Whoosh. That was not only the sound of Yankee bats Sunday, it was the sound of Baltimore passing them in the standings

Move along, everybody, there's nothing to see. Go on, get! There's a long way to go. It's way too early to panic. YOU THERE, STOP GAWKING! MOVE!

When Garrett Jones and Carlos Beltran play OF, the 2015 Yankees pay the price for their original sin: Wanting to screw A-Rod

In our brief, recent sight-seeing excursion to the Confederacy, the damned Yankees gave the world two spectacular OF blunders, each worthy of a season ending low-light reel.

Saturday night, Carlos Beltran pivoted around neatly to watch a fly ball land over his head and bounce against the wall - a sense of daring-do that would have made Bobby "The Wallflower" Abreu look like Minnie Minoso. Carlos merely turned, pounded his mitt, and waited patiently for the ball to return. It came during a 6-6 tie. Fortunately, the Yankees won and, thus, the play never happened. If a ball falls in the forest, nobody hears it, right?

Yesterday, Garrett Jones and Brett Gardner rendered unto us what one blog rightfully called "a little league home run." They nearly collided, both flinched, and then Gardner compounded matters by trying out for the NYCFC. Technically, it was Gardy's error. And Brett apologized to Michael Pineda. But I'd say resumes need to be considered. And here is one element of Garrett Jones' thumbnail: Wherever he plays, the guy is an absolute abomination. Last week, he nearly cost us a game playing firstbase on a bad throw to the plate. He was drummed out of the National League. He is a full-time DH - and the Yankees have three. Yep, three.

Brian Cashman last winter made a big splash by emphasizing defense. He signed Headley, traded for Didi, and has kept Rob Refsnyder on double-secret probation at Scranton - all because of defense. I have no problem with the strategy. But... well... then we watch Beltran and RF and Jones in LF - two bookends, who move like bookends.

Of course, we blame the injuries. Tweaked gonads turn every team into the old KC Keystone Cops. And Jones does hit RH pitching. Trouble is, every time he staggers under a pop fly, he reminds us of Hal Steinbrenner's 2015 original sin: He wanted to screw A-Rod and save a few bucks on milestone money.

The Yankees figured Jones would be the lefty DH, platooning with somebody. Thus, they could ship out A-Rod for a bucket of fried chicken, as they did with AJ Burnett. I don't blame Cashman for being skeptical about A-Rod's ability to come back. But the Yankees sure have launched crazier flights of fancy - Stephen Drew, a prominent one - and when Jones in the OF, they might as well be summoning the Babadook.

We are a team with three full-time DHs.

Hey, if the Redsocks shop Papi at the deadline, should we go for four?

Austin DeCarr: SURGERY. Ty Hensley: SURGERY. Domingo German: SURGERY. Ian Clarkin: NEXT?

In today's Post-Rupert Retirement Review, Joel Sherman notes the past Yankee hype about their mediocre farm system, but says the system now looks productive... according to unnamed scouts. In other words, they're still hyping, but now it's true... according to people who do not attach their names to words.

For years, I've viewed Sherman as the best Yankee beat writer in NYC. Throughout the A-Rod lynchings, he stood apart from the mob. He says of six scouts he interviewed - (he does not say if they are Yankee scouts - a big distinction, because Yankee scouts have a vested interest in praising their system) - opinions ranged markedly. The Yankees are definitely improving their development of positional players. Are they still competitive with - say - Tampa, or even Boston? That's a different question, altogether.

But there are some issues. More young pitchers are going down with elbow issues.

Sherman says Austin DeCarr, taken in the third round of last year's draft, had Tommy John surgery. He was our second pick after Jacob Lindgren, who is out with a bone spur on his elbow.

Then there Ty Hensley - aka: the Reverse Lou Gehrig - (the unluckiest man on the face of the earth.) - our first pick in 2012. After suffering a pile of injuries, he's out with TJ surgery.

Domingo German is a 22-year-old who came over from the Marlins in the Evaldi-Prado trade, and was immediately hyped as one of Cashman's secret squirrels. He's out with TJ surgery.

