I'm Your Handy Man

The Yankees won a game last night and actually picked up ground on the Red Sox for the first time in about 10 days. Since the Red Sox left Yankee Stadium after losing 2 of 3 with a 9-1/2 game lead, the Yankees have gone into a tailspin. They now sit 13-1/2 games behind the Sox and 7-1/2 games out of the wild card spot. So I have some good news and some bad news today. The good news is that I know exactly what the Yankees need to do to fix their team. The bad news is that no one at Yankee Stadium listens to me.

1. Don't panic. This is the most important thing that the team can do at this point. It's pretty clear by the deficit in the standings that things have not gone according to plan. The worst thing that they could do at this point would be to start making wholesale changes, either in the front office or on the field. The team that started the season is good enough to make the playoffs, they just need to start playing better.


2. Stop messing with the lineup. Moving players all over the lineup just messes with their preparation for the days game. Players (for whatever reason) like to know where they are hitting in the lineup. Bobby Abreu has been a #3 hitter for the last five years and so he should remain there. I know he's not hitting right now, but outside of Jeter and Posada, neither is anyone else. He will come around as will the rest of the team and it probably doesn't help his psyche any to be "demoted" to a lower spot in the lineup.


3. The hitters need to be more patient. The Yankees used to pride themselves on being able to wear down an opposition starter. They used to take more pitches than any team in baseball. During their recent stretch of futility, that all went out the window. It seemed the hitters couldn't wait to get back to the dugout. During their most recent series, they lost to a couple of first year pitchers. Both went deep into the game and the Yankees continually swung at the first offering from both pitchers. That is not the way the Yankees play. Giambi, Abreu, Jeter, Arod and Damon are supposed to wear out opposing pitchers and get on base about 40% of the time they come to the plate. That is not happening. Johnny Damon swung at the first pitch, with the Yankees down by a run in the 9th inning. That is just not fundamentally sound baseball. They need to get back to doing the thing that made the lineup so dangerous. Take some pitches guys. It ain't gonna kill you.


4. Torre needs to manage the bullpen better. If there is one consistent criticism of Joe Torre that can be made it's that he doesn't manage the bullpen very well. Joe falls in love with certain pitchers and overworks them. Currently his favorite is Scott Proctor. Proctor is currently on pace to work in about 100 games for the Yankees this year. That is simply too much. Joe has to learn to trust some of the other pitchers in the pen. Mariano has seen stretches where he hasn't pitched for 5 games. Joe needs to get him regular work so that when he's called upon to save a game, he's not rusty from sitting around for a week. I know that Mo blew some saves earlier in the year, but he still has to be used regularly. Brian Bruney has been very good so far, but Joe hasn't been as eager to call him out of the pen as he has Proctor. They also need to have a long reliever who can take the strain off of the bullpen during blowout games. I know that it's not exactly popular to be the guy who mops up, but someone should assume that mantle. If a game gets out of hand, Joe likes to run through the entire bullpen to finish up the game. That just means that most likely they won't be as fresh if he really needs them the next day. One of the kids from Triple A needs to be that long guy/spot starter who can soak up some innings if things get out of hand early.


5. The starting pitching has been better than most people think. The Yankees have had their share of blowout games, but given the amount of injuries that the starting staff has faced, they have performed fairly well. Roger Clemens shows up next week to add another quality arm to the staff, so they should in theory get even better. It would be nice to get Phillip Hughes back to see what he can do, but he's out for at least another month. Andy Pettitte should sue for lack of support. His ERA is in the top 5 in the AL but he has a losing record because the Yankees are not scoring any runs when he pitches. Wang and Mussina are still working back from injuries, but I have no doubt that they will become more consistent as time goes on. I'm more than willing to live with a rotation of Wang, Pettitte, Clemens, Mussina and one of the kids (Hughes, Clippard, DeSalvo, etc.).


6. Doug Mientkiewicz is a defensive replacement. Joe has insisted on using him as the de facto starting first baseman for the majority of the season. He simply doesn't hit enough anymore to be a starter. The Yankees have had Josh Phelps on then bench for most of the season. I have no idea whether Phelps is the answer, but he has to be given more of a shot that he has been given to date. He's younger and has a lot more power potential than Mientkiewicz. Joe has been stubborn about this. There are times, when the lineup is going well, that they can afford to carry a subpar bat. Now is not one of those times however. This is an easy change and can be made immediately. Defense at first base is a nice thing, but it is primarily a power position and that is certainly not what we are getting with Mientkiewicz. Everyone, join in with me, "all we are saaaa - ying, is gives Phelps a chance" (I know that was terrible).


7. The purpose of the game isn't that the Yankee players have fun. The press keeps harping on the fact that the Yankees don't look like they are having any fun when they play. The reason they aren't having any fun is because they are losing. It's a lot of fun when you win. I'm sure Red Sox are having a ball right now, but when they got swept in a five game series in Fenway last year, that didn't look like any fun. The game isn't about fun. It's about winning and losing. People always talk about how corporate the Yankees appear. Well currently they are a corporation that is losing money. The good news is that they have the talent to turn this thing around immediately. They need to be reminded that they are well payed individuals who have a job to do and that is to win games, not to have fun. That's what the offseason is for. Win now, have fun later.


8. They need to try and remember who they are. The Yankees somehow have forgotten that they are the nine time defending AL east champs. Their confidence has evaporated. They need to get back to thinking that they are going to win every time they step out on the field. Right now it looks like they are just waiting for something to go wrong in every game. Perhaps Roger Clemens will part of the solution. He certainly can't hurt.



9. And finally (I hate using sports cliches, but here goes), take it one day at a time. It's impossible for the Yankees to catch the Red Sox or turn their season around in one game. The press likes to look for signs and after winning the most recent Red Sox series, I read a couple of articles claiming that the Yankees had gotten their swagger back. Well, apparently they hadn't. One game or one series does not a season make. Regardless of the seeming importance of a game in May, it will not make or break a season. The team needs to go out and think of each day as a new opportunity to succeed. Looking up at a 13-1/2 game deficit might bury some teams, but it shouldn't have that effect on the Yankees. This is one instance where their age should come in handy. Most of the players on the team have been around for a long time and they realize exactly how long the season is and how quickly things can change.

So that's it. My cure for what ails the Yankees. The bottom line is that every day is not Armageddon. At some point this season might be a lost cause. But that day is not today and it's not tomorrow either. The Yankees still have time to make this a season to remember. Overcoming adversity is what defines greatness. This Yankee team has the talent and the opportunity to create the next Yankee legend.

