It's what every half-way knowledgeable fan can judge for themselves in real time.

FROM WATCHING HOUSE,

I've learned that the thing that'll really kill you is multiple systems failure, and that's really what the Yankees have been going through. In dissecting Saturday's game, I didn't even bother to stress how badly their defense has regressed. The path Abreu took to Ortiz's flyball was criminal and might well have cost them the game, particularly when combined with Jeter's errors, particularly the second one. When your bullpen is so bad, you can barely focus on the failures in situational hitting, and those failures are so frequent, they take your mind off the fielding woes...well you know you've got problems. On top of e verything else, you would have to say that the starting pitching has finally stabilized, in a really bad place. I don't think DiSalvo is a major league pticher and it remains to be seen when and if Clemens ever starts. Mussina is no longer a major league starter and Clippard is as yet only adequate. Wang is inconsistent, and I hope I'm wrong but I definitely saw signs of Pettite wearing down last night. The injury to Hughes was a killer, that we know, but I think the injury to Rasner was an overlooked disaster. He hasd turned into a fairly serviceable starter. Despite last night's win and the second consecutive series win against the Sox, there is not one area of play I think the Yankees especially proficient in right now. They are not speedy. The play by Abreu on the Ortix single last night was a reminder how shaky thier outfield is. Without giambi and with a greatly diminished Damon, they are not so dangerous at the plate as they need to be. their starting pitching and their bullpen both are in shambles.

We have blamed Torre and he has earned the opprobrium. We have blamed Cashman, and he has earned the obloquy. But I have to concede that the rash of injuries does resemble the sort of plague that afflicted Boston after the massacre last season.

Wang DL, and still getting back into form
Abreu DL and still getting back into form (or not)
Matsui DL still rounding into form
Giambi DL, rest of the season, huge
Pavano, well they should have seen that coming.
Mussina, DL, but he wasn't going to be any good anyway
Hughes, DL, most of the season, huge
Rasner, DL, the whole season, huge
Karstens, DL the whole season
Damon, no DL, but hurt all season
Clemens, we've lost 2 starts already
Mienkawitz, OK that's a blessing in disguise

That's fifteen guys, which is a helluva lot and that's not even counting Sanchez who would be have been brought up at some point to help the bullpen. If none of these injuries had happened, I think the yankees would still be an unlikely candidate for the postseason. With them, it's going to take a cultural transformation. They have to really believe they are the underwhelming underdogs they have become and grind the way underwhelming underdogs need to do to win. If they continue to think of themselves as hyper-talented and merely needing to come into their own--and that's been the buzz so far--then they are dead.

WHOSE SIDE IS JODA ON?

Having echoed the Blue Jays criticism of AROD's ruse, Torre goes out of his way to refuse to support Cano's entirely colorable claim that Lowell went outside the rules in throwing an elbow mid-baseline on Saturday. In other words, Joda refuses to support his own players but bends over backwards to support Boston's. Some Yankee pride. This in and by itself is a firable offense.

DOWN AGAIN,

and this one's on Joe. Amid his other shortcomings, we should not forget that Joe remains among the worst tacticians in the game. How many times have we observed, correctly, that once Scott Procter's butt is back on the bench after pitching he is done. Even though Procter threw last night, Joe brought him back for not one but 2 innings today, and after a perfect first he gave up 5 runs in the second. That Jeter seems to be regressing to mid-April form in the field (2 errors in a single inning) didn't help, but make no mistake Procter was overworked and showed it.

It's a shame too because once again the Yankees made their case that the Fuehrer really is done, scoring 5 runs, all earned, in 5 innings (Melky is showing that if you pencil him in everyday, he will play). But of course geriatric Mike couldn't get to the 6th either and then you have Torre's fire department pouring gas on everything.

INTERESTING STAT!

