what I loved

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Time for a walk on the real side.

Having Joba as a starter is like changing Michael Johnson into a 10k runner.

The first question we ought to ask is why?

Why, with a platoon of young arms being groomed for the awesome responsibility of

starting duties, does the idea of Joba starts still sit with Yankee brass?

In Joba's brief career, he has been effective in a supporting role, and that only the foolish or those steeped in denial will want him to have the ball in the first inning of any game.

This is not to besmirch Joba, or speak critical of him.

He has immense talent, but is being wasted in a starter role that, as an investment in future returns, is

dwindling at this point. He was effective early on because hitters couldn't pick up the ball, which had 'movement' which amazed MASN's Jim Palmer, describing the ease by which Joba threw pitches by opposing hitters. 

That was then. With an ERA over 7, can we call off the experiment and put Joba in his previous role, for the postseason?

Here is someone born with the presence, physicality, aggressiveness and the persona of a closer, and hence, may be (emphasize may) heir apparent to Mariano Rivera.  I love Mo, may he close games for another five seasons, but the Yankees might prefer to recognize he won't and start grooming #62 for the job he was designed to fill.

Is that so hard a concept to accept, because all we've seen so far is, the Joba rules are responsible for turning an extremely effective May fireballer into an ineffective September thrower.

Where is it written in the baseball orthodoxy that the bullpen is strictly pergatory for those who are mediocre and don't have starter stuff?

Posit: Possibly, Joba has emerged as the sort of breed of pitcher, one who was born to throw two innings, no more, close  games and while this leaves room for argument, and readers are free to chime in, Joba's record post June renders any debate practically moot, doesn't it?

This was unconventional wisdom, in April, but, clearly, Joba's immediate impact in middle and late innings in years past makes the Yankees' handling of him - let's call it what it is - a mismanagement.

Give the young man the role of understudy to the longest running act in New York.

SP: IPK/Hughes 

6th: Aceves

7th, 8th: Hughes/Coke/Robertson

Can we envision a pitching scenario like this: Yankees up 3-2, Boston with men on second and third, Lowell at the plate. 

And Joba enters to do battle in the 9th...

Could we settle the argument of whether Alex is clutch, because the guy we saw tonight,

is.

WIth one sweet swing of his bat, A-rod banished the Yankee's worryisome bogeymen and sent the Huff-a-lump, patchwork and all, back to Winny-the Pooh's corner across the street in Di$neyland for one night.  Maybe, by toughing this one out, the Yankees put to bed the bubbemeisers (sp) (bogeymen). Rubber game tomorrow - a day game, mercifully for east coasters.

And, Chadwick Gaudin is 5-0 in games he pitches. Yes, pays to have guys who for whom guys like to battle. Maybe gets a win next time out.

Gaudin: 2ER. Hughes was mostly brilliant, giving up the single to Kendrick, striking out Vlad - who agreed, is one scary dude.  My friend Scott says the only players who have gotten base hits on pitches that hit home plate first were, Yogi Berra and Vlad, both very good bad-ball hitters.And Guirerro strikes out a lot,, as sluggers do. But the sight of him, even in decline, is a lot to think about. 

Chadwick and Hughes were admirable. Marte, feh, and Aceves was less than superb, but

repeat: the Yankees won in Anaheim.

Winnie sleeps good tonight. 

Yankees vs Angels coverage

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Talkin' baseball, PA brethren

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Only they are not. So, when is the Commish. going to be ridden out of town, like the mayor of Jersey City? 

Only when someone is seriously injured or hurt by deadly bat debris will the league hire its cadre of lawyers and 'do something.'

Didn't t see the game last night but have caught some horrendous and inconsistent umpiring over the course of the year.

And it's across the board, in each league. Two Mets get thrown out of last night's game with the Phils. It appears baseball is losing grips on officiating, which, given the abilities of MLB high officials, is not hard to understand.

Yankees vs Rays coverage

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The New York Yankees are about to lose two of three to the 'wretched' Nationals.

The Nationals. How absurd. Inexcusable. Bad hitting, How could this happen in an orderly universe?

Wat does it take for this team to play with motivation - with a desperation not to lose every game?   

Now that Boston is heated up and on a tear?

I hate to say, but I miss Ole' George, at the height of his power.  He'd be apoplectic right now, and this being June,  threats would be flung from on high, jobs would be in jeopardy, the clouds would gather, people would cringe, pitching coaches would be scurrying and maybe that is what the Yankees need now and then, for the boss come down from the mountain and to light an old fire.  But, as Richard Sandomir writes in the NYT this past week, Hal ain't the old George, and neither is Hank. And Paul O'Neill is in the announcer's booth these days, otherwise I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the locker room after today's game and see bats and curses flung from across the room,

Beyond the bounds of cyberspace and Yankeeland security a fan asks Joe Girard, the question: 

 Is there a logical reason for losing to the worst team on the eastern seaboard?