Drivers Wanted

Over the past weekend we saw the 91st running of the Indianapolis 500. The famed race at the Brickyard was won by the husband of Ashley Judd. I mention that because that is the most interesting thing about the entire race. Most people in America wouldn't recognize Dario Franchetti's name, but they would almost certainly recognize his wife. By the way, I promise that this will be my first and only article about this particular "sport".

The Indy 500 has been brought back into the consciousness of the nation through the continued attempts of Danica Patrick to become the first woman ever to win the race. She actually led a couple of laps in 2005 in her first attempt at the 500 and finished in the top 5. That has been her best finish to date (this year she was 8th) and in fact she has yet to win or seriously threaten to win any race on the Indy circuit. The race had three women participate this year, but none was a serious threat to win the race (Sarah Fisher finished 18th, Milka Duno finished 31st). The Indy circuit is relying on the novelty of a woman racing with the men to draw new fans and while it certainly raised the profile of the sport for a while, unless she stars winning races (or at least one) the casual fans will find other distractions. I have no issue with the sex of the drivers, but I do have a problem with a marketing plan that focuses on a driver that hasn't won anything.

NASCAR also had a race this weekend, but I have no idea who won. And I'm sure outside of a small (but loyal) segment of the public, most have no idea either. NASCAR has their own issues to deal with. The casual sports fan can probably name only two drivers, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. If one of those two drivers doesn't win, most people are going to recognize or care who did win. Gordon is having a very good year and currently leads the points standing, Earnhardt Jr. hasn't won this year and has done very little winning over the past couple of years. He recently had a very public split with the racing team that bears his father's name and is looking for a new team for next year. And just for clarification, Indy car racing refers to open wheel cars, while NASCAR is for modified street cars. NASCAR used to be referred to as stock car racing, meaning that you could go down to a car dealer and get the same car that the drivers had out of their on-hand stock. While the cars are still based on dealer-available models, they have very little in common with the cars that the general public drives to work everyday.

I'm sure all that racing information was interesting to absolutely no one, but I guess I had to at least provide some background information before I got to my main point, which is, DRIVING A CAR IS NOT A SPORT! About a year ago, I wrote an article about horse racing and concluded that it was also not a sport. However, I do believe that jockeys are better athletes than race car drivers. I understand that driving a car at speeds in excess of 200 MPH requires great reflexes and guts, it is still the car that is doing (for the lack of a better term) all the heavy lifting. You can put the worlds greatest driver in an inferior machine and he will never win a race. He could probably win a race against me, but against drivers of equal skill, he would stand no chance. Therefore, any athletic skills that he might bring to bear would be rendered pointless. The car, in essence, is the athlete, just like the horse is in horse racing. I will say that driving a car around an oval or track for hundreds of miles requires great endurance, but that still doesn't make it a sport. Driving a truck for a living requires great endurance, but I don't see anyone claiming that it's a sport. Handling a speeding car is very hard, but so is flying a jet airliner.

Sports are competitions between people. Not competitions between machines or animals. Horses may like to run, but they don't run at top speed for a mile and half unless something is chasing them. Cars may be built for speed, but they wouldn't move an inch without a driver stepping on the gas pedal. Driving may be further up the sports mountain than say Pool or Poker, but it still isn't close to reaching the plateau of sport. It's a competition, and there's no crime in that. But drivers like A.J. Foyt or Richard Petty can't really be considered athletes because they can drive a car better than the average man. Can they?

Green with Envy

The NBA draft lottery produced a couple of upsets last night as the Trailblazers and Super Sonics won the right to draft Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. The Grizzlies and the Celtics, the teams with the two worst records in the league ended up at nos. 4 and 5. Jerry West the outgoing president of the Grizzlies called for the NBA to dump the lottery system and said that it was unfair. It is true that the team with the worst record, which has the highest statistical chance to grab the #1 spot, seldom ends up in that position. Since the league went to the draft lottery system in 1994, only twice has the team with the worst record ended up with the overall #1 pick.

The Celtics feel particularly slighted. 10 years ago they had the worst record in the league along with another lottery pick acquired through a trade. They had every reason to believe that they would end with the top pick. They did not win the lottery that year and instead ended up with the #3 and #6 pick, which they turned into Chauncey Billups and Ron Mercer. Billups has developed into and all-star player with Detroit, but he did not display that kind of form during his one season as a member of the Celtics. Mercer was traded after two years in Boston. He did make the all-rookie team in his first season, but was never close to being a great player. The player who went #1 in that draft just happened to be Tim Duncan, who as we speak, is on the verge of leading his team to it's 4th title in 7 years. And who is on the short list for the discussion of greatest power forwards of all time.

If I were the Celtics, I'd be pissed too. They have seen their once proud franchise become a lottery mainstay. Since they scored the greatest coup of all time by drafting Larry Bird a year before the could enter the NBA and then following up two years later with Kevin McHale they have suffered through a series of draft mishaps and misfires. The Len Bias episode was the beginning of the downfall of the Celtics. He was seen as the successor to Bird and McHale, but ended up being a cautionary tale for all who followed. The death of Reggie Lewis was another blow to the team. With the exception of Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, the Celtics have precious little to show from their draft picks of the past twenty years. They have traded away players who would become all-stars (Billups and Joe Johnson) with no return or they have picked absolute duds (Joe Forte, Joe Moiso, Eric Montross). They have just done a very poor job of talent evaluation in most cases and have been very unlucky in a couple of others.

This years draft was going to be their opportunity to set all that right. Everyone agreed that both Durant and Oden are going to franchise type players. The type that push a good team into the upper echelon of the NBA or take a mediocre team and give them instant credibility. The Celtics couldn't go wrong this year. This was going to make up for all their past mistakes. They were getting Bill Russell or Kevin Garnett. Instead they got the #5 pick. The good news for the Celtics is that this is a fairly deep draft, given the fact that along with the usual entries from the college ranks there are a few players who would have been able to enter the draft last year out of high school under the old rules, but were forced to play one year of college ball. There are also the mysterious international players that always show up in the first round. There's a 7 footer from China who may be available at the #5 pick. All of this should bode well for the Celtics. Despite the disappointment of not getting the #1 pick, in theory they should be able to get a very highly skilled player or at least one with a huge upside.

Of course history shows us that undoubtedly, they will make the wrong choice. Perhaps they'll make a better choice than in 2001 when they chose Jospeh Forte with their second pick in the first round instead of Tony Parker or Gilbert Arenas. They also chose Joe Johnson in that draft at #10 (who only managed to average 25 points a game this year), but they decided they didn't need him after he had played only one year in Boston. The Celtics are one of the cornerstones of the NBA. They have won more championships than any other team. They have more hall of famers than any other team. They have more history than any other team. Unfortunately, their recent history of draft blunders is more like the LA Clippers and it is the LA Lakers.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Yankee stadium must seem like a pretty lonely place to Joe Torre these days. The writers of the baseball press just won't rest until he's fired by George Steinbrenner. There have been more than a few articles claiming that the Yankees have to make a change at the top in order to turn around their season. The Yankees currently sit in second place in the east, three games under .500 and 9-1/2 games behind the streaking Red Sox. Now I understand that the Yankees haven't exactly set the world on fire for the first 6 weeks of the season, but this all seems a little premature to me. I even read that Joe might have been fired if the Yankees had been swept by the Mets. Clearly Joe didn't think so since he sent out a rookie to pitch Sunday night's game.