And now Ian Clarkin, one of our three first-rounders in the 2013 draft - one of the top pitching prospects in our system - may be headed to the surgeon, according to Sherman. He hasn't thrown a pitch this year.

This isn't the first time the Yankees have seen a TJ avalanche. A while back, they were viewed as the franchise that didn't shy away from cutting young elbows. The Yankees drafted both Andrew Brackman and Mark Melancon, despite concerns that each were headed for TJ, (which they had), and they traded for Mr. Humberto Sanchez, even though his elbow was a bit suspect. They learned their lesson - as exemplified by their decision to rest Masahiro Tanaka, rather than send him to the slicer. But now they face another wave.

Read the article. Should we actually have hope?

Banuelos is looking like the one that got away

Last winter, after Brian Cashman traded him, a few of the Yankee "prospect" blogs conveniently downsized their assessments of Manny Banuelos. He went from being a big-hope-for-a-comeback to a never-gonna-make-it. Excitement was building over the Yankees big acquisition: David Carpenter!

The fact that longtime Yankee executive Gordon Blakely had jumped to Atlanta - where he orchestrated the deal - might have raised questions. But, hey, David Carpenter!

Well, get ready to file this one in the Tyler Clippard Biz Bag.

Banuelos threw a two-hit shutout the other day for the Braves' Triple A Gwinnett Paltrows, and he's leading the International League in ERA. Of course, it don't mean squatola until he's doing it in the majors. But brace yourselves, comrades, because it's really going to hurt, if Manny - the guy we watched for most of four years - becomes a star in Atlanta. We can't hold it against Chasen Shreve - the other guy we got in the deal - but David Carpenter turned into an abomination, and trading a future starter for a middle innings LOOGY is not going to get Cashman a centerfield plaque.

Buckle your seatbelts, everyone. Because I can already feel Mt. Alphonso preparing to seethe.

Chris Young saves the night, the series, the road trip, maybe the season... and most of all, face

So shoot me. I was wrong about Chris "Forever" Young. Since April, whenever he's come to bat, I'd turn in the direction of Tampa and fart. I've had it with drain-circling ex-Mets, five years past peak foliage, who take a roster slot from a kid who shall never see the light of 100 Yankee at-bats. As a juggalo-level fan, I reserve the right to throw Faygo cola at Yankee teams that are built from the scrap heap. It is galling and insulting to watch prospects, year after year, rise up from the primordial ooze of Charleston and Trenton - the Danemora Correctional Facility of farm systems - and then get cockblocked because the front office iPad-Facebookers signed another Brennan Boesch... or... yep, a Chris "Inappropriately Named" Young.

It drives you even battier when the Boesch or the Mark Reynolds, or the Ben Francisco, or the Youk, or the Pronk, or - listen: I can go on forever - the Chris Young, fails to hit for us.

While we're on the subject of Hell... The other day, I was watching that four-Kleenex Stephen Hawking movie, where the Hawk is hooked up to the Univac dishwasher, speaking through a vaccum cleaner, and he says, "... where... there... is... life... there... is... hope..." and everybody boots it. Everybody but me. All I could think was, there is no life on a team of 39-year-olds, and where there is no life, there is no hope, nada, nope, nuthing.

And until last night, I was right.

So shoot me. You know by now that Young last night hit the game-winning, face-saving three-run homer (and Carlos Beltran - my other personal Yankee whipping mule - also deserves a foot massage for delivering a key base hit.) We were about to lose to Houston, a franchise exploding with youth - this year's KC Royals - when Young saved our sorry butts. (That wasn't even his first Yankee moment: Last year, when they picked him off the scrap heap, he went Ruthian for two nights, then tweaked a Higgs boson and went on the DL.)

Well, I was wrong about Young... but not about young players. Right now, the hope for the Yankees will not be found in the MLB discard pile or the July heat wave of salary dumps. It's down at Scranton and Trenton - the Heathcotts, Floreses, Mason Williamses, and the emerging nation known as Aaron Judge. The Severino kid last night threw seven shutout innings for Scranton. He's 21. Could CC have done that? DON'T ANSWER. 

