WEDNESDAY'S WIN

Q.E.D. (again).

Seriously this game went just as my last post envisioned. The Yankees won for one reason: no Manny. Every time the Red Sox had men on base (Roger allowed 7 in 6 innings), Varitek, Crisp, Lugo or the egregious Drew stepped to the plate. And as bad as these guys have been overall, they're that much worse outside Fenway. Watching them hack proves just how terrible the White Sox must be.

Speaking of terrible, the big F... suddenly has all kinds of movement on his formerly flat fastball, and he still can't pitch worth a damn. Seriously, why would Torre call onhim with a three run lead in the eighth: Ramirez, another inning of Vizcaino, Bruney, all safer choices.

But as sucky as the big F...is, he did manage to prove he was not the sorriest ass player on the field. Think about it, F...head gives up a 2 run homer to Youk, putting the Sox back in the game. He's obviously rattled, so much so, he has to leave without finishing the inning. But before he does, he pitches to J.D. Drew, the 24 carat, $70,000,000 proof positive that Theo Epstein is a boy-idiot. Now Drew's lifetime batting average against F...er is something like 569, and F...er is f...ing done anyway. So this is Drew's chance to finally redeem this awful season by putting the Sox back in a game they had seemingly lost. And slow Joe is apparently too ignorant or lazy to get F...Up out of the game, as was clearly indicated. No matter, Drew is such a fucking loser, he strikes out anyway, just like he did in the 8th last night against the Hut. I'm a Phillies fan too, and I still remember when that Bible-thumping prima donna refused to play for the Phillies and made them trade him. All I can say now is thank god, he's been a bum in St. Louis, in LA and now in Boston. He's a number accumulating, perennially underachieving, always injured gagmeister. I'm surprised the Yankees didn't sign him to be Carl Pavano's alter ego.

Tomorrow the only Sox player I hate more than J(u)D(as) Drew: the Blob. Sweeping this series by destroying any residual illusion that this perpetually pontificating porker is still a big time hurler would be really sweet.

HANGING,

it has been said, concentrates the mind. So does embarassment.

Tonight the Yankees were dealing with both. The embarassment of the immediate past, a 16-0 shellacking from the Tigers, and the execution in their immediate future, the likely loss of the last available playoff spot. If the embarassment is forever, the execution grew a little less likely, thanks to one of their better played games of the season, an error free, bullpen supported,
Pet(t)ite gem, against the so-called best team in baseball, in, most importantly, a very close game.

And it was one of those weird nights when all the relevant news was good. The Tigers lost to the Royals, putting them 2 games back of the Yanks, the Mariners lost to the Angels, cuttting thier wild card lead to just one game (the Mariners have the misfortune of yapping at the Angels heels in the AL West, as a result of which the Angels are really focused on crushing them, and that reduces their chances in the one race, the wild card, where they might be viable). The Phillies beat the Mets, for the second straight game, on a Rhino walk-off; Chase Utley is back; and Cole Hamels will return for his next start (well, it matters to me!). And Manny Ramirez pulled his back out, ensuring that he will not play tomorrow night and probably for the rest of the series. Bobby Kielty hurt himself as well, so the Boston outfield for the next game and maybe 2 is Crisp, Drew, and someone I've never heard of (who is undoubtedly better than Drew).