The Yankees pitching staff has been devastated by injuries this year. Beginning in spring training with the injury to Chein-ming Wang and continuing through Darrell Rasner having his finger broken on Saturday. The Yankees have started 7 rookies through the first 6 weeks of the season. That hasn't been done in the major leagues since the 1800's. Not only has every starter been injured at some point, but their replacements have also been injured. The Yankees best starter to date, Andy Pettitte, has been the victim of an almost criminal lack of run support and the repeated failure of the bullpen. Andy should have at least 6 wins at this point, but his record stands at 2-3. The Yankees do have help in the form of Roger Clemens, on the way and Phillip Hughes should also be back at some point in the next month or so. The rotation should be fairly solid starting in June.

The Yankees have also been very unlucky to this point in the season. They are 2-8 in one run games. Their predicted record, based on runs scored and runs allowed, is actually five games over .500, so they've been playing in some bad luck. Now some teams play in bad luck for an entire season, but I'm assuming that this will all even out for the Yankees as the season goes along. The Yankee bats have also been inconsistent to this point. Arod started off like a house on fire in April, but has had a mediocre May, although he has shown recent signs of snapping out of his funk. Bobby Abreu, Robinson Cano, Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon have been less than stellar to date. Abreu looks totally lost at the plate and Damon has not provided any punch at the top of the lineup. Jeter and Posada have been carrying the offensive load for most of May. And while they have been close to spectacular, two players cannot carry an entire lineup. The Yankees will start to produce sooner rather than later and they will begin to resemble the fearsome lineup that they were predicted to be at the beginning of the season.

Will the Yankees catch the Red Sox? That really remains to be seen, but I wouldn't put it past them. The Red Sox have had the best possible scenario to this point in the season. They haven't had any major injuries, their starters have been going deep into games, and their closer has been almost perfect. They have even managed to withstand a mediocre start by Manny Ramirez and have the best record in baseball. It's possible that they may be able to keep this up for the entire season, like the '98 Yankees or '01 Mariners (they are currently on a pace to win 115 games), but that really isn't likely. They will probably hit a rough patch during the season and the question remains whether the Yankees will be ready to mount an assault at that time.

The bottom line is that the Yankees have been playing through the worst string of injuries that I can ever remember a pitching staff having. The offense has been struggling and has looked lethargic at times. However, none of this is Joe's fault. I have questioned his handling of the bullpen from time to time, but I do not believe that there is a person better suited to managing this team than Joe is. The Yankees are not a young team who would respond to someone yelling at them, they don't need a high energy guy or a corporate guy. They have what they need. A calming influence who can steer them through the daily storm that is the New York press. In New York, everyday is a crisis. Your fortunes rise and fall with each nights game. Joe maintains a very even keeled clubhouse. He is seemingly never in crisis mode. I think that does more for the psyche of the team than anything a rah-rah manager could do. Joe and Yankees will right the ship before too long. I don't know if they will right it in time to catch the Red Sox, but trust me, the Yankees will make this pennant race much more interesting before it's all said and done.

Jason and the Golden Fleece

Jason Giambi has apparently stirred up some controversy with his recent comments about his past steroid use. Giambi was quoted as saying that he was sorry that ever did that "stuff". He also said that Major League Baseball and the owners should apologize to the fans for the steroid problems of the past. By opening up his mouth about this issue he has set the Yankees and the Commissioner's office into a flurry of activity. The Yankees are once again looking into voiding his contract and the Commissioner's office has stated that they would like to speak to Giambi further on this matter.

Before the 2004 season, Giambi apologized to the fans without saying exactly what he was apologizing for. His Grand Jury testimony, in which he admitted taking steroids, had already been leaked to the press and so it was assumed that he was apologizing for his part in the growing scandal. The Yankees at that point had every lawyer in their employ scrutinizing his contract to see if there was anyway for them to void it based on Giambi's alleged steroid use. It didn't help Giambi's cause any when he then proceeded to have a horrible injury plagued year. The lawyers couldn't find a way out of the contract back then and they won't be able to find a way out of it now. Giambi has one year and $5 million buyout for the 2009 season remaining on his contract. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Giambi will not be part of the team when they open the new Yankee stadium in 2009. The Yankees should probably stop wasting energy and resources on trying to figure out how to get rid of Giambi and focus on the real problem at hand.

The Commissioner's office has known about Giambi's testimony for years. Certainly since it was leaked to the press in 2004. I'm not sure exactly what they have to speak to Giambi about at this point. He has never failed a drug test and even if he admits that he took steroids before 2004, there is nothing baseball can do about, since steroids were not a banned substance up to that point. I'm of the opinion that the Commissioner's office and the Yankee aren't particularly happy about being called out in the press by Giambi. He was basically saying that MLB and the owners both knew about the steroid problem and by not doing anything about it, were in fact, complicit in the scandal. Giambi is saying that they are just as much to blame as the players who took the drugs and I don't think that's something that they like to hear. They are trying to somehow turn the heat up on Giambi as some type of punishment for his talking out about the prolem.

The truth is that they can hire all the attorneys they want and bring Giambi in for all the testimony they want, but in the end, Giambi is going to get his money from the Yankees and will not face any disciplinary action from the Commissioner's office. I'm not even sure why they are going through with this show. They should have just said, "no comment" and let the story just die a natural death. For whatever reason, they were unwilling to do that. Perhaps they just hate the fact that a player is pointing the finger of blame at them, perhaps they just don't like Jason Giambi. They do themselves no favor by trying to punish a player who is simply speaking the truth. The sooner baseball admits it's errors in the steroids scandal, the sooner they can go about making part of their past.

The toothless Mitchell investigation is ongoing, but they will not come back with much that isn't already known. Baseball's own investigation has no federal authority to force testimony from anybody. They have to rely on athletes and others simply outing themselves. I don't see that happening. They will get a lot of hearsay evidence, but they will be lacking in real first person testimony. The one thing I do know is that the investigation will never point the finger of blame at the owners or the Commissioner. Bud Selig hired his friend George Mitchell to head baseball's investigation of the steroid scandal. George Mitchell along with being Bud Selig's friend and a former Senator is also part owner of the Boston Red Sox. So tell me, what do you think the odds are that the owners or commissioner will be singled out from blame when the investigation finally issues it's report (by the way, it's already been a year, I'm hoping for something by the end of the decade)? Not bloody likely.