I confess to not knowing how to do the whole Elias thing, but I would venture to say that last night was the first time in the rivalry that Ortiz and Manny collected 7 hits between them in a regular season game and the Red Sox lost in a blow out, or lost at all for that matter. What does it tell us that this offensive powerhouse could lose badly when its 2 big guns were on almost every time up.

1. This team has become Youkilis dependent thanks to the dreadful performance of J.D. Drew. Manny and Ortiz are getting less back-up and so the offence is more front loaded. If I were a Sox fan, I would be screaming on my F*&! Terry Francona blog that Lowell should be batting fifth, at least until August when he runs out of gas.

2. Manny ain't being Manny. Everyone has noted how cold Manny was in April, how typical that was, how he was bound to heat up like always. Well by the end of May, Manny is usually sizzling and continues to do so until mid-August when he tends to fade for about a month or so before resurging. And in a way Manny has heated up. His batting average has risen to 282 and at this rate he should be at 300 in no time. But Manny is not driving the ball with anything like the consistency one ordinarily sees by this point in the season. Here's my interesting stat. Manny's slugging % right now is almost exactly the same as Jason Varitek, who really isn't a power hitter anymore, and the same as Dustin Pedroia, who never was and never will be. Manny got 4 hits last night but he didn't collect the RBI's he would have in past years from 2 of those hits being homers. Are we seeing a decline in Manny owing to age, continued unhappiness in Boston or his own self-distracting propensities?

AND NOW A WORD FROM THE MANAGER OF QUEENSBURY

Tonight Torre scolded AROD in the press for his attempt to distract or confuse the left side of the Toronto infield. This is so typically Torre and one of the many reasons he should have been excused from the indignities of major league managing some time back.

Any reader of this blog knows I have little use for AROD. I think he's every bit the choker he's cracked up to be. And I find these little tricks of his--the slapped glove, the "call"--to be positively infuriating. But here's the thing. I think they are infuriating because he's such a choker. There is no talent in the game who is less of a gamer than AROD, and these pranks of his, intended to be the sign of a gamer, are in fact just the signs of his inauthenticity; they are the ersatz indices of a gamesmanship that AROD doesn't really possess.

Torre on the other hand objects to AROD's ruses because they simulate gamesmanship rather too closely for the comfort of his conscience; they represent a skirting of the manners, though not the rules of the game, and as such they offend Torre's exorbitant sense of baseball decorum. This, by the way, is the same sense that leads him to discourage his pitchers from the rough justice of bean ball retaliation. Torre doesn't want to win "that way," which is why I believe he responded in the end to fellow manager John Gibbons' accusation that what AROD did reflected poorly on "Yankee pride."

Well, I would remind Holy Joe that Yankee pride begins with winning. Losing with dignity is like dying with dignity, a contradiction in terms. So instead worrying whether his players are cheating to win--this in a league mind you that is defined by steroids, amphetimines, corked bats, and various illegal pitching substances--he should be worrying about why it doesn't seem to be working. He's alot like AROD in this regard: his moral arbitration is the ersatz sign of a managerial seriousness he has long since lost.

Does Torre want authentic Yankee pride? Well, I would refer him to the sainted Whitey Ford, who probably never threw a legal pitch in his career or Yogi Berra, who scuffed the baseballs for him. Together they were on 14 pennant winning teams in 15 seasons, during which stretch they won 9 championships. The greatest home run in the history of the game, Bobby Thompson's shot heard round the world, probably resulted from a crafty sign-stealing system. Does it lose any of its allure, any of its class on that account. I think not. And if Torre thinks it does, and he evidently does, I would suggest he involve himself in another athletic form, because baseball, from Ty Cobb to Gaylord Perry to Sammy Sosa to Barry Bonds has always been about the cheating at one level or another. Torre thinks such conduct is beneath him and the Yankees, but what is beneath them is the brand of ball they have come to play under him, where the old saying "if you're not cheating you're not trying" has been reversed and cheating has become the only sign of effort his team puts forth.

