On the Yankees beat

OK, what are we going to do with Mussina? He's clearly on the downside of his career and his velocity is well down. Is it possible he loses his spot when the rotation has Clemens and Hughes coming back and if Clippard pitches well? Looks like this might not have been a great move bringing him back. I still have faith he can turn this around, however.

Mussina is a whiny person there will be 100 excuses after this game if he loses

I hate Mike Mussina. He is a gutless, heartless mediocre pitcher who accepts losing as if it were his destiny. I wonder what excuse he will use tonight? Perhaps he was forced to
wait 3 minutes longer for a cab to the stadium? Maybe his dog took a long time to pee and threw his schedule off?
I hope you read this blog Mike, maybe you will get mad, grow a pair of b*lls and actually try to win a game.

I'm glad I got that off my chest.

I don't wanna hear anyone complaining about Moose on here. Back in the off-season when I was saying don't sign this guy back it will be a mistake all I heard were arguements back at me how great he is and how he is a great inning eater etc. Like I said all winter he cannot hold a lead,he is a loser and we have not won anything ever since we signed him. I wish we can resurface those old blog postings to see how many of you changed your mind now. How does that contract look to the Moose fans now?

He's settled down a bit so now the bats have to help him out and get some runs across.
I just don't understand why we make Tavaras look like a great pitcher? The Yanks should be killing this guy!

You can look back all you want and you will find that I (along w/ Chip if I recall correctly) have not been a fan at all of Mike Mussina- not at all.

OKAY LET'S GO NOW!!!!!!

He swung at a bad pitch.

I'm saying is this guy freakin drysdale?? two ground outs??

AJ & Jim A

during the off season it was absolute blasphemy to utter a single negative word around here regarding cashman, so the mussina signing went quietly.
however, i said then and say it now, cashman has made one terrible move after the other, especially vis-a-vis pitchers. his record can get 7 GM's fired already.
he has zero ability to evaluate talent, as our 46 million single A pitcher can attest to.
Jim really hit the nail on the head with mussina. it's his excuses that make him so repulsive. during his last start, as he was getting hit hard, i knew he would attribute it to too many days off. come on.
fact is he is this year's randy johnson - over the heal, injury prone, diminished stuff. era 5+, and i doubt he can get it substantially lower.
so obvoiously teflon cashman gives him two years, 23 million.

i don't know where y'all stand, but honestly i feel much better before a game we send clippard / hughes out there than him.

Bottom of the 6th Yanks behind 4-2 .

When you expect a great start from Mussina and a you get this you have to wonder.He could very well be on the depth chart behind Clippard Hughes and DeSalvo.

GIL

I absolutely agree w/ you.
I thought you might have disappeared ,glad to hear from you.

Ruse,

good to be back.
i would like to get all of your opinions regarding our outfield.
it seems our 3 OF's have been reduced to single hitters at best and have a total of 7 HR's combined.
i don't think a contender can afford such pathetic production from the OF.
abreu's power is gone forever, that's a fact. matsui has been awful so far, not only his meager production but his inclination to roll over pitches and ground out to 2nd, creating many DP's.

having said that, i don't see how we upgrade those positions. ideas?

Yikes!

Gil,
I'd have a lot more respect for him if he just said "I was terrible. I got my butt kicked". Instead, it's always someone else's fault. If I remember right, one of Chip's pet peeves with him is that he comes unglued when someone makes an error behind him instead of bearing down (ala Pettitte) and trying to make the error meaningless.

I will say this, in Cashman's defense, there was absolutely no pitching available in the offseason but he should be faulted for thinking that Mussina was anywhere close to a number 3 starter, Pavano would stay healthy and Igawa would be at all serviceable.

you bench them plain and simple MAtsui is tradable to a team trying to contend . trade Bobby he is in a option year trade him and bring up your youth if they do well then cool if not you have a large FA class next year. I'm convinced that our youth is called now will do ok.

Fire Joe Torre !!!!

In games he need to remove pitchers he keeps this man in!!!

Fire Cashman and rehire Gene Michael I know the Boss and Him had beef but so what he laid the ground work for the yankee success. Brian Cashman just made it bad for Future GM's he cried about Power he got it and screwed up.

I can't remember the last time Abreu got a needed HR or a bases clearing double .Can you?
I don't know ???

1st base is as much of an issue as 3 left hand hitting OF.

The Yanks will make needed trades but I don't know what's up their sleeve.