And this is how he hears Girardi respond:  'No. there is not. We're playing like s--- right now, and I don't blame the fans one bit. We stunk it up. But I promise you, things were not like this when I played and they are going to change.'

Alas, we are in 2009 not 1998, Mo is turning 40 and these are the creaky, post-post-dynasty Yankees  No, losing to the Nats, the 'wretched Nats,' can't be a good sign, and the signs portend another stumbling summer for this aging group...Nope, It doesn't bode well at all...seems the Boston series took away their confidence. And that is hard to accept.

Maybe you can fill in the rest of the blanks as to why...I'm too disgusted right now.

 Eric J.

What do you think?  How important is the guy to this team? He was instrumental in each of the last five wins, either defensively or scampering on the basepaths.

Joe Mauer pumped once to first, as Gardner rounded third. A seasoned runner might have held and not broke for home. But a seasoned runner might not have been in position to score the winning run, and maybe, because he is a rookie, and maybe, as Austin Jackson from Triple -A Scranton is groomed to be the Y's certerfielder of the future, Gardner is playing all out with the incentive to prove he belongs here. 

Baseball's old regime needs to reorganize. You know when enough is enough.

It's not the current players, nor their desire, though sometimes I doubt the fierceness of the pitching staff, which seems unable to intimidate or make opposing hitters think twice.  But that's another matter.

It's an inability to come close to actualizing the collective desire of the owners, the front office, the team or its fan base -- to be best in class, or best in the division, you need to win. The Yankees mantra since the Boss took over in the 1970's has translated into a pair of overachieving dynasties that garnered six titles.

Impressive by any standard, now or then.  There is disorder in the house of George, though, when the image doesn't measure up with reality, this volcanic  pressure 'not to lose' is fostered by those at the corporate level, who blame those on the field.  The top of the organization - what it has become, through greed, corrosive self-interest, and bone-headed arrogance, is rife with sickness.

The reason the Red Sox are running circles around the Yankees, these days is because they work hard at the most critical levels behind the scenes at actualizing their owners' goals, work, i.e., acquisitions, farm system, oppositional scouting, measuring situations and matchups, bench coaching, and the field management are integral.  The RS players are prepared to play hard, take pride in their work, their ethic is rewarded and bolstered by their leaders and admired by Yankees players, notably A-Rod. Since their well-oiled and communicative front office took over, the RS have learned to play like winners, and make their GM and ownership look good. The Yankees, despite their vast resources, are a corporation of fiefdoms. They just can't figure out the Red Sox and until they do, they will not recapture baseball's holy grail. Which should make RS fans happy, or at least secure for the moment.

It's Theo Epstein and it isn't, because  well-funded and smart as the RS organization is, there are some very, very talented and smart people in New York and elsewhere who should be running the Yankees (calling Bob Watson at MLB...)  At the current salaries the Yankees pay their underperforming pitchers, perhaps they should take the millions they spend on a middle reliever and hire a good few men and women veterans willing to work for  moderate executive pay and perhaps a half dozen quant graduates from MIT who will be happy to do algorithms in exchange for a case of Red Bull.

Knowing stats is the GM's job, but bringing together the pieces of a winning organization's culture starts at the top. Either the Steinbrenners fire Yankee president Randy Levine, who was a pol operative for the Yankees' good friend Rudy Guiliani, and his regime of leftovers from the Torre era, and install real, hard-wired baseball people, or sell the team. 

Make an offer to a led consortium of very wealthy, intelligent and worthy stewards to restore the luster to this sports franchise. If John Henry has been able to do this in Boston with a paltry $660 million in net worth (in 2006 dollars) , 
think of what the Yankees could do.  

Is this too much to ask?

This team needs its fans to pull together, to express anger and be vocal.

For too long the Yankee executives have been inculcated from the three to four million people who step through the turnstiles one disappointing year after another.

Perhaps the team's executives should forfeit a percentage of their salaries, based on the merits of the team's performance. Call it Obamacizing. 

Let the team know how you feel.

I'm betting the corporate executives are oblivious to you and yours, but they understand money. Cancel your YES subscription.  Patronize your local bar if you want to see a game.  If they win or lose, at least you'll have friends with which to share and commiserate. Sell your season tickets (those of you whose prices were slashed will save $1250 a game) and, those of us single game fans will stop going.

It's only temporary. Call it the way to affect change, and change is what the Yankees need.  Either way, you will be heard.  Who knows, maybe the Yankees will gain a sense of urgency and sign the next Derek Jeter.  Listen, we need to stand up. We are shareholders, even if we don't own stock in the team. And it's high time we act.

Call it: incompetent, empty and soul-less corporatism and greed. 

The Yankees are Pax Americana, the GM of American sports.  If we are able to  restructure the car business, we can salvage the Yankees' legacy.

Speak with your wallets. Enough frustrating baseball is enough.

It's your game.

Eric J.