Torre protects his players against perfectly valid charges of listless play, but he will not protect them against Red Sox headhunters or Blue Jay whiners, which is to say he will protect them from the opinion of fans who want to see them win but will not protect them against the actions or the grievances of competitors paid to make them lose. In this case, he would rather fuel the fire of ridicule surrounding AROD, even though he knows it will damage his performance going forward, than defend his player in despite of his own exaggerated scruples.

And so we have the umpteenth reason to dismiss Torre:
HOLY JOE, HE'S TOO GOOD FOR THE GAME.

IN YOUR FACE!

I ordinarily think the bean ball is an inexcusable tactic. But I am always willing to make an exception for the Red Sox. They throw so persistently at Yankee batters and seem to rest assured that slow Joe will be too "classy" or comatose to respond. So when they threw at Cano in the ninth, for no apparent reason, it was good to see Scott PRocter take advantage of Joe's earlier ejection. He picked out the hottest chowdrehead and took aim at his jawline. Would it have been hoorible if he actually clipped Youkilis and ended his season. Why...no, it wouldn't. It would be a lesson for everyone in Boston about playing with fire one too many times. At thbis point, I think the Yankees should make it known that Clemens will pitch on Sunday (even if he won't). That way Boston pitchers will have reason to believe that any further shenanigans will be met forcefully and with extreme prejudice.

As for the game itself, I think it was telling in a couple of respects. First, however well the Red Sox having been doing so far, their rotation is far less formidable than everyone has been saying. This was Wakefield's third or fourth poor outing in a row, which only means summer is here, Dice-K has been having real problems, even if they go undocumented in the national press, Tavaras is wildly inconsistent, particularly when he is not facing the Yankees, and Schilling looks quite hittable, particularly when he is facing the Yankees. Beckett may not lose a game all season, but I'm certain he's good for 1-2 more trips to the DL.

Meanwhile, it's hard to see the Yankees challenging anyone. But if they played the league with the same intensity they bring to the Bosox series, that wild card deficit (6 games and shrinking) would be gone in no time.

HEY, ACTUAL RESEARCH!

If you check out the Yankees' minor league system, you can find out some interesting things. For example, noone on Trenton can hit and yet they are 5 games clear in first place. At AAA Scranton, Andy Phillips is hitting 324, with a 900 OPS and is now a second baseman (2 different guys named Duncan, Eric and Shelley, share first). For his part Kevin Thompson is only hitting 260, with a 733 OPS. So why not bring up Phillips instead of Thompson. Well, there's the position thing. With Damon going to DH, they probably need the extra outfielder (and Kevin Reese is hitting 220 at Scranton). But I say, why not bring up both of them. With Giambi going down and Abreu not hitting, the feebleness of the Yankees bench is a bigger and bigger problem--Nieves, Manky, and Cairo (.135) are just terrible. Send either Cairo or Manky down, preferably the latter, and bring Phillips up. Listen, this team is so fucking left-handed you really don't need to platoon just to get another one in the line-up. And nothing about Manky's defense has been sufficiently spectacular to make up for his automatic out status. We all knew the Manky acquisition was dreadful when it happened--another Cashboy bungle--and it has only become more obvious with time. With the Yankees having to worry about run production, they can't afford to leave their most successful minor league bat down on the farm.

SILVER LINING

No, there is none I can find to the Hughes injury. But Giambi's foot, which may keep him out for a month, 6 weeks or even the season, will at least force the Yankees to DH Johnny Damon. With his leg problems and his perennial bad arm, he is nowhere near the center fielder that Melky is, and he'll likely be a good deal more productive if he's resting his legs most of each game.

The problem is now they need even more production out of power positions like first base and right field. Hopefully, Phelps poerformance against the righty in Toronto will translate into his playing first permanently, or until something better comes along. Noone can survive a first baseman hitting 220, leasdt of all the 2007 Yankees. Right field is a tougher call. Kevin thompson is better than the Abreu we've seen all May, but he isn't as good as Abreu can be. Do they deal for an outfielder? Can they?