Soon, the Yankees will do what they always do - trade prospects for this year's new old wave. Maybe we'll score a seasoned vet without giving up the future. (Jury still out on Pete O'Brien.) Or maybe we'll give away another Mark Melancon. But damn and gloriosky! - either way, take a bow, Chris Young. That was one helluva hit. Everybody, sing! ... where... there... is... life... there... is... hope...

Science made easy: Explaining the CERN Large Hadron Collider through baseball

It's hard for us to understand what's going on at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, which is about to be turned on in Europe. It might unveil the presence of worm holes to alternative universes - you know, where the Hulk goes to the Skrull planet and falls in love - or it could destroy the fabric of all universal matter, ending our existence, with the Yankees only one game out in the loss column, Suzyn.

So... what IS going on?

I've heard it said that baseball can be... a metaphor...  for life!

Consider this edited quote from a Daily Beast thumb-sucker about the Hadron collider. 

“Dark matter (Pitching) is a real problem in physics today. It’s one of the big puzzles,” CERN physicist Dave Charlton told the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation this month. “We don’t understand what 95% of the universe (league) is made of. We know from astronomical observations that there is dark matter (pitching) in the universe (league) – probably five times as much as the normal everyday matter (pitching) that we can see. So what is it? We don’t know. One very good possibility is the theory of supersymmetry, which predicts that dark matter (pitching) is due to particles (players) that we should be able produce at the LHC.”

Great moments in the 2015 Redsocks (continued)

Team says of future Cy Young Award winner Joe Kelly: "Tuck it!" 

Staggering toward July, and chasing another Wild Card, the Yankees face their annual Cashman culling of the herd

It's easy to over-exaggerate the importance of a Yankee defeat, especially when your psychic existence orbits around the health of - say - Carl Pavano's buttocks. And last night's shutout was as predictable as a sugar hangover on November 1. Watching the Evils coast through the 7th and 8th innings - flailing at first pitches like they had one of A-Rod's private girlie shows to catch - you knew the night was lost long before Central Standard Time reached beddy-bye.

So here we sit, one-and-a-half games behind tepid Tampa in the AL East (or as The Master would stress, "... only ONE in the loss column, Suzyn!") If the season ended today, we'd face our traditional playoff whipping mules - the Twins - for the Nine-Inning Bud Selig Memorial Wild Card Cup. Think: Tanaka vs. Hughes, in the Land of Lakes. The winner - us, of course - would head to Kansas City or - (gasp!) - Houston, to face Dallas Keuchel and A-Rod's after-game furry delights.

But... the season doesn't end today. It hasn't even begun. Soon, the Yankees will launch the annual Cashman Midseason Makeover, a series of bloated contract acquisitions that has become as much of the Yankee experience as the selling of $39.99 ceremonial keepsake dirt. Soon, we will the launch the annual culling of the herd - when the franchise cuts bait on an Alfonso or a Roberts, while sending a "prospect" - always one the team craftily realizes has no future - for next year's Alfonso or Brian.

Some blogs scan MLB rosters for future Yankees. That's absurd. Last year, nobody foresaw Martin Prado, Branden McCarthy and Chris Capuano. Some immaculate births just happen. Nevertheless, we can study the Yankee roster to discern who is likely to go.

So... who is a goner?

1. Stephen Drew, if anyone will take him. The occasional two-HR game cannot justify an average below .200. I don't know who the Yankees get to play 2B. But the fan base is clamoring for a change. We went from "Robbie Cano Doncha Know!" to "Stephen Drew, everybody, boo!" Somewhere out there, we can do better.

2. A prospect. I'm thinking Gary Sanchez, the Triple A catcher who will play in this year's Futures Game. In recent years, the Yankees have been trading their former Futures Games kids (De Paula, O'Brien), and Sanchez has been hanging around so long, he should be on a Trenton zoning board. He could bag us a decent mediocre veteran. So, why not?

3. Heathcott/Flores/Williams - one of the three Riders of the Rail. Of course, before anyone goes, Jacoby Ellsbury has to heal, and it's fair to start wondering how bad his knee really is. Also, Heathcott and Williams have to heal. (Is there something toxic in CF that I don't know about?)

4. Someone from the vast soldiers of the Night's Watch that the Yankees have poured onto the bullpen during the month of June. Last I looked, we'd gone through 23 pitchers this month. I can't begin to fathom which ones are running out of options. But some will surely be either traded or eaten by a dragon.

