It shouldn't be a surprise when you lose four games in the standings (by three total runs) because you're starting Doug Mfvhidkjvhf. Just disgusting work by the general manager. And worse: The pain will continue for at least another month or three.

I'm going to be driven slowly insane - sorta like a kick scooter on the 714 mile journey to Bellevue.

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Another baddie was the walk to Youk just before Papi's dinger (which wasn't all that impressive but it did wrap around the pole-Fenway Dinger's count the same). Joe looked a bit miffed when he did his between inning interview. Holding back a little ire, he said that the infield was playing back, inferring that the pitcher had to let the batter put the ball in play.

And where does Jim Dean live that is a 714 mile journey to Bellvue? Must be an institution closer to home. Vermont State Hospital isn't rated too highly and may not be hospitable to Yankee fans, but it is in a lovely location, much nicer than midtown Manhattan.

Too early to panic.

There's only so far one can go in blaming Torre for the Game 1 loss, though. He brought Mariano Rivera into the game in a difficult situation, Rivera didn't pitch well, and that's the end of the story.

In terms of Stink, and being able to "afford" to carry a truly terrible hitter... Do you think that Matsui, Posada, Damon, Wang, Moose and Pavs enter into the equation? How about a corner OF'er who has about the same OPS and Minky?

Of 750-800 starting players, probably about 50 really stink and 150 are below average. All 150 of those guys are on major league teams. While I wish none were on the Yankees ($185m payroll and all) it's not that insane to find that it's happened.

And the Yankees are aware of this, as we do have Phelps on the team, and Giambi CAN play first in interleague and other situations.

We are:
1st in the AL in Hitting:
5th in the AL in Pitching, 1/2 of that from the BP
1st in Errors, and at or near the bottom in defense.

So looking around I, think Mink does stink, but the 'sink', or weak link, or our armour's chink, is a lot more then DougOut.

If we are are healthy the majority of the year, we will make the PS. If we continue to get dinged, we might not.

So did the Yanks finally find a specialty pitcher who can also pitch in regular relieve situations in Henn? Who knew the one would be from within the system?

I will finally be able to watch the game tonight. Excited to see how the Yanks can do against Matsuzaka.

But 5 H + 4 BB = 9 times on base.

Call it the curious case of Doug Mfhivsfdgh.

4 I'm still waiting on Cashman to make the moves you guaranteed he would.

Suffice it to say, they've already lost at least one game due solely to Doug Mfgehsfdkgj. It didn't have to be that way. You know, since 1B that can hit a little are the most abundant position players in the sport.

I'm going to be fixated on this for a little bit. Thanks.

I'm liking the Kevin Thompson time, though.

Did you catch what Schilling wrote about Rodriguez on his blog?

"Like everyone else, I knew Alex was on fire, well more than on fire but I am not sure what you'd call it. He's hotter than hot. Watching his last few games has been pretty impressive. He is just not missing ANY mistakes and in addition he's crushing some good pitches as well. I think there's a major difference between a hot hitter, and a hall of fame hot hitter. Hot hitters still have holes, the latter don't. I throw him three curve balls and get him to two strikes. I know he's not looking for that many but the pitch feels good at the time and we get to two strikes on a call and a chase, The AB ends on a deep FB to right center but at that moment he shows me how locked in he is. I threw him a pretty well located fastball down and away, and with his butt out he still centered it and drove it to deep RCF."

14 Fasano?

I thought that we had Fasano?

I agreed with McCarver's assessment in the pregame that he needs to be pitched inside. But I suspect playing many, many games in that ballpark teaches one to pitch power hitting right handed hitters away instead and pitch to the big part of the ballpark. It isn't easy for even the best power hitters to hit one out to right center in Fenway.

Also, maybe teams just need to see for themselves that Rodriguez isn't pull happy like he's been the past few years. In the past you could pitch him away and get weak grounders to middle infielders or weak fly balls to left center, or even get him to strike out. Now...not so much.

As regards Matsuzaka, you can never tell what that guy is going to do. He throws tons of breaking balls, so those naturally (barring mistakes) end up outside. I suspect they'll keep everything away from him again and hope he can't hit it out of the big part of the ballpark through the relatively cold night air.