Of the three games, I always liked the Yankees' chances best in the finale. They figure to rake the Bloated Windbag, whose just a few peglegged strides behind Mussina in the race down hill, and Wang typically pitches well with good run support (and of course everyone pitches better when Manny sits). The game I liked next best (and I figured the Yanks to win two out of three, which of course wouldn't help all that much) was tonight. Pettite has been so good and Dice K is, as I have been saying for so long, so overrated. I know he hasn't gotten a lot of runs in some of his losses, but he was 2-0 against the Yankees despite having a Mussina like ERA of almost 7.00 aganst them. I think he's a little better than his 13-11, but no better than 14-10: he walks too many, gives up too many homers and his prone to abrupt blow-ups, particularly against good offenses. Pettite meanwhile is better than his 12-7--remember all those no-decsions he had early on. I would say he should be more like 16-8. Tommorow night's game I figured for a loss, especially considering how good Beckett has been on the road this season (ERA, 2.00). But now things are interesting. Rocket knows that he hasn't earned his money, or anything like it, but this is the kind of game in which he can simulate having done so. Maybe he'll take the combined inspiration of his friend's success and the never-ending quest to prove Dan Duquette not just wrong, but the stupidest man in GM history. Despite Manny's decline as a home run hitter this season, his absence makes Boston so much weaker, because it greatly reduces the cost/risk of pitching around Ortiz. If they follow him with Drew, you have the opportunity of etching the $70,000,000 fiasco he has become into the long Red Sox lore of futility. If they back him with a single/doubles hitter like Lowell, Ortiz himself becomes more likely to clog the bases than to score, particularly since there are no good hitters in the Sox lineup after Lowell (Drew, Crisp, Varitek, Lugo, the nameless outfielder) these are all people you shoud be able to get out in a pinch. And with the recent struggles of Youkilis, this line-up just doesn't scare good pitching if Manny ain't in it. Whether Clemens can represent "good pitching" of course remains to be seen. But they do have a puncher's chance at home with this match-up and these line-ups and if they manage to win, I think the pressure in the finale switches to the Red Sox, a Ramirez-less Red Sox for sure. Becasue if the Yankees did manage to sweep, the lead would be down to five games, and while I continue to believe the Yankees are not good enough to surmount that handicap--certainly not with Boston's schedule-- everyone will once again start speculating that they might, and Boston will be given another chance to go in the tank, you know like last year, the year before that, the year before that etc, etc going back to 1978, if not 1941. At the very least it will put the last 3 game set in Fenway back in play--a five game lead is only a two game cushion towards making that series irrelevant. There are a good number of games in between, and if the Yankees manged to pick up 3 during that span, then even a 2-1 series win would ensure that both teams would be playing for the division down to hte last week, or game. All of which would, I think, make it more likely that the Yankees would get the wild card, the only prize worth expecting at this point.

Oh but the news is still better. Mussina apparently doesn't rate up there with Tanyon Sturtz in Torre's affections. He's out on Saturday in favor of Kennedy. What makes this great, beyond the simple fact of being spared a Moose-outing, is that the opponent is the Devil Rays. The chances of Kennedy being successful are accordingly maximized, and if he is I don't see how they can deprive him of another start.

Well, well, you know it's a charmed night anytime Joda actually does the right thing, but when the right thing involves replacing a trusted if cooked veteran with a young player, well that's like one of those comets that cycles around on a millenial basis. Or is it, could it be, that Torre has now decided to handle his personnel in the manner we, the inexpert fans, have been demanding for the past year or more? See, I don't call him Slow Joe for nothing. What's next a suicide squeeze in a truly decisive situation? We should all live so long.

IF YOU HAVE TO LOSE,

this is the way to do it: Mussina getting lit up on the way to the worst road shutout in team history. Why does this one hurt so good?

1. There can no longer be any dispute, Moose is done, if not for his career certainly for this season. the Yankees can no longer afford to give games away by putting him on the mound. torre is already said that it's tough with all that he has accomplished, but you know what, he never did all that much for the Yankees and he still has never won a ring.

2. If Torre does the play the sentimental old fool, a part for which he has shown himself perfectly cast, and decides to give Moose another chance, it will grease the skids for his own departure into the retirement home.

3. The Yankees, including this Yankee team, have always responded well to humiliation. I think the chances of their having a successful series against Boston and a good run after that were actually increased by the shameful way they collapsed last night.

Taken as a whole, however, this past series has ben little short of a disaster. The Yankees have altogether closed one of their routes to the playoffs and what may be worse they've opened the other route to some real competition, the Tigers themselves. I have been confident about the Yankees' wild card chances because I knew they would ultimately pass the Mariners. But the Tigers have 6 games left against the Royals, 6 games left against the White Sox (the wqorst team in all of baseball), and only three left against Cleveland. The Yankees could have put them away with a 3-1 victory in the series. Instead they're only a game back of N.Y. and looking like the favorites to take it.

SUNDAY'S LOSS

Q.E.D.

LEVELING OUT

Now that the Yanks are blowing neither hot nor cold, but playing more or less 500 ball against the best teams, we can see what was actually at stake in their long run back into contention. Was it simply a matter of beating up on weak teams? Clearly not, as they won series against the D-Backs, the Angels, the Tigers (3-1) and swept the Indians. They also won their last series against Boston. Cashman says it is just a matter of the performance levelin g out with their talent. This is how good the Yankees are, he says. Well, if this is what the Yankees are, there remains a big problem that has been neither solved nor dispelled during the run. The pundits who held the Yanks' winning ways to be an augur of October baseball liked to say, they were not just winning, they were destroying teams. I would say they can only win by destroying teams. What made the hot streak exactly that was that their offense was firing so completely that they were able to blow team out on a regular basis. And as everyone from Torre and Jeter on down pointed out, that sort of raking just couldn't continue. The reasonable hope has been that when things cool down, they won't go back to the flat passive offense of the first two months. The uinexorcised specter, however, is not the iunability to score 5 runs instead of 2, but the inability to win with 5 runs instead of 8. Whent the yanks get 4-6 runs they tend to be involved in 1 run decisions, or what amounts to the same thing, extra inning affairs. And they lose these games with positively brutal regularity. Part of the reason they lose these games, which they've done twice on this road trip (while winning none) are the old bugaboos, bad situational hitting and missed chances for small ball production. In my last post, I noted how this cost them game 1 in Anaheim. But the is a second reason as well.

