this series will be big.

also, peter abraham is speculating that ron villone might have been DFA'd (over at LoHud).

Either that or George Constanza wants to be lead scout for the Mets.

Seriously, Britton had to have hit on his wife at the spring training party or something.

I'm an idiot. Let the mockery begin.

Actually, the Star Ledger is reporting Villone is going to the DL with a back strain...?

Duck Mike Duck!

He gave up a walkoff homer to Adam Dunn last night, and apparently sealed his own doom.

I won't be watching the game, but I heard a dire report on Miller about 3 weeks ago from Steve Stone, the former Orioles et al pitcher who used to do color for the Cubs and now has a show on sportstalk here in Chicago.

Stone -- who I find generally trustworthy, especially when it comes to pitching -- had been in Detroit and had seen Miller pitch -- I think just before he went on the dl with the hammy -- and predicted serious arm trouble for Miller.

Stone said he suspected the hammy was an early sign of trouble, and that the big issue was the extent to which Miller throws across his body.

He said he never would've advised a team to team to take a pitcher with Miller's mechanics, and that Miller would within the next year or 2 wind up on the dl with serious arm trouble, and that if he came back from it he'd have to radically change his mechanics.

I wonder if the Tigers will think twice of pitching Miller, who is recovering from a hamstring, on the wet mound?

Got my ticket for Sunday's game. Can't wait to finally see Phil the Future in person.

UPDATE, 8:39 p.m.: The rain has stopped and the grounds crew is preparing to pull the tarp. And the casino managers breathe a sigh of relief as i won't be cleaning them out until later on.

I'll let you know when they announce a start time.

25 I honestly believe someone has asked that question and got either no response or a meandering non-answer. Is there anything in Britton's makeup that would suggest that he'd be a danger to the clubhouse (like Colter Bean vs. the post-game spread)?

Cashman: "We're thinking of bringing up that Britton kid."

Torre: "Britain? I don't need no freakin' British kid, they don't even play baseball. You bring him up and he'll just sit on the bench."

Sigh.

Sir Waitsalot!

Sliced Bread misses outside, ball 1.

We now return to the red wine, and the first pitch of tonight's Yankees Tigers game.

UPDATE, 9:28 p.m.: This is odd. They pulled the tarp, cleaned up the field and now the tarp is back down.

Gotta make sure the dirt is all neat under the tarp. The severe t-storm warning has been cancelled, but there's still rain in the area. Call the game, everyone goes to bed early and play two tomorrow.

It's not like they've been reluctant to bring people up from the minors. They've even seen some of the kids have bad outings and either kept them around, or sent them down and brought them back up later. Clearly it's something about Britton in particular, because they've really gone the extra mile to avoid bringing him up.

Some will attribute this to the complete ignorance and stupidity of Yankee management. I find that hard to buy. They see the stats, same as we do; they get reports from the SWB coaches, and probably Nardi Contreras as well; they've seen him in the majors as well as the minors. I really find it difficult to believe that they simply ignore all that information and randomly decide to bring up everyone else in the system instead of Britton.

I have to believe that, in all those brains - Cashman, Torre, Guidry, Dave Eiland, Dave Miley, Contreras - there are enough combined brain cells, and enough baseball awareness, so that somebody would have said: "Hey, how about this Britton kid?"

So while I have no idea what the reason is, I believe there is one.

So what the hell is the reason?

While you're thinking that one over. What was the reason behind calling up Ron Villone in the first place?

1. Not a schmuck

2. Can pitch

So I'd turn the question around; what do you think is the reason? Do you really think that it's because the Yankees somehow don't know the things we do, or are so stupid that they don't care - essentially, that they ignore all relevant information when making a decision?

But now it's at the point where they've pushed a prized prospect from the rotation into the bullpen, where they've used Brower and Karstens and now Bruney before Britton. Now it's not just a matter of setting the wrong priorities; it either makes sense in light of info we don't have access to, or they actually know nothing at all about baseball. The latter doesn't make sense to me, so I'll have to believe the former.

I suspect that someday we'll learn the reason.

55 How's Procter been doing? You been keeping track? He's still a likeable guy, I hope he does OK.

I thought they had a real find in Bruney last season, but he doesn't seem to have what it takes, so give Britton a freaking shot.

Sadly, I think the answer is probably something like Torre and Cashman compromised on the bullpen. Maybe Torre told Cash he wasn't comfortable with so many youngins,