Yankees release David Adams so they can continue their mating dance with 1965

Let's assume the Yankees - aka the Retrieval Empire - knows what they are doing. Let's give MGMT benefit of the doubt... old fashioned Yankee ingenuity. They watch the players close-up, while we Klingons of the outer Yankiverse sit in our internet pods, shoveling ether. They are "baseball men." They are the "unnamed scouts" of news stories. They would spit on fan bloggers, as they should. What do we know? They watch baseball games for a living. They can recite the infield fly rule backwards. These are the pros, the masters, keepers of the radar gun, chewers of tobacco, comedians of the back-nine, busters of waistlines, wearers of patent leather shoes, experienced drivers of the road who on a good day can blow a .20 by noon.  They are on it.

Idiots. 

That's what they look like from here.

Yesterday, the Yankees released David Adams, the 25-year-old infielder whose mistake in life was getting hurt when the team tried to deal him years ago to Seattle for Cliff Lee. He missed about 18 months of development, but last year emerged as one of the hopes of the - (albeit, beleagured) - farm system, when he rose through the ranks and hit .300 at Double A. He was one of a handful of Yankee prospects sent to the Arizona Instructional League, where he played 2B and 3B and hit well. Several prospect-rating blogs (which, yes, we must take with a grain of salt) put Adams in their Yankee Top 10 lists, and he would have been by far one of the most interesting prospects this year at Scranton - especially considering Cano in his walk year and Arod in his Hiroshima A-bomb mode.

They cut Adams to make space for Andruw Wells. Vernon Wells, I meant. Vernon. The latest addition to a team already being referred to as The Walking Dead.

Let's do a mental exercise. Close your eyes and try to imagine Yankee Stadium in August, the team 10 games under .500... 15,000 people in the seats (most paying StubHub prices; MGMT caved yesterday on that policy too)... and here comes Andruw Wells - VERNON, DAMMIT, I MEAN - batting .232. John and Suzyn are selling Little Debbie. The YES crew is talking about how he's had some "good swings" lately, and that's usually a sign that a player is about to break out of his slump.  Now, add this: Somewhere in Oakland or Washington, where the team managements know what they are doing, David Adams is making a name as a gritty utility infielder with a solid bat. (And while we're at it, let's have Jesus Montero leading the league in hitting.) Close your eyes and imagine the sounds. No, my friends, they are not yelling YOUK.

OK, let's give old Stump and the others benefit of the doubt. We're not there. Maybe David Adams is hurt again.  (He missed much of spring training with a bad back.) Maybe it's a career-killer. Maybe he doesn't have it. Or maybe he'll be snapped up by somebody. All we can do is watch. And never forget. No, my friends. That's something we seem to do better than the Yankee baseball men. They're quite happy to forget. We won't.