THESE KIDS ARE ALWRIGHT TOO

In last year's installment of the kids are alwright, I begged the Cashboy not to trade Melky for some middle reliever as he was proposing to do (please hold your applause), and I extolled the virtues of playing youngsters like Melky, Bubba, Wang, Phillips etc. I also excoriated Torre for his belief that youth is to be wasted on the minor leagues. His recent handling of Ramirez suggests maybe he hasn't learned his lesson thoroughly just yet, but there is also evidence that he is beginning compelled to. The right side of the Yankees infield, their hottest DH and the centerfielder of the present and future (thank god they didn't trade him), along with Wang and the soon to be returning Karstens and Hughes (not to mention the injured Rasner) means the Yankees are in a full fledged youth movement even as they strive to regain playoff position, or rather they have any shot at the playoffs thanks to this youth movement. If we had a manager instead of a head of cabbage, the return of Hughes would mean the end of Mussina and Igawa (bad as he is, he's better than Moose) would be left to fight it out with Karstens, the loser becoming the long relief man in a pen that would be shrugging off Farnsworth and Meyers and bringing up Joba Chamberlain, the 22 year old with Zumaya heat. And now that Giambi is just about ready to play, Scranton-Wilkes Barre should be getting an aging, steroid-addled slugger in exchange for Shelley Duncan, this years answer to Shane Spencer. Or Bud could just suspend G-force zero and spare us the drama, and the salary. In any event, I repeat what I said last year, win it with the kids or die trying. Either way, its better than another year of Torre's Hoaries.

And next year, hire someone worthy of the youth to be groomed, someone like Girardi. If he could take those Marlinings to the brink of the playoffs, imagine what he could do with these guys.