"It would take ten THOUSAND bowls..."

Now, Giambi has to get going, even if we have to endure Sterling's "The Gee-om-bee-no!"

Cairo over Phillips? Weird deal.

-Our starters have indeed looked very good against a couple of playoff caliber teams, even if they're not dominant offenses.
-The hitting has been mostly there. Cano has been ripping the ball. Damon with good at-bats, etc.
-3 straight against KC, in a raucous Yankee Stadium.
-Cairo showed early that he's not up to the task, so hopefully Phillips gets in there soon. (Is Pena still out there?)

I'm not worried too much about the Sox just yet. It's early. We started on the west coast against 2 good teams, they started in bandbox parks against 2 awful teams. We all expect Bekcett to be a good pitcher, when he's healthy- if he keeps up what he did in one start for 200 innings, then they're a team to be reckoned with.

nycfan, I'm not worried about the Red Sox a bit. Talk to me in July if their pitching is still holding up (see Knuckle's reply 7).

As for their offense being "exactly as they hoped," I actually see much of their offense looking exactly as they hoped it wouldn't. Lowell is batting a whopping .180 with a .673 OPS, Alex Gozalez is hitting .211 with a .286 OBP, Willy Mo has struck out twice in three overall at-bats, and thier most productive hitter so far is their platoon, injury proned RF Trot Nixon.

If Lowell and Alex Gonzalez have the seasons that scouts predict, and Youkilis/Snow provide the type of average offensive production that everyone expects, the Sox will live and die based on their arms. Scilling and Beckett may look good in early April, but those fragile bodies won't be holding up come July-August-September.

anytime that the pitching can limit a team to 1-2 runs for the game in a bandbox park, you should be worried. Texas has got a very good offensive team and Baltimore has some pretty good hitters too. i don't think it's fair to shrug off good wins as only due to playing an awful team...

The Janks seem to always have a tough time on the far coast.

Still many concerns.

http://cbs4boston.com/topstories/local_story_099223722.html

CoCo Crisp has fractured his index finger and may be out 6-8 weeks.

Most opponents will now have superior total production from 1B/3B vs. the Yankees lineup of Cairo/A-Rod. As cheap as average 1Bs are on the market (Hee Sop Choi, John Olerud) why didn't the Yankees get one? Did Andy Phillips kick Torre's dog or something? You can even Posada out their if you are going to carry 3 catchers. Posada has 16 career games at 1B, Cairo has 17 games at 1B. I'd rather activate Mattingly than see Cairo out their again.

Torre sat Phillips so that Cairo could start due to his "enthusiasm" and "cheerleader" ability. I guess you can't do that on the bench.

funny stuff, I watched part of that game. And the Headline fits perfectly.

Joe apparently regards Phillips the same way we look at a fire extinguisher: we're comforted to have it around, but hoping to never use it.

Clearly, the Yankee bench brigade has holes in its buckets. Phillips will get opportunitites to prove himself.

I miss Phil Hartmann.

Speaking of Sterling, is anyone else annoyed by the fact that he continually refers to Cano as "Robbie"? I guess thats just Johnny being Johnny.

I went to the game yesterday and can't deny it was a glorious affair.

Still, this team is clearly not Torre-proof, as evidenced by Cairo's start at first over Phillips. My hopes had been spiked when I initially saw that Giambi was DH'ing, only to be dashed when I saw Cairo positioned at FIRST! Simply criminal.

And bunting in the middle of a breakout inning - when it's clear the pitcher doesn't have his best stuff - is pure idiocy. So, yeah, I supposed I'm part of the "Torre is an idiot" camp.

Given the chance of of Cairo getting on base is .318, the bunt was the most productive thing that Cairo did all day at the plate. He flied out 3 times and grounded out once.

A greater indictment of Torre is that Cairo started over Andy Phillips, rather than the bunt play.

http://tinyurl.com/ysthj

Classic.

Perhaps dropping Cairo from the 25-man roster outright would be a little heavy-handed (though I wouldn't mind; he could easily be replaced by Escalona).

But it is only 6 games in, so why not just make a little phone call? Would that be so bad? As someone pointed out above, Cash and Joe are 'buddies', right?

Yes, Lowell looks lost at the plate and yes, Gonzalez is there for his glove.

However, Crisp looks like a speedier Damon in his prime and is playing an acrobatic center field that Damon never could. Loretta is exactly as advertised, a bat control expert who sees a zillion pitches and uses the whole field. Youkilis has had a week that suggests he is just what we hoped he'd be. Trot injury prone? No more so than Pavano, Wang, Mussina, and Wright. Manny and Papi pretty much took the first week off and the team did well.

Schilling is Schilling. Beckett thrives on atmosphere. (See October 2003. We saw that pitcher last week) Papelbon is the Goods. And Foulke, who didn't pitch much in Florida, seemed to have his command on Sunday. He's now pitched three innings, three hits, no walks, one run.

Last year the Sox were 3-22 in games in which they scored two runs or fewer. This year they start 2-0.