I'm actually happy that Giambi pointed his finger in the direction of the owners box. They deserve equal blame for what happened to the game. I personally think that the player's union, who refused to even talk about including a ban on steroids in the collective bargaining agreements, is more to blame than even the owners or the commissioner's office, but that's a story for another day.

Interleague, Schminterleague

I used to be a big fan of interleague play. Back when the Yankees and Mets squared off for the first time it actually had the air of a post season matchup. It divided the city and it seemed that everyone had a rooting interest. I believe the Yankees won the first match up in extra innings, but I could be wrong. The thing is that there have been so many Yankees-Mets matchups that they are beginning to run together in my mind.

The novelty of seeing players from different leagues play against each other has begun to wear on me. I'm not particularly concerned with interleague play taking something away from the All-Star game or the World Series, it's just that it interrupts regular season play twice. The Yankees and Mets are also at a disadvantage because they have to play two series against each other. The "natural" rivals play a home and home series against each other. The Yankees and Mets are both good teams and therefore the games are usually tight and neither team ends up with much of an advantage. But let's consider the case of the St. Louis Cardinals who have been beating up on their "natural" rival for years. Last year the Cardinals won the central division and subsequently the World Series. They ended up winning the central by one game. They also had the luxury of playing the Kansas City Royals six times last year. Now if they had played the Yankees or the Angels or the Twins six times in interleague play last year, they may not have even reached the post season. But that is inequity inherent in interleague play. I'm not sure that there's a better way to handle this except to cut down the "natural" rival games to one series. In New York that would mean one year the games would be at Shea, the next at Yankee Stadium. That would give the fans of the rivals three chances to see their teams square off. That really is more than enough.

Some teams don't really have natural geographic rivals, so they end up playing in games that no one particularly cares about. Sure it's great to see the Rangers play the Astros, but why is Toronto playing Philadelphia six times (I'm not exactly sure that is what happens, but you get my point). San Diego and Seattle?? Kansas City and Colorado?? Those teams aren't rivals, but yet they have to play each other in two series. I don't mean to get down on this because it was a good idea at the time and it's probably here to stay. The interleague games do increase attendance and as long as the fans are still voting yes with their pocketbooks, it's here to stay. Unfortunately for me, the thrill is gone. I just don't get that excited about playing the Mets. And having an extra trip to the west coast must be absolute thrilling for the Yankee players.

I'm sure there is a place for interleague play in the baseball schedule. Perhaps if they changed it to every other year and limited the games to just a handful, it would still be an exciting event. As it stands now, it's just another part of the schedule that, like it or not, will probably play a major role in determining who ends up in the playoffs.

Have a good weekend everybody. And before I ride off into the sunset, I would like to send out a special hello to my #1 reader (and probably only reader) in North Carolina. Thanks for the visits, Denise. I really appreciate it. Go Tar Heels!!!

I'm Number One!

Bret Favre has held the Green Bay Packers hostage for the better part of a decade. There was a time when Bret was the best QB in the NFL. That was about 10 years ago. The Packers have ceased to be relevant to everyone but their own fans since they lost in the Super Bowl to the John Elway led Broncos in 1998. Favre performed at a very high level for years after the Packers were no longer a serious Super Bowl threat and is now approaching the career marks set by Dan Marino. The problem with Favre is that he is preventing the Packers from making any real progress.

It's clear that the Packers need to start grooming a QB for the future. They thought they had that when they drafted QB Aaron Rogers a couple of years ago. In the two seasons that Rogers has been with the team, he has thrown a total of 31 passes. So much for grooming a QB for the future. Is Rogers the QB of the future in Green Bay? They'll never be able to find out until Bret retires. And if he turns out to be a bust, then they will have wasted at least one more season to figure that out. Favre has done his annual "will I retire" dance for the past two seasons, but anyone who has been observing him had to have known that he would never retire with the all time records within his grasp. He has to know (as anyone who watches football would) that the Packers are not a serious threat to win anything, but he claims that he's coming back because he feels the Packers can make an impact in the playoffs. However, in order to make an impact in the playoffs, you must first make the playoffs. The Packers haven't done that since the 2004 season.

Favre was also complaining recently about the fact that the Packers didn't get Randy Moss. Now I have no idea if Randy Moss would have been any good in Green Bay (given the weather there, I personally doubt it), but I'm sure that Bret Favre is not the Packers GM. He may think that he is, but I've looked up his record and I can't find any story about him being named the Packers GM. It might have been funny to see Randy and Bret together. It would have been quite a competition to see who is, in fact, the most selfish player in the league.

Bret also prides himself on being a fantastic teammate and leader and yet I can remember a couple of instances where he inserted himself into a teammates contract negotiation on the side of management. He harangued one of his receivers into playing even though he was initially holding out for a long term deal. The receiver hurt his knee in the first game of the season and that long term deal was history. It's really easy for Bret to say that his teammates shouldn't be concerned with money since he's already made about $100 million. I'm pretty sure that Bret would have been less than enthused about a contract that was not among the highest in average salary among QB's. Of course he's never had to worry about that, because he's royalty in Green Bay. However, his teammates have never been so lucky.

Bret is only 6 TD passes and about 3,800 yards behind Marino for the all time records. He will definitely get the TD record and if for some reason he doesn't get the yardage record, expect to see him drag himself back out on the field for just one more season. He isn't playing for the team anymore. He's playing for himself. His best chance to win would be to demand a trade to a contending team and hope that the starter gets hurt. A team like Baltimore could have used him last year. Perhaps he would have been able to succeed in the playoffs with a team like that. So enjoy the records Bret, but don't try and lie to us and say that you are coming back to help the team. You're coming back to help yourself, plain and simple.

Blood and Guts

My very good friend, Ric has been chastising me for not writing enough of late. I try to tell him that it's hard coming up with something good to write about everyday. I do have other contributors to this blog, but mainly it's just me. I'm really in the "nothing interesting happened this weekend" mood, in order not to get yelled at from Boston, I'm going to make a few comments about the NBA playoffs. Here goes nothing.

The NBA championship is being contested this week between the Suns and the Spurs. I'm not just saying that because I picked the Spurs to win the title before the season started. I think that most observers believe that the best two teams left in the playoffs are in this series. Last year there was a feeling among observers that the Mavericks and the Spurs were the two best teams left and the winner of that series would be the de facto champion. The Heat and Dwayne Wade came along and ruined that prediction, but you have to remember how close the Mavericks were to taking a 3-0 lead against the Heat last year. It took a monumental collapse, with a big heaping of Dwayne Wade to turn that series around. I don't anticipate any team from the east being able to repeat that performance.