5. Hal's money. He apparently doesn't like to spend it during in the winter. (I'm thinking he gets so infused with Christmas generosity, that he lavishes it on expensive pens and bottles of perfume for loved ones.) But Hal has no problem opening his purse at the end of the fiscal school year. He would make a fine Board of Education president, if any district is looking - (thinking of you, White Plains, hint hint.)

So how are Pavano's buttocks, anyway?

Starters, Starters Everywhere, Part 2

Go Blue Crabs!

Me Put Best Starter In Bullpen Now!

“I’m not concerned with when I start throwing again. I’m concerned with trying to touch my shoulder right now."

So said Chase Whitley after watching Nova pitch last night, just a month into his recovery process. I miss Chase Whitley. And that's the first time I've ever said that about anyone or anything named Chase, since the character on "House" was kind of a jerk and my bank is the only other Chase I know (who ever misses their bank?).

The scuttlebutt sez Warren is going to be sent to the bullpen after tonight. And that's total Bizarro baseball.

You are never welcome to
Yankee baseball, from the Sunoco
booth of no broadcasting.

Here are the pitching match-ups against Houston. (Note to tourists in New York City: hew-stun is the city; how-stun is the street...and that other street isn't green-witch, either.)

Tonight
RHP Adam Warren (5-4, 3.62) vs. LHP Dallas Keuchel (8-3, 2.35)

Friday
RHP Nathan Eovaldi (6-2, 4.95) vs. RHP Vince Velasquez (0-0, 4.15)

Saturday
RHP Masahiro Tanaka (4-3, 3.17) vs. LHP Brett Oberholtzer (2-1, 2.81)

Sunday
RHP Michael Pineda (8-4, 4.25) vs. RHP Collin McHugh (8-3, 4.80)

I don't know about you, but the game I feel best about is tonight with Warren on the mound. Our starters have otherwise all caught the Yankees Bullpen Disease. You know the YBD symptoms:  every outing is a crapshoot, every pitch a potential melon ball, every member of the staff who isn't named Betances or Miller is more than likely going to let you down. True, at the beginning of the season, Warren was hardly Superman, but that's changed as dramatically as Kent in a phone booth, especially compared to the Jimmy Olsen performances our other starters have turned in recently.

Eovaldi? Feh. Tanaka? Either he's losing it or other teams have figured him out since his Metrolpolis debut. Pineda? If we could only find a way to get that foreign substance back on him where it won't be seen but can be used...

CC, of course, gets to stay in the rotation because he's making a lot of money. That's sound Bizarro baseball thinking. Capistrano was sent to the bullpen, which was also Bizarro thinking because he should be gone, period. If Girardi has any brains he'll never bring him in unless there's 15-run differential (yeah, you know he's gonna bring him in a lot more often than that; I said IF he has any brains, and we know the reality of that situation).

So given all the choices, what's going to happen? Warren will be sent to the bullpen because paychecks trump merit every time in Bizarro baseball.

Thank God Drew is back from baby leave. At least we'll have a sub-.200 hitter in the lineup tonight! That great! Lineup clogged with lousy .250-plus guys. Me bench them if me could! Maybe ask Magic Binder for permission...

Starters, starters, everywhere, and not a drop to drink

Yesterday, the Yankiverse celebrated the return of Ivan Nova with a standing O and a pile of conjecture over our towering bong bowl full of starters.

We now have seven. It is the best problem the Yankees have had since Phil Linz and Tom Tresh were duking it out for shortstop and Harry Bright - the 15th strikeout - was learning his trade.

But a pitcher - like a Yankee fan blogger - is only as good as his (or her) last outing. Right now, for everyone but Super Nova, that's not so good. So... seven starters! What do we do? Should we hold 'em? Should we fold 'em? If so, who? And for what? And why? And how? And when? And where? Is that all their is to the circus? Is that all there is? If that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing...

The Malificent Seven.