Who can the Yanks get to replace Minky? Minky batting .260 weighs down the offense, but .130? I don't think I would mind seeing Torre fired this season, if there was somebody who would manage differently. Unfortunately, I don't think that Girardi or Mattingly are the answer.

I would hire Larry Dierker if he answered my questions right. What would you do if ...

Isn't Minky's extra outs due to double plays?

And I think we need to do a petition like they did for Womack...

Christian Garcia also went under the knife this year.

I believe that Jose Veras had bone chips removed from his elbow as well, but I am not positive of that.

I guess I'll just keep drinking the Torre Kool Aid, or just keep drinking the same 420 tea that Torre drinks.

As I have said, this team could/should win 90-95 games WITHOUT a manager...

I personally have tremendous faith in Cashman, and this last off-season, while we still have some holes, he avoided many money pits, made our team younger, and cut the payroll. Cashman fought HARD to keep Torre here. Torre was 90% out the door, and Cashman 'dragged' him back in.

BP management, green tea and warts considered, if Cashman wants Torre managing, then so do I. Why?

Every day we meet here to discuss the battle, and grieve over every battle lost.
Cashman and Torre however, know we are fighting a 162 game war. And they have fought and won before.

I have a community question, and maybe Cliff and Alex have some insight:

Does Torre work in a vacuum?
Does Cashman and the FO have any input into the daily decision making?
Are there meetings with the FO and/or coaches where decisions are made?
If so (Torre in a vacuum), I'd be very, very surprised.

I know Torre steers the boat, but I would think that there are other factors that effect the everyday decisions he makes?

Anybody have some real knowledge about this?

See, my problems started and ended with Cashman. He's had ten years to get to know his manager and he still makes dumb, dumb decisions.

Torre is doing nothing different than he's always done. If given a choice he always chooses the vet first. The GM planned for this at 4th OF. But is it really so hard to generalize to 1B?

At the same time, Cashman is guilty as charged for not, as I like to call it, 'Torre-proofing' his roster. Cashman is in a tough spot with Torre, becuase he probably fears firing him (the Tea Bag Man is awfully popular, and even seems impervious to the Boss' increasingly infrequent ranting). But if that's the case, he needs to build a roster that either plays to Torre's strengths, or limits (or eliminates) his weaknesses. Easier said than done, but I guess that's why he gets the big bucks

Some problems were probably not realistically solveable. For example, I suspect that there was no real BUC option once Zaun chose to start for Toronto. OK, I'll give Cashman a pass on that one. But the current 1B situation is unforgiveable. All Cashman had to do was NOT sign Minky, and Torre would have been forced to deal with Phelps/Giambi/(maybe Phillips). Instead, Cashman decided to let a child play with a box of matches, and we get to watch as Torre burns at least 150 PAs on Stinky-Minky before the (hopeful) DFA.

Cairo was also an extremely uninspired choice - one we haven't had to suffer through - yet. But we did suffer through 250 AB's of his last year and already one of him in LF. If he becomes a full-time player because of injury, my head will explode.

Someone asked me if he was a good pitcher. I said he pitched well for the Yanks, but had a tendency to walk too many.

Sure enough, he struck out the dangerous Josh Hamilton (AKA "Hobbs")...then walked Adam Dunn.

http://tinyurl.com/298j8u

Moreover, as you have pointed again and again, the need for a legit BUC or, preferrably, successor increases with each year Jorge is on the wrong side of 30.

I am willing to give Cashman a partial pass, however, operating on the assumption that he has only been in total power for the last two off-seasons.

39 They put him on the big club as soon as they got him last year. He's decent enough.

He doesn't get caught stealing often. I think he was 7 for 7 last year. He knows he's slow, and doesn't go unless he's sure he can make it.

And the Reds announced the Ken Griffey Jr. has diverticulitis. I'm not sure what that is, but it doesn't sound good.

The scary thing-A-Rod is on pace for 180 HRs (or whatever), and his stats combined with Minky's are actually not THAT impressive (1070 OPS = o