The Suns and the Spurs seem to be the perfect storm. The best defensive team in the league going up against the best offensive team in the league. The Spurs have two all-defensive team regulars in their starting lineup and the Suns have two first team all-stars in theirs. The Suns like to run and the Spurs like to walk. The feeling going into the series was that which ever team was able to dictate pace would be the winner. So far the Suns have dictated the pace, but the Spurs have been beating them at their own game. All the games have ended up in triple digits for both teams but the Spurs now hold a two games to one lead. The Spurs are better at running than most would give them credit for and Tim Duncan is still one of the best, if not the best big man in the game. Duncan can't play at the high level he used for an entire season, but he can certainly turn it on for the playoffs. He's basically reached the age where he has to pick his times for maximum effort.

The Suns seemingly do not have an answer for the Spurs. I'm sure going in to the series they felt that if they could get the games into triple digits that they would win. They are playing the style of basketball that made the most entertaining team in the NBA. The Spurs are just out gunning them at this point. Down the stretch, the Spurs have been able to make more plays than the Suns. It certainly didn't help that Steve Nash had to sit out most of the end of game one. The Suns can't change the way they play, so their key to victory is better execution. The Spurs aren't going to wilt down the stretch of games and make stupid mistakes to beat themselves. The Suns have to use the game 2 model for the rest of the series. They need to build a lead through the first three quarters and not allow the game to come down to the final moments.

The Suns do have home court advantage in the series, so game 7 would be played in Phoenix. However in order for that to happen, they have to steal at least one game in San Antonio. My prediction is the Spurs in six games, but if the Suns do manage to force a game 7, I think that in a month we will be witnessing a NBA championship parade in the valley of the sun.

I hope you're happy, Ric.

Death's Door

There was a major sports spectacle in Las Vegas last weekend. It may very well have been the last of it's kind. Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather fought a championship fight and set the all time pay per view record of just over 2 million. The fight drew more viewers than any Tyson fight or Holyfield bout. Now some of the super fights of the past would probably have been able to do a much higher number, but the technology was not widely available until recently. Can you imagine what Louis Vs. Schmeling would have done? Or the first Ali - Frazier fight? However, it is safe to say that the record will be safe for some time to come.

Oscar De La Hoya is the last real draw in boxing. He has name recognition that goes beyond the hardcore enthusiasts of the sport. Boxing has always had at least one name to carry the sport to the masses. Whether it was Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Ali, Foreman, Duran, Leonard, Tyson, Holyfield or Lewis. There was always at least one boxer that the average man on the street knew. I'm not sure that even the average sports fan would be able to name another boxer besides De La Hoya. The Heavyweight championship, once the most prized possession in sports, is split between five different fighters. Most of them are from the former soviet union. I'm confident that even avid sports fans couldn't name all of the supposed heavyweight champions of the world.

The sport of boxing has become more marginalized as time has gone on. It was a victim of it's own success to a certain extent. Championship fights used to be a staple of TV through the eighties. It was only the rare fight that was shown via close circuit. However, once pay-per-view became a reality, the biggest fights were no longer available on free TV. The consumer had to pay extra to see a big fight. This led to fewer and fewer casual fans watching the sport. Therefore, fewer and fewer people knew the fighters, or cared what happened to them. The pay-per-view model is great in the short run, but for boxing it was the beginning of the end. The sport isn't lacking for great fighters, but so few have been able to capture the imagination of the general public because they just haven't been exposed to them. There are dozens of pay-per-view boxing events in a year, but now they are mostly marketed to the Hispanic viewers. The PPV cards are mainly filled with Hispanic boxers in the lighter weight classes. The fights may be great, but the general public isn't watching.

The Olympics used to provide the springboard for boxing careers in the past. Ali, Foreman, Leonard and De La Hoya, to name a few, have used the Olympic stage as a stepping stone to fame and fortune. This doesn't really happen anymore. The US used to be a dominant player on the Olympic boxing stage, but this is clearly not the case anymore. I may be mistaken, but I believe that De La Hoya is the last American to win an Olympic gold medal. The inner city used to give birth to some of the best fighters in the world. Both Tyson and Riddick Bowe were from the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and there were hundreds of others who rose from poverty to riches by following that same path. Kids today don't view boxing in the same way that they used to. It used to be one the only ways out of poverty. Sports still can provide that out, but the kids are much more likely to pick up a basketball than to lace on a pair of boxing gloves.

There are those who would say that boxing is a savage and barbaric sport, if it is truly even a sport at all. They would be happy to see boxing become a thing of the past. I don't necessarily disagree with the fact that boxing is just one step above our caveman beginnings. That doesn't mean that I want to see it disappear. To me boxing is one of the few sports that maintains the essence of what sport is supposed to be. It pits man against man in an athletic competition to determine who is better. There isn't a bat, ball, skate, stick or basket in the way. There are no teammates. It's simply one man against another. There is nothing more pure in sport.

Ultimate fighting is attracting a growing fan base in this country. They have a full slate of PPV events every year and can lay claim to as much revenue from the bouts as the WWE (wrestling) pulls in each year. UFC has multiple shows running on free TV to spark interest in their mega fights which they stage in a PPV event. It seems to be working for them. Perhaps boxing could take a page out the UFC's book in order to build up their audience. The problem with boxing is that no one is really in control. There are governing bodies in each state, that have no national component. There are multiple sanctioning bodies which has led to multiple champions in each division. The sanctioning bodies are also ripe with corruption and have been manipulated at times by unscrupulous promoters.

What boxing really needs is a commissioner and an international governing body. They could determine what was best for the sport and perhaps bring it back to relevance. Unfortunately that is probably never going to happen. There are simply too many people who stand to make too much money in the short run. They have no motivation to take the long view of the sport when there's money to made today. They don't care about the sport of boxing, just the money that boxing can make them. That may very well be the attitude that dooms boxing in the future to being nothing but a sideshow in the sports arena.

Of course if another Tyson or Ali were to come along...

Crystal Method (Part 2)

The hitters get some attention today as I continue with my Hall of Fame preview. First of all there are a couple of hitters who I won't mention in this article, but I'm sure you'll be able to figure out who they are. They've both hit a lot of home runs and both have issues with back acne and anger management. The less said the better. Now with that out of the way, let's talk about the hitters who are an absolute lock for Cooperstown. Let's start with Ken Griffey Jr. He is the only player who can legitimately argue for the "best player of the nineties" with a certain Giants slugger. He was on pace to be the all time home run king before injuries slowed him considerably. He in fact hasn't played a full season since he was 30 years old. Even with the injuries, he is a 10 time gold glove winner who currently stands 10th on the all time home run list. If he stays reasonably healthy this year he should be able to move into 6th position on the home run list.