1 and 2. Tanaka and Pineda. Not much to say. We pitch them and hope they don't bark. If either barks, we sink. It could trigger a horrible, all-in, raft-of-Buhners trade for the likes of Cole Hamels, or some recycled animal bedding from Cincinnati. Otherwise, we stand pat. Fingers crossed.

3. Sabathia. Not much to say. His contract - aka "the national debt" - does all the talking. At what point would Girardi drop him from the rotation or move him to Scott Proctor land? Maybe August 15. Nobody - not even Canada - will take him in a trade. We just slog on, every fifth day, and hope he figures it out. (It's now been three years since his ERA was below 4.00.) He probably won't figure it out. He won us a World Series once. So we should just shut up, right?

4. Adam Warren. Not much to say. Mum's the word. He's outpitched the rest, but the poor guy falls into that David Phelps category - never good enough - so the Yankees always keep one of his feet in the bullpen. (This, by the way, is one of the most frustrating aspects of being a Yankee fan: The sense that overachievers are seldom appreciated, in favor of a team of underachievers.) He's earned a slot. Oh well...

5. Evaldi. Nothing to say. He's the key to Cashman's "Winter of 2014 Strategic Plan," thus, they'll stay with him at least through July. He been erratic, to say the least. Also, if Larry Rothschild was going to straighten him out, wouldn't it have happened by now? As a fifth starter, he's not terrible. He's like Forest Gump's box of chocolates.

6. Nova. Obviously, unless his arm hurts, he's in the rotation. But which Ivan do we get? My recollection is that the guy ran hot and cold. As soon as he seemed ready for stardom, Nova slid backwards. He's older now, and I believe TJ surgery adds 10 years of maturity to a player. Is he for real? Keep in mind... yesterday was the Phillies.

7. Capuano. Meh. Ugh. Ouch. Mediocre starter, worse out of the bullpen. I'd have more hope watching Bryan Mitchell or Kevin Long's kid, up from Scranton. When the best aspect of a player is that he was willing to sign a one-year deal... is that a good omen?

8. Severino. Surely, he won't come up this season as a starter; he'll have thrown too many innings. Then again... if he is our premier pitching prospect. Do they want to tamper with him, by having him throw out of the bullpen?

We have options. But we're going to need them. Matt Moore returns to the Rays next week. If he's what he used to be, well, Nova better be for real.

Time for another yard sale? Yesterday, the Redsocks won a game and lost two key players

Hanley Ramirez, who casual interest in the sport has already landing him on many fans' shitlist, bruised his hand. But the clincher may have come when Dustin Pedroia limped off the field with an apparent hammy.

You can't count out Boston yet; it's still the pennant race pre-season. But if they lose Pedroia for a month - and Ramirez until he decides to come back - that might just do it.

They play Tampa this weekend. If they lose the series or - perish the thought - get swept, it could soon be the annual garage sale.

Would they trade Big Papi? (Of course, they would.)

Great Onion Moments of 2015 Redsocks

June 24: Frustrated Papi reveals true self.

Great Moments in the 2015 Redsocks

January 24: Budding Bosox superstar hurler Joe Kelly tells radio listeners he'll win the 2015 Cy Young Award. 





(Thank you, Rufus T.)

Pirela Is Potash

Last night I tuned in Pirela (on the YES network), recently recycled from anthracite country.

In the spring, before he hit the wall ( I can't use the term, " so to speak " here), Pirela was an aggressive, confident hitter.

After working with the 6 batting-specialist coaches on the Yankees, he is now  a fearful hitter, praying for a walk.

The first pitch to him ( the Yanks were leading 3-1 and had one or two on base), was a fastball, mid center of the plate.  Pirela let it go for strike one.  In the spring, in Tampa, he would have crushed it for a double.  Okay, I rationalized, he wants to get a read on the pitcher.

The second pitch was at eye level, and he fouled it off.  " A bit over-anxious," I gasped.

The final pitch of this at-bat was that same first pitch fastball right down the middle, which he looked at ( meekly, I might add ) and sat down, ending any hopes of a Yankee rally.  One of the most
ineffective at-bats you will ever see in the major leagues.

This is no longer a kid with dangerous at-bats.  A kid who is going to make hard contact every time.  A kid you don't want to see with runners on base. A kid looking for fastballs and hammering them somewhere.

