Early on all the complaining bothered me too, but at least it was justified relative to the team's crap performance.  

To complain about stuff now doesn't make any sense to me, and some of the people who were complaining early on sound very bitter now, as if maybe a small part of them subconsciously wanted the team to go into the tank so they could post "I told you so."  

Get over it and enjoy it while it lasts fellas. This is our best shot in the last four years at #27.  

I do not think I ever was sure we'd do it.  Although I expected Bostons problems.  Manny and Ortiz are getting on and never in great shape.  Based on the history of Japanese pitchers I expected Dice K and Oki to come back to earth.  Pap has no history of durability.

I thought our injuries would heal and our slumpers for the most part regress to their history.  No guarantees, but we don't have to expect the worst either.

But what really saved us was that the kids did OK. Melky has been a man this year.  He has grown a lot in my eyes. Cano too. Viz rallied, Mo rebounded.  Joba, IPK, Hughes, adding Rocket, recallin Andy P.  We really didn't come back with all the same guys who fell behind.  The offensive core really can hit.  Even with injury plagued, substandard years from Matsui and Damon  this is a good team.

However, being an optimist and knowing baseball are not mutually exclusive.

The issue on PA is one of tone. On May 29, your blog  posted this informative discussion on whether Cashman was the problem or the solution.

This, to me, is an informed point/counterpoint. I come down on the side of the Cashman defenders on the post, but both sides of the issue are well-argued and devoid of the PA orthodoxy that turns every semi-controversial opinion into a flame war.

In one of my first experiences here, I posted a diary you may remember on keeping Chamberlain in the bullpen. In this morning's Times, Harvey Araton interviews Rich Gossage on the same topic:

"I really don't see how they can think about making him a starter after what we've seen," Gossage said in a telephone interview. "You can find starters -- I know they have other young kids -- but how are you going to find another character like him? How are you going to replace him? Before he came up, those setup guys were killing them."

I gotta assume Gossage qualifies as a knowledgeable baseball guy.

I'm not trying to revisit the topic, but hoping to shed light on the shaky foundation that the negative guys build for themselves sometimes. When you come down so harshly and so negatively on a reasonable position, driving opposition away, there's going to be a backlash when the weapons of mass destruction don't turn up.

I can't really comment on whether the PA discussions have gotten better/worse/stayed the same over the last 12 months; I've only been posting for 4 or 5 weeks. But I've got a Yale degree. I watch 90% of the Yankee games. And I'm old enough (39) & have managed enough people to be even-handed when it comes to evaluating how to deal with under-performing personnel.

I gotta believe I'm informed enough to venture the opinion that Cashman deserves some credit these days, Moose still has something in the tank, Joba in the bullpen is worth exploring & Torre is the best person to manage the team. You may disagree, but that's really the point of the forum, isn't it?

It's a shame that MG, Pfisty and ReLaunch feel the need to go elsewhere. But if they're going because people disagree with them over whether Abreu should never bunt, that's on them. In my view, they should stick around and take it upon themselves to truly inform the discussion & take the forum to the next level.