Next we have the player who could conceivably end up as the all time home run king by the time he's done. Alex Rodriquez will break through the 500 home run barrier this year at a younger age than anyone before him. At the age of 31, with at least 6-7 years of high production baseball ahead of him, he could end up with over 800 career home runs. He was well on his way to being considered the greatest shortstop of all time, which is no small feat considering the fact that Hounus Wagner may be one of the five best players ever, when he made the switch to 3rd base to accommodate Derek Jeter. Arod averages about 40 home runs and 120 RBI's a season and as I have already stated, he could be the holder of every meaningful career offensive record by the time his career comes to an end.

Manny Ramirez has been a hitting machine since he first stepped on a major league field. He has even been slightly more productive than Arod has. His defense has never been his strong point, but Manny does all his talking with the bat in his hands and few have ever done it better. For the 11 out of his 12 full major league seasons he has hit over 30 home runs and driven in over 100. And in 10 of those years he has hit over .300. His career batting average is currently .313. He will end his career with well over 500 home runs and possibly over 600 as well. He will end up in the top 10 all time in home runs and RBI's. Manny may simply be the best right handed hitter of his generation.

Next is Frank Thomas who had a great resurgence last year in Oakland. During the first 10 years of his career, Thomas put up numbers that could easily be compared to the likes of Ted Willams and Jimmy Foxx. He, like Griffey Jr., has been slowed by injuries past the age of 30 (and those comparisons are no longer valid), but two of the three post 30 seasons in which he has been completely healthy, have resulted in top 5 MVP finishes. He has won 2 MVP awards and finished in the top 5 on four other occasions. There would be some who would diminish his value because he has been primarily a DH since turning 30, but his career numbers (.300+ batting average, over 500 home runs, top 20 in on base percentage and Slugging percentage) are so overwhelming that it really doesn't matter if had never played a day in field. He is a hall of famer.

Next in line is Mike Piazza, who is without a doubt, the greatest hitting catcher in the history of the game. While Campanella and Berra may have more MVP awards (Piazza has never won one) and Ivan Rodriquez and Johnny Bench may be his defensive superior, there can be no argument that with the bat in his hands, no catcher has ever been a better hitter for a longer period of time than Piazza has. He has hit as high as .362 in a single season and still maintains a lifetime batting average of over .300. He has hit at least 30 home runs in nine seasons (which is the same number as Bench, Berra, Rodriquez and Campanella combined) and is the all time leader in home runs for a catcher. It is true that he will never win any awards for throwing runners out at second, but he made up for his shortcomings in the field with his bat. Speaking of catchers, Ivan Rodriguez is also a hall of famer. He may not be able to match hitting stats with Piazza, but he is definitely the best defensive catcher of his time. He also has something that Piazza doesn't have, an MVP award. Pudge, as he is affectionately known, has also won 12 gold glove awards. His offensive numbers (300 home runs, 1,200 RBI's, .300 average) will put him safely in the company of the great catchers of all time. His defensive prowess makes him an easy pick for the hall of fame.

The next hitter is not someone who comes to mind when you think of all time greats, but Craig Biggio is a hall of famer nonetheless. He will get his 3,000 hit this year and punch his ticket for Cooperstown. He will end his career in the top twenty all time in hits, doubles and runs. He's a four time gold glove winner at second base although he actually started his career as a catcher and also spent a couple of seasons as a center fielder. Bill James actually made the case that Craig Biggio was a better player during the nineties than Ken Griffey Jr. was. I don't actually buy that and I think it asks you to view the stats in a way that I am unwilling or unable to do, but for Biggio to even be included in that conversation, I think shows just how valuable Biggio was during his prime. I can't say that he's going to be a first ballot guy, but he'll get enough votes in under three ballots.

I think that's it for absolute sure fire locks. There are a few players who are within striking distance of 500 home runs and may reach sure fire status by the time they're done. Gary Sheffield and Jim Thome are close to 500. It may not be the ticket the the Hall that it used to be, but it will require voters to take a good hard look at those players. I think if they both make it there, they will both eventually get in. Chipper Jones has a good chance to make it to the Hall as well. He plays third base, which is an under represented position in Cooperstown and he is still putting up pretty good numbers, even though he has been hurt for portions of the past two seasons. Vlad Guerrero and Andruw Jones are also on track for 500 home runs even though they have about 150 to go. A lot can happen between 350 and 500, but considering that Vlad already has an MVP award and Jones has won 9 consecutive gold gloves, they both have a very good chance. Derek Jeter is well on his way to 3,000 hits and is the most beloved player since Kirby Puckett. Given his post season record and the unabashed man-love by the baseball writers, it would take something really unforeseen for him not to make it to the hall.

The hitter that I think is the most interesting of the not-quite-in group is Jeff Kent. In theory, Kent has already done enough to get to Cooperstown. He is the all time leader in home runs for second baseman, he has eight seasons of over 100 RBI's and has an MVP award. His power numbers and production are practically unheard of from that position. By comparison, the recently elected Ryne Sandberg only drove in 100 runs in two seasons. While Shortstop has been transformed into a glamor position, 2B has not seen that same wealth of talent. You can still find the one of if not the weakest hitting player at either catcher or 2nd base. It is still mainly a defensive position which makes Kent's output even more amazing. Kent came up with the Mets who were always concerned that he was trying to hit home runs. They didn't think that he made enough contact for a middle infielder. He was traded at the age of 29 to San Francisco where his career really took off. He was striking out more than ever, but he was also hitting more home runs and driving in more runs than ever. For his first six years in San Francisco he averaged 29 home runs and 115 RBI's. Once again, his numbers seem to say that he's a hall of famer. The problem is that he has never been perceived that way. Unlike say, Derek Jeter, who everyone assumes will be there, no one even mentions Kent's name in relation to Cooperstown. His career slugging percentage ranks 86th all time, which may not seem impressive, but the only second baseman that I could find who ranks ahead of him is Rogers Hornsby, who just happens to be one the greatest hitters of all time. Will he make it? I'm not sure that he'll make it on the first ballot, but I think that when the writers compare him to the rest of the second basemen in the Hall, they'll have no other alternative than to vote him in eventually.