This is now a scrap heap player with no future.  He is slag.  He is potash.

Send him back and forget about him.

Unable to beat the powerhouse Phillies, are the roller coaster Yankees showing signs of terminal rot?

There's nothing worse than a team capable of losing 1-0 on Monday, and then 12-11 on Tuesday. But right now, that is the 2015 Yankees.

Maybe instead of auditioning Cole Hamels today, the Evils should consider jettisoning some of their own once-prized, currently leaky contractual barges. We are now 2 games behind Tampa and on the verge of being overtaken by Showalters Shrubs. It's way too early to start throwing furniture overboard, but it's almost July - late enough to pinpoint some cancer signs.

Last night brought a storm, not only of wind and hail, but of omens that 2015 will turn out to be Year III in a long and rancid Yankee barf. (That's not Jose Pirela playing 2B. It's Lenn Sakata.) Let me count the signs...

1. With Tex out, our IF defense reverts to pumpkin pie. Headley made his 16th error last night - he's becoming a costly, contract-choked version of Yangervis Solarte. Nobody ever touted Pirela's defense; the hope was that he'd hit well enough to justify a Wilson glove made of granite. (The answer looks like NO.) And then there is Garrett Jones, the lug nut who was supposed to protect us, if and when Tex tweaked a thingy.

Used to be, John Sterling routinely marveled about Teixeira's ability to make one big defensive play in every game. Garrett Jones somehow manages to mangle a big play in every game. Last night, he flubbed a third out, and the Phillies scored three. The other night, he nearly threw the game away against Miami - a routine throw to home plate was high - but he was bailed out by a video challenge that was as close as any call could be. When Cashman got Jones last winter in the Evaldi-Phelps-Prado deal, the Miami fan message boards cackled over Yankees' claims that Jones can play 1B. Wherever he stands in the field, the guy looks like a DH. And we already have one.

Get well, Tex. We're dead without you.

2. Our pride and joy, Dellin Betances, is clearly faltering. Listen: Nobody can be as perfect as Betances was, and I'm not throwing in the towel on him, but his last few outings have been shaky, and nothing - nobody - lasts forever.

But listen: If you take Betances from this bullpen - or compromise him - no lead is safe. We are already at the Sergio Santos stage of the season - anything with an arm - but we could soon fall into the abyss, rather than staring into it. Is Alfredo Aceves in our past or our future?

3. CC is lost, and let's face it: He might never return. One day it's his location. The next, it's his stamina. Now it's the "one bad inning" problem. It's starting to look like an infinite series of issues, stemming from a once great pitcher who is simply past his sell-by date.

Of the three big free agent signings in 2009 - Tex, CC and AJ Burnett - the record will show that we kept the two faltering stars and pitched out the good one. (Didn't we do that with the three wunderkinds - Joba, Hughes and Ian Kennedy? We traded Ian, kept the others.) Oh, well... there are still Yankee fans who are glad that we "punished" AJ by exiling him to Pittsburgh for a can of creamed corn. I guess we take victories wherever we find them.

4. The farm is hardly dead - Aaron Judge and Luis Severino may be coming - but we have no breakout prospects this year, even in the low minors. The Charleston team at Single A placed only one guy in the all-star game yesterday, and he didn't play. Some of highly touted youngsters from last year - Tyler Austin and Greg Bird, most notably - have floundered. They're not done, but they look a little stuck in place. Last year, Bird vaulted up from the pile, creating a buzz. This year, there's no buzzing around the hive. Considering the Yankees failed system over the last decade, should we be concerned? I dunno. But it's worth noting.

5. Lately, we can't even blame the all-purpose Yankee whipping mule Carlos Beltran. He's been hitting - sort of. His average has been lifted to the magical .260, though he's still a manhole cover in RF, and he's on line to hit maybe 17 HRs. Trouble is, Beltran is hitting, and we're still losing.

Anyway, please Cash... It's no time to bundle the future for Cole Hamels. Let's just wait and see. Might be time to test the market for Ivan Nova.

The Yankees drafted a firstbaseman named Ryan Krill in the ninth round, and then signed him for a $5,000 bonus

You probably think there was a mistake in the above headline:

Krill must have signed for $500,000, or at least $50,000, right?

