no.

I desperately want to say, "yes," but just can't go there.

Yes, but not against the Angels.

He did last time. Barely.

If we can get innings 3-6 Brown and avoid innings 1-2 Brown, we'll be ok.

Another good question is which Lackey we get. Bad Lackey, or 2002 WS Game 7 Lackey.

It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are the same man.

Sure he can. Will he? As much as I want to say yes, I don't feel too optimistic.

Uh oh. MLB.com lineup has Womack batting 2nd, and Bubba batting 9th.

I posted this in a previous thread, but did anyone else see this:

//Torre even floated the idea of keeping 13 pitchers on the roster, though that scenario is unlikely.

"We have to figure it out," Torre said. "If the concern is that we don't want to lose anybody, we may go with 13." //

He's referring to when Sturtze comes back, since none of the relievers have options.

Here's the link:

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20050426&content_id=1029507&vkey=news_nyy&fext=.jsp&c_id=nyy

Brown just made it out of the 1st without giving up a run. Incredible. There is hope.

Again I ask, is everyone pitching around Jeter? Is he spoiling any good pitches?

Also, will Torre put a real hitter in the 2-spot to capitalize?

Why don't you pinch hit Phillips for Tino with the lefty Woods coming in? Oh, because you want a double play grounder, that's why. Ok, so it wasn't a DP, but still, Torre brings Bernie in for Crosby, why not Phillips?

This is shaping up to be a long, long season. Lord, grant me the patience to survive Joe Torre's brainless managing and the tweedle-dee tweedle-dum pair of coaches who "anchor" his staff. Since I'm an optimist, I want to believe that the Yankees' talent will out and, despite the shaky hands on the wheel, we'll squeek out a playoff berth. But, the game to game mindlessness is just excruciating. The theme for this series is obviously Torre had already capitulated to the vaunted Angels bullpen when they slinked into town. He wanted to score first and often and close the bullpen out. Ha! Terrible and wholly unnecessary base-running gambles in the first innings Wednesday and tonight sabotaged the best way to beat the Angels: their starting pitching is from hunger. Both Washburn and Lackey should have been punctured for early runs but Torre the master strategist made them look like Bruce Chen. I can't believe Torre has regressed so totally to the clueless manager he undeniably was pre-1996. And, with 2 more years on his deal and the media in his pocket, Torre won't be getting his richly deserved hook anytime soon. Oh, well, maybe we won't need 95 wins for the wild card.

I'm with JohnnyC. This is going to be a very, very, long, long season, folks. It helps that Boston is limping literally. Finally, Brown has a solid outing and the offense struggled. Argh.

I think Brown will be fine. I also think the offense will survive the dopey "coaching" on the basepaths and even Joe Torre. The pitching should be good enough, though why was Gordon in there again? In ST Torre mentioned that he overworked Flash last year, but he seems to have forgotten that since the season started. This team can still win 100 games.

Damn. Watched the entire game and had that ominous sinking feeling from the moment Jeter got picked off first until the final out. If we keep losing 2 of 3, it's going to get late early around here. Sorry, Yogi.

Maybe this season will teach the Yankee brass that you need to build a team and not buy it...

Mike, with the exception of the early-mid nineties, the Yankees have never built a team under George Steinbrenner. Those years, which resulted in four titles, were an anomoly in the Steinbrenner Era. With him getting older, I don't see why he'd change his stripes now. Plus, he was able to "buy" two championships, plus 4 World Series appearances, and five playoff appearances from 76-81.

I don't disagree with your desires, but "buying" championships has worked for him. I think it's highly unlikely that things will change.

Marcus, you don't pinch hit Phillips in that spot because it's only the 6th inning. Tino/Phillips would have to come up at least once more in the game, and against one of their tough righties, as Woods would be long gone by then. As it turned out, Tino faced Shields in the 8th, and that's the match-up you want. I fault Torre often, but that was the right move.