Even now that the Yankees' bullpen is vastly improved it still suffers a curious weakness. The Yankees have no middle relievers to speak of. In last night's game, the bullpen perforemed marvellously well after another bad outing from Clemens (whose contract missed his real worth by one decimal point). Ramirez gave up nothing, Joba gave up nothing, Farnsworth gave up nothing Vizcaino gave up nothing, Rivera gave up nothing. and in the end Torre had to bring in Henn, just like in LA, which is the baseball equivalent of putting up the white flag. How does this happen? Because while the other hurlers may pitch in the middle innings, they are still short relievers. Not one of them goes more than an inning at a time in a close game. Nor should they necessarily. Vizcaino and Farnsworth are almost never as effective in the second inning of work (not that F...face is all that effective in the first), Ramirez and Joda would get burned out iof they had to throw 2-3 innings at a time. And that day has long since passed for Mo. It is the absence of any middle relievers that creates the weird situation that the Yankees carry a ton of relievers, several of whom are either great (Mo, Joba), very good (Vizcaino), or good (Ramirez), and yet perpetually seem to have no bullpen depth. Look at Boston, a bullpen ranked the best in the AL. They have 2 great relievers, two good reliever (Snyder, Del Carmen), oanokay reliever (Lopez), a Farnsworth level reliever (Timlin) and a Henn level reliever (Gagme). The difference is that Snyder will give you 3 innings, Delcarmen will give you 2-3,Okajima will give you 2, Lopez will give you 2. The Yankees bullpen can no longer be said to be burned out by overuse; after all F...doesn't get used all that much, Joba and Ramirez are new, Mo hasn't gotten all that much work this year, Vizcaino's work load is way down of late. But they still play out like an overworked bullpen because they are all short men, with the exception of he (Joba) who must be preserved. It will be interesting to see if the Yankees actually make use of the expanded roster as a key element in their playoff run. Do they add Kennedy, Stephen Wright, even Karstens and Igawa as relievers, making up in sheer numbers what they clearly lack in durability. I know this. Barring another ungodly offensive explosion, they need to start winning some, I would say the bulk, of their one run/walk-off/extra inning games if they want to avoid the double disgrace of not only snapping the division title string but missing the playoffs altogether.

MARK IT DOWN

If the Yankees fail to make the playoffs this year, if they fall short chasing Seattle or get passed by the Central runner up, we might look back ona very specific moment when the momentum shifted and the recent run petered out. It is Monday night, the sixth inning. you need to take at least one from the Angels to prevent this single series turning into the biggest pothole of the season. They've just come off an east coast swing, limiting their home city advantage. The weakest pitcher on their team takes the hill, while you know the weakest on your team will face their ace the following night. You are starting a youngster with no muscle memory of Yankee futility in Anaheim. And now, in the 6th, you actually have a 4-3 lead. You also have men on first and second and nobody out, with a real chance to extend your lead, which is crucial since this is a team, unlike the Yankees, that excels at scratching out runs. You have Cano at the plate, with Phillips following. but you know its late enough in the game that you can pinch hit Giambi for Phillips and bring Betemit in for defense (which Torre did in fact do). You give me this situation or any situation like it and I will always sacrifice. Men on second and third 1 out, you should score a run, with a grounder or a fly. A hit you get two. First and second lots can go wrong; second and third not so much. And you don't need a blow out, you have the opportunity to beat the Halos at their own game. Play the percentages Joe; play the NL ball for which you were once known. Nah! Torre sits there and does nothing. Cano hits it hard but right back to the pitcher who turns two (that's what can go wrong!) and the Yankees fail to score, leaving the Angels ready to pounce and win just the kind of one run game the Yankees can't seem to. Mussina follows script tonight and gets bombed (Ian Kennedy for fifth starter!) and the Yanks are 2.5 out of the wild card, 6 back in the East and suddenly falling fast. Baseball is like that. A single poor managerial decision can put your season in jeopardy. That's why it matters that slow Joe is so slow, tactically speaking. And, to be honest, I don't give a fuck how much Derek Jeter loves or respects him.