The last hitter I will talk about isn't HOF eligible yet, but is well on his way to Cooperstown. Ichiro Suzuki, is averaging well over 200 hits a season for his brief 6+ year career. He has won an MVP and Rookie of the Year award (in the same season, I might add. Making him only the second player to pull off that rare double. (Fred Lynn was the other)). He has set the single season hits record, led the league in hitting twice and hits three times. He has won a gold glove every season he has been in the majors and shows no signs of slowing down at the age of 33 (he is currently hitting .356). He has to play at least 10 years to eligible for the Hall of Fame, but I don't see that being much of an issue. He won't get to 3,000 hits because of his late start in the majors, but I don't think the voters will hold that against him. If he can keep up his current rate of production for another 2 or 3 seasons, he will become the first Japanese player in the Hall.

Well, that's it. I'm sure I've forgotten somebody obvious but thankfully whoever that is won't be reading this.

Commencing Countdown, Engines On

The Yankees and Roger Clemens pulled a fast one on everyone by announcing his return to the club during Sunday's game. Roger addressed the crowd from the owners box during the seventh inning stretch. His announcement whipped the crowd into a frenzy and was a fitting cap to the Yankees first shutout of the season. By the way, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but here's what I wrote back on December 28th,

"A goodbye to Randy will probably mean that the Yankees will throw a sick amount of money at Roger Clemens. Roger played for a pro rated $20 million dollars last year. This year he may not have to pro-rate that amount. I know I said earlier that he would probably go back to Houston and I still think that they are the favorites to land him, but everybody has their price. Even the only man alive with more Cy Young awards than Randy Johnson."

It's being reported that Roger signed for a pro-rated $28 million dollars, which will work out to just about the $20 million that I predicted.

So can the Yankees expect from the now 44 year old Clemens? They can expect Clemens to immediately become the hardest worker on their staff. His workouts are legendary and that will certainly not change when he comes to the Bronx. He will be a great influence on the younger pitchers. Phillip Hughes especially can learn a lot from the Rocket. If Roger were to spend the year teaching Hughes the nuances of the split finger, his influence could last a lot longer than just the last four months of the season. As far as what the Yankees can expect on the mound for their approximately $1 million per start, that's a little more muddled. Roger's average ERA in his final three seasons in the Bronx was 3.92. His average ERA in the last three seasons in Houston was 2.38. That difference is partly explainable by the difference in the leagues and perhaps by the fact that Roger had a shortened season. Moving back to the American League will cause his ERA to rise by at least a run a game. I'm expecting him to pitch to an ERA of about 3.5o, which would probably be enough to lead the Yankees starting staff. He can certainly still be dominant, but I'm not really expecting any 15 strikeout games. I'm expecting him to give the Yankees a solid 6-7 innings almost every time out.

The biggest problem with signing a 44 year old (He turns 45 in August) is that they are basically pitching on borrowed time. Nolan Ryan had the most remarkable pitching arm I have ever seen. He could basically dominate hitters with his fastball until the day he retired at age 46. Nolan would probably still be pitching if his legs didn't give out. The same can be said of Roger Clemens. He has never had any serious arm problems and will probably be able to pitch until his legs give out. When will that be? No one knows, including Roger. He will get himself into great pitching shape, but there comes a time when although the heart is willing the body is not. Roger wont' be felled by arm problems, but his demise will probably come through a series of lingering hamstring and groin pulls. We've already seen what hamstring problems have done to the Yankees pitching staff this season and Roger is certainly not immune to those issues.

All that being said though, I do look forward to having Roger on the mound for the Yankees again. He certainly brings the right kind of attitude to the team and will hopefully serve to mentor and inspire the Yankees younger pitchers. What can we expect from his 20 or so starts (provided he stays healthy)? I'm thinking he goes 9-5 with an ERA somewhere north of 3.50. However if he brings stability to the rotation and some fire to the clubhouse, then it will probably be worth the million dollars per start that the Yankees will be shelling out.

By the way, signing Clemens is going to cost the team an additional $7-$8 million for luxury taxes, so the deal will end up costing somewhere in the $28 million dollar range. It must be nice to have an unlimited payroll. I'm pretty sure that the Royals, Devil Rays and Pirates combined don't pay their starting staff $28 million. Oh well, such is life in the Bronx.

Crystal Method (Part 1)

I was thinking about the Hall of Fame recently. I'm not going to do my usual rant about who should have been voted in or who should have gotten more votes. I'm going to talk today about the players who are still active and will someday have their faces on a plaque in Cooperstown.

I'll start with the pitchers first. There are a few absolute mortal locks currently active. First on the list is Roger Clemens, who is quite possibly the greatest pitcher of all time. It's really a close race between him and Walter Johnson for that honor. He is a seven time Cy Young award winner, a two time winner of the pitching triple crown (leading the league in K's, wins and ERA) and will end his career with over 350 victories. He is the living and breathing embodiment of what the Hall of Fame was initially set up to recognize. The absolute best of the best. Almost everything that I said about Roger can be said about Randy Johnson as well. He is third all time in strikeouts, has won 5 Cy Young awards (it should have been 6, but that one went to Roger instead), and if his back holds up, he will win 300 games before he retires. He is, without a doubt, among the greatest ever to toe the rubber. The other mortal lock is Greg Maddux. He has 339 career wins and counting, 4 Cy Young awards and the misfortune of pitching in the same era as Roger Clemens. If the Rocket were not around, it would be Maddux who would be in the consideration as the greatest post WWII pitcher. As it is, he'll have to settle for second or third best, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Tom Glavine will win his 300th game this year and while he hasn't been as dominating during his career as Randy and Roger, he has been almost as effective. He is a two time Cy Young award winner and has led his league in wins 5 times. He will be a first ballot hall of famer. Pedro Martinez may not have the gaudy win totals of the previous pitchers, but he put together a 6 year stretch that was as spectacular as has ever been seen in baseball. He won 3 Cy Young awards and finished 2nd or 3rd in the voting the other 3 years. He also has the highest winning percentage for any pitcher with over 200 wins. Next we have two relievers, Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman. Hoffman set the all time saves record last year and he continues to add to that record. He will pass 500 saves this year and may hold the all time record for quite some time to come. Mariano Rivera passed the 400 save mark last year and will be remembered as perhaps the greatest post-season closer of all time. In 113 post season innings, he has an 8-1 record with 34 saves and a microscopic 0.80 ERA.

Next we have a couple of pitchers who are on the fence. Mike Mussina has put together a hall of fame resume including winning 240 games and counting. However, Mussina has never won a Cy Young award and has only finished as high as 2nd place, once. He has never been on a World Series winning team and his post season record is spotty. He would almost certainly have to stick around long enough to win 300 games in order to be considered a lock for Cooperstown. Curt Schilling doesn't have as many wins as Mussina, but he has played a major part in two world series victories. His famed "bloody sock" performances in the 2004 post season have already made him a legend in New England. He has never won a Cy Young award, but he has finished 2nd three times. He lost out to Randy Johnson twice and to Pedro Martinez once. He led the league in wins and strikeouts on two occasions and was the co-mvp (with Randy Johnson) of the 2001 World Series. Schilling appears to have the stronger case currently and will certainly add to his win totals over the next couple of seasons. If I were a betting man, I would say that Schilling will do enough to get in, but Mussina will fall just short.