Meche looks pretty good from my vantage point.
Mussina reminds me of when David Cone lost it in 2000 going 4-14.

This has been a fun season, hasn't it?! (sarcasm, if you didn't smell it)

I think Cashman made a mistake and should have signed Mussina to 6 years at the beginning of last year. Instead he went through all these histrionics about waiting till the end of the year so they could make this "Educated decision". Well duhhh I could have told you Mussina was an over rated commodity last year and the year before. BUT the genius had to put the Cashman Stamp on this deal. Another untradable contract to an aging under-performing player. Anyone see a pattern here?

When does it ever end?

I think Mr. Cashman needs to refund the money I spent to watch my beloved Yankees on Extra Innings. I'm getting an ulcer from watching.

Ruse,

Koufax looks good too but be realistic. Garbage out, Garbage In!

Trade Mussina to the NL were they don't know him as well.Bag of balls anyone ?
Why did Torre stick w/ him ?

Ruse,

National League doesnt have stupid GM's names Cashman. Sorry try another approach.

Ruse,

Your buddy Chip stated that once Moose and Wang got healthy the pitching staff was set for the big resurgence. Maybe you need to talk to Chip and find out what drugs he is taking.

Im sure he would respond with a plethora of players names that are irrelevant to his incorrect assessment, but at least that would be entertaining.

You have any mafia friends ?

Rehire the hamstring yanker from Florida and let him work on Mussina. Mussina can spend the season on the DL and he will have someone to blame, everyone is happy!

See, Jim has an idea that makes sense as well as a sense of humor. Go Jim!

I don't recall Chip ever being big on Mussina.Chip was the 1st to point out if Mussina threw batting practice fastballs this might turn into a long season.

Ruse,
You are probably right, Chip has a "thing" about Mussina, he can't stand him and never could. He's made that clear.

There are just too many holes in the Yankee rotation to fix with moves that make any sense. I don't want to see them give up the farm for some "superstar", I'd rather gut this out, wait out some contracts and plan for the future, but that won't happen while the Yanks are spending almost $200M, Cashman will probably convince George that they need one more player to get it straight, when in fact they need about 7 players.

I do recall Chip infamous statement after Wang and Moose came off the DL that now that the starting staff was healthy they were set to roll. Again another example of Chips bad advice and judgement. I can predict what his response will be. Its the same for everythime his wrong advise is challanged.

He will throw out a bunch of irrelevant player names to confuse the accuser. It will take 2 hours to even research the names he throws out and respond and by that time he will be sleeping.

But bloggers who dont know Chips BS will think he has a vast knowledge of baseball when he is really a 20 year old kid with nothing better to do than try to impress innocent fans with his alleged knowledge.

Chip hates it when you repeat his BS predictions when they fail miserably.

Boy, we made a below average pitcher look like Cy Young..........

Oh and as a fast reminder, Chip stated definitively that this team has no holes. Cashaman has addressed them all.

Well kids, the brilliant Joe Torre re-shuffled the lineup today and guess what?

3 hits in 8 innings.

The guy's got to go.

Doug,

This is basically a team of 3. Once you get beyong Jeter Posada and A-Rod, there are no threats in this lineup. When is the last time that the Yankees won and it wasnt because of one of those 3? Look at Boston and the Mets. They have 8 guys in the lineup every night that can win the game for them. Not the Yankees. If one of those 3 dont get it done, then the others just wither along with them.

JIM A.

Something like
1)RF
2)Catcher
3)utility infielder
4)1st base
5)A good veteran starter
6)GM
7)Manager

NUDGE

Get off the Chip rant.OK.
It get's old after about the 30th time.

So does Chip, that doesnt stop him from asserting himself as the expert with no expertise. I thought you were his biggest fan.

Odds on Abreu coming through in the clutch here? Slim

I miss Chip, his nonsensical posts about nothing. His list of players names that mean nothing. I need a little laugh now and then. I guess his mother has taken his computer priviledges away for now so he cant pose like he is in the know anymore.

Torre really needs to get Abreu the hell out of the lineup. He is contributing nothing to do this team anymore. It is so frustrating to keep looking at the lineup and seeing his name when we can watch Cabrera, at the very least, try to provide some energy into the lineup. How much longer do we have to keep complaining about him until he is off the field?

Disgusting.

I'll give Boston some credit. Important hits when it mattered etc...Obvious blah!!!