AGAIN,

with the fundamentals.

Between the accolades for their hitting and questions about the strength of their opponents, what people seemed to have missed about the yankees recent run of success was how fundamentally sound they were, particularly in the field. Well, everyone should notice now because their record is heading south in direct correlation with their fielding. If you set aside the 12-o blowout, which we can pretty much blame on the decision to pitch Karstens (who hasn't been even mediocre since the broken leg), the losing streak is built on key miscues. Yes, Mo blew up in the 4-3 loss but if it hadn't been for a costly error by Jeter and an absolutely unforgiveable failure on hughes's part to cover first (cost 2 runs), extra innings wouldn't have even been necessary. Last night of course AROD turned an inning ending DP into a prelude to a Slam with one wave of his glove. As Bauer correctly points out, the 4 run result had alot to do with Moose being Moose, i.e. a fragile, pouty prima donna just looking for the lack of support necessary for him to fail in peace. But still,, you put him on the mound, as they have elected to do, then it becomes all the more important to be impeccable so as to not give him any excuses.

I've been following yankee baseball a long time and the only team I can remember that approached this one in streakiness was the Mattingly teams of the mid-80's and you know how that turned out. I am ready to make this prediction, with absolute certainty. the Yankees mat play October baseball, depending on what the momentum dynamics prove to be, but their string of division titles is at an end. The Red Sox are much better at avoiding the losing skein, are much more consistent, that is to say, and with a healthy, if not enormous lead, that fact alone will be determinative.

CAUTION

won't cut it.

The Yankees dallied with bringing Kennedy up to start last night's game and went insted with the "safe" choice, which was also the choicee nmost likely to result in a loss. You would think they would have learned from Chamberlain and Hughes that these prospects are not made out of glass. they can withstand the pressure of major league exposure without falling to pieces.

On another front, today's line-up shows the virtues of the Yankees' new committment to bench strength. they are sending in a line-up against monster lefty Eric bedard thaat has only one left-handed bat in it (Matsui). quite a feat for this left-heavy team. but options are only as good as the use made of them. Last night, they faxced Angel Cabrera, who is as wild as they come and can be pressured by speed on the bases. he is just the kind of guy you want Damon playing against. damon works walks ansd steals bases. Slow Joe sat him. Further evidence of his lack of tactical acumen.

Speaking of evidence, the performance of Brower last night, combined with his earlier showing, proves he won't do. Torre preferred him to younger pitchers because he can throw everyday and againstt all kinds of competition. Well so can I. but I can't get anyone out, which seems to be Brower's problem. Here's a rule of thumb. When a youngster does well in AAA, it is an index of major league readiness. When a veteran without major league success does wwell at AAA, a la Brower, it only goes to show the value of the experience-differential that he loses in the Bigs.

THE GLASS IS NEVER FULL

The one irritating thing about the Yankees' great run has been that Torre has been receiving credit for a phenomeneon he did his best to preclude. Pundits who were slow to come around to the realization that slow Joe is a train wreck in pinstripes are now expressing regret that they ever did. And those that stubbornly refused to see the evidencee in front of them now feel vindicated in their blindness. So, for the record, the Yankees have climbed back into this campaign despite, not because, of slow Joe. Let's look at their erstwhile problem areas.

Item 1: Defense We said all along the defense on this team is entirely too weak, especially given the nature of the starting pitching: contact specialists like Pettite, wang and Mussina. Johnny Damon comes down with multiple, chronic injuries and status quo Joe is forced to play Melky on an everyday basis, as we have been begging him to do since last year. The improvement of the defense in center, the fact that Melky actually throws people out, has made an immense difference. Secondly, Cashman went out and got Molina, who is a huge upgrade defensively as well as offensively over Nieves. If there is any reversal of opinion merited by this run, it is regarding Cashman. He remains a completely dreadful judge of pitching talent, a liability that has cost the Yankees--in wins, championships and treasure--but he is much better judging position players and unlike status quo Joe, he believes, as we do, that the kids are alwright.

