Rained Out

The Yanks-Rays game was postponed yesterday due to rain, and will be played as part of a double-header today.

Hank Steinbrenner made the news recently by proclaiming he has going to have a lot more involvement with the team and with personnel decisions and that he would have a committee of advisors to help with the decisions. One of those people would be the GM of course. Brian Cashman fired back saying that he already has a committee that includes his scouts, his GM and others. This situation sounds like a disaster waiting to happen and at this point I think Cashman is going to leave NY. Nobody wants to get caught up in a job like that where your boss, who doesn't know much of anything about baseball, starts making more and more decisions, and brings in a bunch of other people to replace you, and will ultimately still blame you if things go sour.

Phil Hughes will be called back up to NY for some reason that eludes me at this time. If the Yankees actually needed him, it was a few weeks ago, when they were still in the hunt. At this point the Yankees have nothing to gain and a bad outing and some typical NY boos have the potential to do some damage to Hughes.

Lastly, it has been reported that Bernie Williams will be on hand for some of the closing celebrations at Yankee stadium. That's good to hear. It's a shame that the relationship between Bernie and the Yankees became strained. Williams was a critical part of the team for many years and will go down in the history books as one of the Yankee greats. It's nice to see him making an appearance and getting back into the Yankee family.

Yanks Blow Lead, Win Anyway

Mike Mussina turned in another fine performance and Damaso Marte threw it away along with a little help from Mariano Rivera. Marte has just been abysmal. He had one decent outing all year for the Yankees when he struck out Ortiz in his first appearance. Ever since then he has been awful. Marte makes Farnsworth look like an ace.

Meanwhile Mariano Rivera has slowly come back down to earth after being virtually unhittable in the first half of the season. He's blown a few leads and lost a few tight games for the Yankees.  Mo is still the best closer in the game and the guy you want in there in a tight situation though.

Hank Steinbrenner spoke with the media, giving his take on the season. He basically admitted that this season is lost and blamed it on injuries. He had high expectations for next year and indicated getting a veteran starter is high on the priority list.

It's nothing all that insightful, most of the Yankee faithful have realized by now that this year's team isn't going anywhere and that the starting rotation needs help. The idea of both Hughes and Kennedy coming into the rotation at the beginning of the year turned out to be a colossal failure.

With Tampa's loss, the Yankees are 8 games out of first. Boston won in a wild one and remains 5 games ahead of the Yankees.

Hank Tells it Like it is

Hank Steinbrenner is back to being Hank Steinbrenner, giving baseball fans some noteable quotes and a little indication of what he'd like to see.

Most notably, and unsurprisingly, Hank wants Joba in the starting rotation. This is good news to many Yankee fans, who have been clamoring for him to start for a while now. This will also disappoint some misguided fans who still cling to the idea that Joba is more valuable to the team only pitching one inning in relief every two or three days.

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now. There is no question about it, you don’t have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don’t do that. You have to be an idiot to do that.”

Hank (hopefully) realizes that it's probably not best to throw Chamberlain and his injury history into the rotation too early, and that Joba needs to be brought along gradually until he is ready to pitch a full season as a starter.

“The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever. I had no say in it last year and I wouldn’t have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don’t rush him.”

“I think once Hughes and Kennedy get plenty of starts and get Joba back, and with Wang and Pettitte, we will be fine.”

It's good to see that a Steinbrenner, coming from a family not known for its patience, realizes it will take time for the two young pitchers to come along. The young boss is still disappointed that he doesn't have Johan Santana in his starting rotation, but he recognizes that Hughes and Kennedy will be productive starters in time.

Notice that he doesn't mention Mussina in that last quote. When addressing Moose, Hank said he "just needs to learn how to pitch like Jamie Moyer," and doesn't come across as being pleased with his veteran arm.

The good news is that Hank isn't ready to give up on Kennedy and Hughes, and he's not going to rush Joba into the starting lineup too soon. There is frustration building, however, and don't expect Hank and the rest of the Steinbrenner family to wait too long before doing something drastic about the current season.