The point is we went back to sleep again!! And worse than that Mussina is simply being asked to perform (for him in his current state...MIRACLES) THE DUDE IS OLD IT'S NOT FAIR FOR HIM TO BE HERE ANYMORE!!!

85mph?

I used to throw 80!!! HAH whatever...bad joke point remains however and Chip and I, well-CHIP...had more factual evidence to support basically the same claim which I believe we share and have for longer than just this year. MUSSINA Godbless the man IS SIMPLY UNABLE TO PLAY IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE.

Come on people lets call a spade a-old hasbeen...Truth be told at best NL BOUND 4th Starter on the Washington Nationals. I used to really like him I did. That was when I was 16 but I did A LOT!!!

Pack leader..."Allow Me"

When Mussina throws that slow sub 90s-to sub high 80s?

His other nibbly clever stuff suffers to the point of being a "near batting practice experience..."

I hate to share such pessimism with all of you who I consider friends and share such a unique and important commraderie But this is not good...Take Mussina off the team today and we're still in deep DOO DOO DOODIE....

Just one day after the team showed signs of life?-They relapse like a couple of toothless methampetamine addicts congregating at their favorite 7-11 dumpster.

No fire...That freddy krueger dude had us chasing garbage and popping everything up give his unfortunate lack of good looks credit. We couldn't hit him.

...Now rather than go absolutely insane with frustration and rage I'll stop before I touch on "ABREYOU!!!!!!!""

I hope everybody survives this awful season. I've wish I could've joined last year though. I can only imagine how much more fun we'd be having without all this up and and down bull$hit.

Good night all...

Cas

When are you trading manny again?

I take it back... Ron Villone is here to save our season. That serves us well, throwing Henn in Triple A and calling up Villone... But we would lose him... so what?!

Honestly,

This reminds me of the days of these lineups:

1B) Donnie Baseball (My childhood hero)
2B) Steve Sax
SS) Bobby "deep in the whole, he's gonna have to throw overhand, its in the fifth row" Meacham
3B) Mike Pagliarulo
C) Rick Cerrone
DH) Bye Bye Balboni
LF) Claudell Washington
CF) Roberto "Bobby" Kelly
RF) Jesse Barfield

Watching this Yankee team reminded me of the days before I became spoiled with perennial division winners.

Just an all star listing of cut and pastes from previous Chip pronouncements of his foolishness. For your entertainment!

1)Nudge,

Quit acting like a sanctimonious jack-a$$.

Abreu is what he is - a player who is going to hit around .300 with a .400 OBP, not hit a ton of HR's but instead hit doubles, steal some bases and does not want to be thought of as "The Man." He does not like crashing into walls, I wouldn't either if I were teammates with Aaron Rowand last year and saw what happened to him in Philly. Witnessing that up close would make anyone gun shy.

Someone has to make the last out of a game, last night was Abreu's turn

2)The rotation is looking better (and may get better still with the debut of Clemens in a month and the possible return of Hughes should the organization opt to send him back to the majors)

3) Abreu bats 3rd instead of Giambi because Giambi can't run, at all, so when Abreu gets on base (which he does at about a .400 clip - down this year to match the slump he's in right now) and Alex hits a double in the gap Abreu can score rather than having cement footed Giambi either a) wind up at 3rd or b) worse, not get farther than 2nd.

4) Sheffield for Whalen, Clagget and Sanchez - Obviously we won't know anything until Sanchez comes back but even so - he got back three live arms for another bad attitude guy coming off a major injury that teams knew he had no choice but to move.

Other good trades:
Ventura for Proctor/Crosby
Westbrook and Ledee for Justice
Justice for Ventura
Claussen for Boone
Irabu for Westbrook, Lilly, Christian Parker
Some guy named A-Rod for Soriano

Some Bad Trades:
Lowell for Ed Yarnell
Lilly for Weaver
Johnson, Rivera for Vazquez

5) Jeff,

The problem with batting Giambi ahead of Alex (in my opinion) is that Giambi is so painfully slow he would clog up the bases for the faster Rodriguez behind him. That would negate Alex's speed and his gap power. Right now, if Abreu gets on ahead of Rodriguez and Alex hits a ball in the gap, Abreu can score from first, no way Jason can - in fact more likely is that he would hold up at 2nd and turn probable doubles into long singles.

I say, the pitching might be starting to settle down - leave the lineup alone and let guys in slumps start working out of them.