Item 2 First Base Just as Damon's injuries brought in Melky, injuries to Giambi and Skanky Manky forced Torre to play Phillips, who like cabrera has combined fine defense with timely hitting, the other commodity in short supply earlier in the year. So Slow Joe has benefitted from a 25% change in his line-up, making it younger, more energetic, better defensively, more clutch--and he had nothing at all to do with it. Melky has been so great--and remember we wailed when they were set to trade him last year--that a lynch mob would form at the clubhouse door if Joe tried to sit him now.

Item 3 Youth /Speed Cashman brings up Duncan, who represents another huge infusion of youthful energy, and with the return of Melky, the long absence of Giambi, Damon resting every third game and usually only "playing" DH, this is a much faster team on the bases and in the field than it was in the spring.

Item 4 Bullpen Cashman trades Proctor and assigns the woeful Meyers, so that Joe will be forced to pitch the young flamethrower Joba. Proctor was never great, but Torre ruined him as a serviceable middle reliever. But Cashman probably figures Joe doesn't like to play rookies, so Chamberlain is probably safe from predatory arm abuse, for now. Meanwhile, the bullpen has experienced a huge upgrade, all at the expense of Torre's vision, not in alignment with it. Before we give Cashman too much credit on this one, however, one has to wonder, with respect to Meyers anyway, what took him so fucking long. But I guess better late (Cashman) than never (slow Joe). Even with the upgrade though, this bullpen is pretty thin, and it is partly Torre's fault. Vizcaino is the key figure in the 8th, and while he has been pitching well since late June, Torre has already overworked him, making future performance iffy. And other than Chamberlain, there is noone else to get them to Rivera. Torre, who has as many new ideas as the Bush administration, can't be counted on for a solution. Does Cashman have the backbone to designate Farnsworth (who Torre won't use now anyway because of the spat with Posada) and bring up Ohlendorf? With Karstens the long man and Villone the lefty/mop up guy, the position Farnsworth is occupying is too important to be left thus vacant.

Item 5 Starting Pitching Cashman options Igawa so that Torre has to bring Hughes back earlier than he wanted. Status quo Joe was talking end of August (which means September 10-15th in Joespeak) but once again Cashman forced his hand. Hughes is likely the third best starter on the staff right now (after Wang and Pettite) with a bullet. Cashman also of course signed Clemens, a move I didn't particualrly like; but one would have to concede that with Chamberlain playing a much needed role in the bullpen, Clemens is probably better than the available alternatives. Not 20+ million better, mind you, but then it's not our money.

Item 6 Situational Hitting/Small Ball This is the one area where I think you have to give the devil his due. Joe's inordinate fondness for old age can be a strength: it makes him far more patient with struggling veterans than most of us and I think in the case of Abreu in particular that patience has paid off. He has also shown some willingness to bunt, squeeze and hit and run, though not nearly enough in my view. The way they are mashing right now tends to consolidate his push-button tendencies, which could spell trouble when they cool off.

Item 7 The Bench Cashman deserves all the credit here. The trade for Betemit looks like a good one, the promotion of Duncan definitely looks good and acquiring Molina ranks right after the Texiera trade as the best pick-up by anyone at the deadline. I will say this for Torre; he hasn't forgotten how Giambi carried them in mid-summer last year and the year before.

The Yankees are playing better in large part because they are a different and better team than they were in the spring and in almost every case the improvements were made against Torre's express or enacted wishes. Right now, they are hitting well enough to mask all of the tactical deficiencies he continues to possess and to enhance his reputation as a clubhouse savant. But nothing has changed so far as Joda is concerned. And on this I agree with the pundits, though with a significant difference. their position is , See, he can still manage brilliantly and you shouldn't denigrate him just because of a losing streak. My position is, actually, he hasn't been a very good manager for a really long time, and you shouldn't canonize him just because of a winning streak.
A team, Bill Parcells correctly said, is its record. For very good reasons, he didn't say the same of its coach or manager.

NOW THAT THE DUST HAS SETTLED,

I think I see it.



What were the Yankees thinking in subtracting relief pitching when the bullpen is the weakest area on the team? I don't know if Proctor was the third best reliever on the team--I'd have put him fourth at best behind Bruney, maybe fifth behind Villone, at least now that Torre has totally blown out his arm--but when everyone can get hit, they certainly need bodies back there. Are they running up the white flag as BGW suggests and preparing for next year? Or does bringing back Ramirez, bringing in Karstens, and bringing up Ohlendorff and of course Chamberlain really give them the best chance this year. Or is this a F*&! Joe Torre (trademark pending)?I think all of these things are true at the same time. Cashman believes they can get to October with some combination of these new, underworked relievers in place of the overworked ones they currently have: don't be surprised if Bruney, Villone or Meyers go at some point. The front office might well be moving to the point of denying Joe the comfort of the status quo, taking away his mediocre veterans and leaving him only the youngsters to go to.

