Last night saw a rare appearance by Billy Traber.

The totals since June 17 (when Wang went on the DL):

25 Days, 23 Team Games (tG)

Traber: 5 G, 4.00 INN, .17 INN/tG

Hawkins: 5 G, 7.67 INN, .33 INN/tG

Moeller: 5 G, 2 PA, .09 PA/tG

Has anyone looked at Toronto's lineup? Player for player compared to the Yankees they're just awful this weekend (especially without Rios and Wells). Yet, they managed to get runs last night, and I expect they'll score 6 today.

In fact, I bet if we gave them Rasner (and we took Litsch), Darrell would shut our team down with 1 run over 7 innings.

I swear there's no team in baseball that has a perfect lineup. Surely Jeter, Arod, Posada, Abreu and Cano (now that he's hitting) ought to be enough to carry this team until Matsui and/or Damon get back, no?

I'm still frustrated with this team.

Some very curious line up choices (disturbing frequency of Melky/Gardner leading off, refusal to PH for Molina, and my favorite: the concession all RH lineup[*]) have made the situation a little worse because the bad hitters are getting even more ABs than necessary.

[*] This is my major concern with the team taking a flyer on Sexson, who might end up being a good platoon player. Girardi will play Sexson at 1B v. LHP, move Posada to DH, and bench Giambi. Meanwhile, what are Giambi's splits this season:

v. RHP .263/.390/.526/.916
v. LHP .232/.388/.524/.913

Now, the Yankees do have pitching depth and a few guys that are close to being ML ready, which can be turned in hitters. Mike Ashmore had an interesting interview with Mark Newman and Newman said that the Yankees are kind of forced to draft pitchers. Pitchers are a little easier to project than young hitters and most of the can't-miss hitters are long gone by the time the Yankees draft. Thus they have to get lucky with hitters in the later rounds or international signees.

Unfortunately, the Cashman can't just punt like Beane or Shapiro because of, frankly, silly expectations. But he can't throw caution to the wind and be a buyer because he needs what few kids in the minors that he has.

It doesn't look very good offensively next year either. Matsui, Posada, JEter, and Damon another year older and question marks in RF and CF, but with a heckuva bullpen and possibly very good/outstanding starting pitching (CC, Wang, Joba).

1. As much as I hate watching the Yankees lose, watching Halladay pitch is a privilege. Its not just that he has great stuff, its that he just relentlessly pounds the zone with it. I honestly think he might be the best pitcher in baseball. If he was on a team in a bigger market (and that was better) he'd be a G-d.

2. I'm beginning to think the problem with this offense is the non-stars and their OBP woes. Its true that during the championship run not every player was a star, but most if not all could walk and had OBP of .350 or higher. Right now, Melky, Cano, Gardner, Molina all have OBPs either just above .300 or well below. You just cannot win with that many players in your lineup not getting on base. Its way too many outs. Its true that we've been a bit below average with RISP but we just don't have that many opportunities. Those great teams were built on OBP, much more so than slugging. In our current lineup we have three players OBP over .350. Three! Giambi, A-Rod and Posada. Jeter and Abreu are right below. I did a quick glance at team EQA and we're something like 16th, below such offensive powerhouses as the Rockies, the Orioles and the Marlins. Hell, we're two above Toronto! Boston by comparison is third and Tampa is sixth. This is not a team going somewhere.