Man am I glad I didn't get to see this one. Ugh.

Just back from the shore so didn't get to read posts from yesterdays debacle. Not to say I told you so but I did post the question over the winter to all those who did not want to trade IPK and Melky to get Santana how it would be if by midseason both Hughes and Kennedy were pitching in the minors. Reality then as now is that Santana was (and maybe still is) the best pitcher around and unproven talent is exactly that.....unproven. Kennedy keeps givcing up a run an inning and is headed nowhere and now has no trade value. Melky is what Melky always was.......a decent number 4 outfielder. Ceertainly not the guy to fill a position held by Dimaggio, Mantle and Williams. Hopefully, the balance of the season will pass quickly and focus can shift to next year. We'll need a whole new outfield next year and a whole new pitching staff. A shame because with a little work in the offseason we could have had Santana and Tori Hunter. Sucks for us but maybe people will stop thinking Cashman is a genius and we can move on without him.

Where are all the rants that this lost all the manager's fault? How come posters aren't claiming that Girardi pulled Giese to soon? Or claiming that he mismanaged the bullpen? Or this loss is all his fault because he didn't have a tantrum? Good to be Girardi this season.

3 You would have let Giese, the number 5 starter, go another inning? I wouldn't have, but he had only 83 pitches so maybe they squeeze another inning out of him. In any case, pulling him there was certainly a defensible call.

2 Yawn.

How many times does this tired argument have to get trotted out? The deal/no-deal for Santana was never about this season...it was about the seasons to come. Even the worst case scenario, which this year has been, does not invalidate the decision to keep Hughes/IPK.

Come back in two or three years, after we see how Santana ages, and after we learn a little more about what Hughes and Kennedy (and Joba) will turn into, and when we see how Cashman (or whoever) spends the $137 million they didn't spend on Sanatana.

4 If I read that post correctly, it's not an actual complaint about Girardi's managing. I think it's a preemptive mini-rant against - well, against a straw man, since no one's actually made those complaints yet.

6 Hmmm...you might be right. Yes, a quick scan of the game thread would have revealed that pretty much everyone was in agreement that Giese should come out. Not much Girardi can do when the entire BP melts down.

I keep seeing Abreu and A-Rod's at bat with men on 2nd and 3rd. 5-1 woulda looked much sweeter than 3-1 leading into the Angel's half. Then again, Veras may have given up 4 homers. How come Fox does such a bad job with replays? I thought Melky could have been safe at home, but they didn't show a good shot. Speaking of Melky, any word on the hitch in his giddyup?

As much as the bullpen is to blame, I think the lack of clutch hitting is the bigger culprit.

I have never seen a team with as much veteran talent struggle so often and so repeatedly with runners in scoring position. The seventh inning was a microcosm of the season. They scored one run, should have scored two, and really could have scored three, considering that the heart of the order was up. If they're up 4-1 or 5-1, the Angels might have been sunk.

Jeter made the first mistake by bunting, especially when the Yankees had a tiring Lackey on the ropes. Abreu then hits a ground ball (somewhat unluckily right at the second baseball) when a medium length fly ball probably plates an insurance run. And then A-Rod doesn't even put the ball in play against Lackey, who is still on the ropes.

It is just amazing to me how many bad at-bats we continue to see with RISP. Bad strategies, bad approaches, repeate failures to put the ball in play. I don't know if it's "contagious" or what, but I'd still like to see the Yankees do what the Twins do and work on these situations during batting practice.

One other thing. Melky was safe on that play at the plate. McCarver and Brennaman blew it by not even raising the possibility of a blown call. Guess it didn't fit into McCarver's mantra of rooting against the Yankees.

9 According to Pete Abe, Girardi told him that he ordered Jeter to bunt. If so, that mistake falls on the manager.

10 Yep...he sure looked safe on the (admittedly not great) replay that flashed by quickly, before the play was left forever.

As I posted during the game thread, it was fun to listen to McCarver torture himself trying to explain how lead off HRs don't lead to big innings as the Halos scored seven more after Vlad's blast.

8 Oh, totally! I thought he might have been safe too, but they only showed like one replay and didn't bother to examine the call at all.

Whatever.

9 Agreed.

3 This isn't the Torre era. I think that there is a fair consensus that Girardi manages the BP fairly well. Batters against LHP? Maybe not so much, but he isn't bad with pitchers.

14 Which, as someone who much prefers the pitching aspect to the hitting aspect, is good. The quality of pitching recently, though, out of the BP may very well drive me to drink. (Why the Dolphins, Pennington, WHY?)

So in addition to denile being IPK, I can confirm first hand that it is also still indeed a river in Egypt. So is it odd that I'm in Egypt, for the past week (and 1.5 weeks on), and while I'm on a cruise on the Nile I'm thinking about the Yanks and how they're probably in denile about the prospects having lost Joba, and giggling to myself how cute it is that I'm ON the nile? And then Cliff goes and headlines it!

Maybe the heat's getting to me. Who knew Egypt in the dead of August would be warm. Go Yanks!