But the point at which these present and future imperatives nmay disverge may be Chamberlain. The future is, or should be, a rotation that includes Wang, Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlain. That prospect would indicate keeping Joba in the minors starting, even though he may be a better bullpen solution than Ohlendorf, Ramirez or Karstens. Either way it should be interesting.

The most traumatic part of the trade deadline was also the most hopeful. The Yankees refusal to give up any of their young guns for Eric Gagne led directly to the Red Sox acquiring him. While that move may give the Chowderboys the modern equivalent of the Nasty Boys, as one pundit put it, it shows that the Yankees are thinking in terms of dynasty building again instead of quick fixes. If they had acquired Gagne, everyone would have said, there they go again giving up on the future for a broken down veteran, and every one would be right (I'll comment below on the Red Sox decision to trade Gabbard). Secondly, it shows that the Yankees are back to charting their own course rather than seeking to interfere in the Sox's plans. Daniel told Cashman straight up, if you don't part with Kennedy, Chamberlain or Cabrera for Gagne, the Sox will get him, and Cashman said well then they'll get him. The emulous reactive mode of personnel strategy was always Red Sox ideology, no the Yankees, and it never served them particularly well. With the media explosion surrounding the rivalry, the Yankees have been drawn into the maelstrom of worrying about their chief enemy instead of the ultimate goal and it has purchased them the fool's gold of division titles at the expense of the rings. It's good to see the organization step back form this syndrome. It could only lead to a greater reliance on the mercenary approach to building the team rather than the cultivation of home grown talent. (The Bronx Is Burning Yankees was the only island of success for the mercenary approach in a franchise that has won consistently from within.)

What about the Red Sox move? Well if this was fantasy baseball, the pick-up would be an unimpeachable score, and it may turn out that way in real life, at least for this season. But their bullpen certainly ain't broke, so the impulse to fix it has to count as a dangerous one. They have promised Gagne thatn he will be the main set-up man for Papelbon and the sometime closer. But Okajima is in fact better than Gagne, by a considerable margin. While Gagne has cashed almost all of his save opportunities, you have to remember that these have come against mainly bad teams, the only kind Texas beats. As the closer, he has in fact appeared against mainly bad teams, making that 2.15 ERA a little deflated. The comments by some that he is the Gagne of old is flatly contradicted by major league scouts and by the radar gun, which shows his fastball at 91 not 97, greatly decreasing the gap for his change-up. I don'tr see how you move Okajima and his 0.98 ERA back into the seventh in favor of Gagne, particularly if the latter isalso to pitch the 9th occasionally. If they don't keep their promise to Gagne, on the other hand, he is likely to destroy the chemistry of the bullpen. He's a rental anyway; he will surely leave to reclaim his closer status next year. If he feels lied to he is likely to take the kind of aggrieved mercenary attitude that can hurt a team. The sox are playing with fire, and while it may blaze their trail to the world series, it might also burn down their house. You have to wonder, given that their greatest need is offensive production and their second is long relief, did they make this deal just to keep Gagne from the Yankees--a bad reason when your 8 games up--or because they couldn't resist Gagne's reputation, despite the injury problems, a Yankee-like thing to do. In either case, they gave up alot for a rental. Jason Stark claims they didn't give up any of their 6 top prospects, but the fact is they offered one of them, Hansen, and the raqngers rightly preferred Gabbard. Like DelCarmen, one of their other "top" prospects, Hansen proved to be not very good at all, while Gabbard has been excellent, 4-0, an ERA lower than anyone on their staff not named Beckett, a much more solid pitcher this year than another one of their top prospects, Lester, was even before his cancer scare. They also gave away Beltre, and did so reluctantly, knowing 5 years from now, long after Gagne has left Boston, and likely the majors, the consequences of this deal are likely to haunt them. This is the kind of deal for which the Yankees have long been known and long been criticized. Sometimes that criticism has been unfounded, as mine might turn out to be here, but more often it has been dead on. And it will be in thic case, unless Boston manges to win it all, which Gagne or no Gagne is considerably less than an even chance.

Before this deal happened, or was even discussed, I told my Bosox-loving brother that I thought their chances may well rest on whether they were willing to depart from plan and reputation and make Gabbard part of their top three, ahead of the (ever)fat(ter) man and Lester. Now they have forfeited that opportunity altogether. We'll see.