6) Walt Jockety, Theo, Beane, Sabean, are a few that come to mind

Jockety - Traded Haren for Mulder, Drew for Marquis, couldn't keep or rebuild his WS pitching staff

Beane - Ethier for Milton Bradly, traded for Kendall, got nothing for Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, Giambi, Damon, Tejada, Dye, overpaid Chavez, overpaid Loiaza...

Theo - Bard and Meredith for Mirabelli, Matsuzaka, Clement, JD Drew, Coco Crisp, Edgar Renteria

7) I think if Bonds is one hr away from the record the team will sit him on the road - they want him to break that thing in San Fran where they know he will be cheered and not on the road where fans will boo him and throw out steroid chants.

8) AJ:

I think the most important moves were already made. The Yankees opened the season with a rotation of Pettitte, Mussina, Pavano, Igawa and Rasner and within a month he will have replaced Pavano, Igawa and Rasner with Wang, Clemens and Hughes. Also as the starting pitching has become more confident and competent the pen is getting more regular work and less abuse, which in turn is making them better.

I would not touch the lineup, there are no holes to address. Only adjustment I would make would be to tweak the bench, but even that is starting to sort itself out as Melky's bat comes around.

This was an absolute disgrace!!!
We make Tavaras look like the best pitcher in the league! Come'on here!
4 F**k**g hits!!!

Wow, Chip really understands Baseball doesnt he? He can really name those players names and fast. Maybe he should be on Jeopardy.

That was my rant above.

Chip said that the Yankees had the Red Sox starters numbers. Wrong again Chip. Does it ever end!

JohnG.

As stated if the big 3 dont do the job, nobody picks it up for them. That usually is what happens on a bad team.

Big 3 goes 2-12, rest of team 2-18

Nudge,

You're right in saying that it's the SAME 3 GUYS night-in and night-out, but I still don't think that the Yanks are a bad team. They're just playing bad baseball. They don't become a bad team in less than a year unless there's a "Florida Marlins-type fire sale".
I'm not giving up 43 games into the season. What's the point in watching and rooting for them if I were to do that? The summer would be over and it's just too damn hot where I live to have a long summer!
I'll give you the fact that Cashman has made some really bad decisions this past off season, but what's done is done. They have to find a way to make this work.

Yankees need to go:

61-57 .516 to finish .500
66-52 .559 to finish with 86 wins
68-50 .576 to finish with 88 wins(Nudge Level)
72-46 .610 to be in wild card contention
76-42 .644 to be in division contention

A tall order, Nudge.
Let's see if the Yanks like a challenge!

John,

Watch then to see the future develop. They have too many players in those decline year breakpoint age. Matsui, Giambi, Abreu, Damon and Cano in a young player funk. Thats 4 starters that may never be what was expected. What will happen if Posada takes a foul tip off his hand and is out for a week? There is no backup.

Well, I'm done for tonight. I have to go eat something and take care of the wife. She had dental surgery today and she's in pain.

Good Night all.

There is more bad potential here than good. You do have the hope that maybe some of the young pitchers pan out. I gues that between Hughes, Desalco, Clippard, and Rasner you get one that sticks. That you wont know until they each have 6 or more starts in the league. It takes that before you can really evaluate those pitchers that have successful history in the minors.

Nudge,
I'm excited about the young guys and I'll enjoy watching them develop. But I'm a bit greedy and spoiled right now. I want to squeeze one more harrah out of this group.
Yeah, if Posada goes down, we're screwed!!!!!

Good night Nudge. Chat with you from work tomorrow. :-)

Nudge,
I'm excited about the young guys and I'll enjoy watching them develop. But I'm a bit greedy and spoiled right now. I want to squeeze one more harrah out of this group.
Yeah, if Posada goes down, we're screwed!!!!!

Good night Nudge. Chat with you from work tomorrow. :-)

Both were mine.
I really need to wear my reading glasses when I do this stuff.

Jim A

Zito and a guy named Lilly were avaialble last winter. Again, BC makes the wrong choices.

How's Pavano and Igawa working out for us? Nice job Cash! And, I guess with our 3 All-Star OF's and Melky, there is just no room at all for a Bernie Williams? Another great call Cash! And that Myers guy, man is he good at getting that one LH out each game! Moey well spent for sure.

How's Pavano and Igawa working out for us? Nice job Cash! And, I guess with our 3 All-Star OF's and Melky, there is just no room at all for a Bernie Williams? Another great call Cash! And that Myers guy, man is he good at getting that one LH out each game! Money well spent for sure.