There are a few others who are either above 200 wins or very close who will only be visiting Cooperstown via the ticket route. David Wells has 230 wins, but has a career ERA over 4. He does have some post season successes, most notably with the Yankees, but that will not be enough to get him into the Hall. Jamie Moyer, Kenny Rogers, Andy Pettite are also doomed to be on the outside looking. Fine careers, but not really Hall of Fame material.

The most interesting of this bunch is John Smoltz. He has won a Cy Young award, has made great success in the post season and was definitely considered one of best pitchers in his league during his prime. The thing about Smoltz is that he spent 3 years during his career as a closer. This was not in the beginning of his career, but much later, after he had already established himself as a top of the rotation starter. After some arm trouble he was converted into a closer and became one of the best in baseball. He averaged almost 50 saves a year for the three years that closing was his primary job. He then switched back to being a starter and has continued to be successful in that role. He will end up with over 200 wins and 150 saves. The only other pitcher with that combination is Dennis Eckersley and he is already in the Hall of Fame. I'm just not sure that what Smoltz did in either role was enough to merit his induction. He was a great closer, but only for 3 years. He was and still is a very good starter, but he only had one year at what I would consider, elite level. It's a close call with Smoltz. I would have to vote no at this point, but considering that he probably has a few years left, I may be persuaded to change my mind by the time his career is over.

Among the younger pitchers, it would be almost impossible to predict how their careers will pan out. Barry Zito, Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay all have about the same number of wins (99-104) are about the same age (29,29,30). Halladay has had some arm injuries that have slowed him down over the years and Zito's best days seem to behind him. Oswalt still seems to be pitching his best, but he has already stated publicly that he doesn't want to pitch forever. Zito will be helped some by moving to the national league and he may just have a career Renaissance in San Francisco. Dontrelle willis already has 63 wins at the age of 25, so he may well turn out to be the biggest winner among this group. Johan Santana has 81 wins at the age of 28, but he also has two Cy Young awards. He has been the best pitcher in the AL for the past 3 years and may very well have a Pedro like run through his early thirties that could propel him into the Hall of Fame. That all remains to be seen though.

Well, that's all for today. The pitchers took up more time than I anticipated. I will take a look at the hitters in my next entry. Have a great weekend everybody!

Karnac Lives

I wrote this on April 13th, "If there is one more injury to a Yankee starter, Marty Miller better make sure his resume is up to date." This story was in the New York Post this afternoon, "Marty Miller, who was hired before the season to run the Yankees "player enhancement" department, was dismissed on Wednesday after Phil Hughes became the latest player to incur an injury."

Taylor Made

The future of the Yankees pitching staff came and went last night. Phillip Hughes pitched 6-1/3 innings of no-hit ball last night before leaving the game with an injury. He said that he felt something pop in his leg after snapping off a curveball on an 0-2 count to Hank Blaylock. The odds were certainly against him completing a no-hitter, but he certainly looked a lot better than he did in his first major league start. His curveball was sharp, he spotted his fastball well and his change up was very effective. It was more than enough to wet the appetite of every Yankee fan. I'm not sure that he looked like the second coming of Roger Clemens, but he was certainly doing a good impression of Mark Prior in his pre-injury days. And then his world came tumbling down as his leg buckled after his 83rd pitch of the night.

The Hughes injury means that five pitchers on the starting staff has now been on the DL this season. Three of them (Wang, Mussina and Hughes) have been hamstring related injuries. Jeff Karsten's has a broken leg and Carl Pavano has some mystery injury that has prevented him from pitching even though the Yankees can't find anything structurally wrong with his arm. Kei Igawa and Andy Pettite have been the only starters to avoid the injury bug so far but Igawas has been extremely inconsistent. He has thrown well in two appearances and has been pretty awful in a couple of others. In fact he had lost his place in the starting rotation until injuries forced him back in. He pitched well against the Red Sox on Saturday, but it remains to be seen whether he can have two good performances in a row. Pettitie has looked very good with the exception of his last start.

A couple of weeks ago I said that the Yankees new strength and conditioning coach should get his resume ready if there was another major injury. Hopefully he took my advice and has started lining up other jobs. The questions about the Yankees conditioning are starting to get a little more pointed at this point and given the Yankees poor start and mounting injuries, I'm expecting the Boss to make an example of somebody very soon. He has already given the dreaded "vote of confidence" to both Torre and Cashman, so apparently they are safe for the time being. You know I almost miss the days of the old boss when he would fly off the handle and fire a manager after the first month of the season. I'm sure if Billy Martin were still alive he'd be getting ready for his 10th term as Yankees manager.

I know that I had less than high hopes for Phillip Hughes, but after seeing last night's performance, I couldn't help but get caught up in the moment. It was really exciting to see someone with that kind of advance billing actually living up to it. I'm sure somewhere Brien Taylor was kicking himself. I wish I could have been there to kick him as well. In case you don't know, Taylor was a the #1 pick of the entire draft in 1991. He signed right out of high school and was supposed to be the second coming of Doc Gooden. The Yankees were not a good team in those days and Taylor was supposed to be the cornerstone of the next Yankees dynasty. It never happened. He ended up hurting his pitching shoulder in a bar fight and never made it past double A. He is one of only two overall #1 picks who never made it to the majors. Taylor stands as the poster boy for all that can go wrong with can't-miss prospects. I've been suspect of Yankee pitching phenoms since then. Right after Doc Gooden became a star for the Mets at 19, the Yankees rushed Jose Rijo to the majors in hopes of duplicating that success. Jose was not very good at 19 and in fact would not be a major contributor to a pitching staff until he was 23. But by that point he was long gone from the Yankees. I won't go through the list of disappointing pitching prospects again, but it is long and undistinguished.

Watching Phillip Hughes pitch last night had started to wash away all those bad memories from the past. I was starting to believe that the Yankees had indeed found the "next big thing" in baseball. I was starting to believe that he could develop into the foundation of the pitching staff for the next ten years. And then he got hurt. He will be back in NY for an MRI on Friday and until then they are saying that it's only a hamstring problem and that he should be back in 4-6 weeks. We shall see. I'm hate to be pessimistic but I've seen this all before and it never ends well. I guess I could be wrong this time. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that Hughes can make it back and be just as good as he was last night. However, If he does turn out to be just another failed Yankee pitching prospect, he can at least be somewhat comforted by the fact that he'll have lots of company.