Nope, he got $5,000. Five thousand bucks.

The reason? Krill - who was the 273rd player drafted overall - happened to be a college senior. Yes, he stayed four years in school. He showed loyalty to Michigan State University, where he was a standout lefty slugger.

By staying for the duration, Krill had absolutely no bargaining power in launching his pro career. Once the Yankees drafted him, they could offer him as little money as they deemed fit. His options were to take it or leave it.

Incredible, eh? MLB has it set up so the "rules" don't allow owners to spend unlimited amounts on young prospects. They cap the spending for U.S. amateurs. It's so clean, so perfect... a team would love to offer a kid more money... but - hey - rules are rules.

Now... I can understand why the system put limits into place. It's sickening to think of 17-year-olds getting multi-million dollar contracts. In fact, it's so sickening that we only allow it for Latino players - and usually at age 16. But that's another story.

I think a new rule needs to be installed: When a guy graduates from college, he cannot be drafted and forced to sign with whatever team decides to take a cheap flyer on him.

Ryan Krill - (first Yankee in history to be named for a sea creature?) - should have been allowed to negotiate a deal with the highest bidder. He sure would have done better than $5,000.

The Yankees involvement in this is complicated. They are doing what other teams do. By saving slot money on Krill, they can spend more on kids out of high school, who actually have bargaining powers. Still, it just seems slimy that the richest team in baseball would go so cheap on a player.

It would be nice to think that Ryan Krill gets the same attention, the same shot, as the Yankees recent classes of 16-year-old Latino multi-millionaires. But frankly, it's a joke to think so.

Drew is having a baby, and his name is Jose Pirela

It should have been named Refsnyder, but let's hope Jose makes the most of his second chance. 

Half Truths

I saw some interesting commentary, scaled to the minds of the Daily News, from Joe Torre today.

He must sit in a room with Brian Cashman and Hal (" I'm not cheap") Steinbrenner and make this stuff up.

The objective;  " let's convince the fans that we have, indeed, built a fine farm system, and are locked and loaded for an exciting and rewarding future."

So here is what we get:

On announcing that two more no name relievers have been promoted from Scranton: " the fact that we can run lots of guys through here proves that we have a solid farm system."

The Half Truth - it is true that two more no names have checked in to the Bronx Hilton.
Full Truth - they both suck.

So the idea is, as long as we have bodies, it doesn't matter how they perform.  When they fail, we send them back on the bus and bring up two new ones.

Proof:  the two new guys are replacing two previously new guys who performed as follows;

Guy 1 -  pitched 2/3rds of an inning and gave up 6 runs.

Guy 2 - first pitch thrown in the majors went onto the left field seats for a home run.

Both are now back in anthracite country.

Half Truth - Jacoby Ellsbury ( anyone remember him?)- Joe says he is jogging and close to returning to some baseball-related workouts.
Full Truth - he is having his knee re-evaluated at the Hospital for Special Surgery.  As to the baseball activities; he is putting linseed oil on a new glove and trading  1994 rookie cards with Big Poppy Ortiz.

Half Truth - the Yankees are really happy to have an experienced bull pen arm in Sergio Somebody.
Full Truth - he just had Tommy John surgery.

Full Truth - our farm system is dismal.  It is stocked with old failures, a few "never-will-be's", and some talented kids who can't stay healthy.  The future is grim if a world championship is in your dreams.

If Tex goes down, will the great unraveling begin?

Bad signs yesterday. Bad signs everywhere.

As of now, the days are growing shorter.

Pineda gets hammered. Two more new guys in the bullpen. We lose to one of the saddest teams in baseball. Worst of all, Mark Teixeira gets an MRI on his neck.

Want to know what happens to the Yankees when Tex goes down?

Easy. Look at the last two seasons.

Garrett Jones at first? Ouch. We go from Gold Glove to Stone Glove. And there's nobody - not A-Rod, not McCann, not Beltran - capable of spelling him defensively. (I don't even think Kyle Roller in Triple A is much of a fielder.) Do we play Brendan Ryan at first? Would it come to that? 

Okay. Get a grip. It hasn't happened yet...