All year long (and in past years) when our players have been up and down, Joe was covering their back and taking heat.  Thats part of why they have bunches of loyalty towar him.  

Well if they want him back, they need to walk the walk and put it on the line.

Example...if Andy calls Cashman today and says he will walk if Joe is fired...

Cash and even George have GOT to realize the old adage about the devil you know vs. the devil you don't.  There's no name on the replacement lists I've seen that makes me want to get rid of Joe. There's no Piniella out there. And lets don't recycle somebody like Hargrove.  I prefer Girardi over Mattingly, but between the two, I'd still rather have Joe.

Previous short series playoffs proved that its pitching, guys, that gets the prize.  So how did we react for the start of the season?  Pavano actually won Opening Day...but you know the rest.  Igewa - please don't remind me.  Moose, hurt. Roger in Texas.  Wang, hurt.  Farns can't pitch a clean inning, can't come in mid inning, and can't pitch two innings. These aren't a manager's problems who should be dealing with on the field issues.  
The big bats in the lineup got us to the WC over the long season, but again in the short series, pitching was the difference.

I'm a charter member of the Joe Bashing society, but I really believe we lose more than Joe if he goes and we absolutely cannot afford that.  

You knew Roger was going to give whatever he had.  Unfortunately he did not have much.  Behind in counts, gave up a couple of runs, but clearly had to be pulled.  Hughes comes in and shut down the middle innings, showing us what the next franchise home grown pitcher will be like.  but wait, there's more...Joba looked like he had a little revenge in his first inning and had an un-JOba like 8th.  Mo was lights out to close it out.  

Early on we made Westbrook look good with a couple of DPs.  Damon and Cano had the big bats.  But here is my concern...we got a win - to give us one more day - but the bats still are not going.  

Jeter 2 GIDPs.  ARod looking like he wants to pull and first pitch swinging.  After looking terrible since CC left the first game, bats came around some tonight, but nowhere near hot.  

So we haven't shown Cleveland all of what we can do...and it will be a shame if we don't.  

FoxSports is reporting on some comments Grandpa George has made to a reporter for the Bergen Record.  In effect he said Joe's job is on the line if the Yankees don't win.  

The only thing I take from this is that George is now certifiably senile.  Joe's been the highest paid manager for some time now ($6MM this year). He is like 67 years old and brought us 4 rings.  Does anyone think George's comments will motivate Joe?  More importantly, is there anything that Joe can do, down 0-2, from the bench to get this team past the Indians?  Is it a thinly veiled threat to our players to do better?  I doubt ARod is going up in the first inning thinking, Gee, I've got to hit one for Joe.  

I've bashed Joe as much or more than anyone (see my Game 1 diary), and I personally think this is Joe's last tour however the season ends.  But at this point in the season, George's comments are totall uncalled for.  

The core players have a lot of loyalty for Joe.  If we lose and George says or does some more stupid things, it could back fire on the contract renewals with Mo, Jorge, and Andy's decision on next year.  And to make matters worse, he apparently implied we will bring ARod back, before the negotiations begin in earnest.  

Maybe I'll wear my tattered T Shirt this afternoon that reads...Love the Yankees, Hate George.

I was disappointed to see Hideki and not Shelley or Jason.  But as the game went on, I doubt it would have mattered.  Lets give credit.  Carmona didn't throw many bad pitches, and of those only Melk took the mistake out of the park.  He made all our hitters look bad at some point and just kept throwing strikes.  On the other hand, Andy put on a show...He was doing the bend but don't break routine...Seemed like every time there was a RISP, he came up big, time and again.  I think Joba got "bugged" into those WPs, and not nerves.  Mo was Mo.  Couldn't ask more from their relief and in the end, Viz gave one...the winning one.  
So our season comes down to whether or not George's $25 million for a part time pitcher can buy us one more game.    Oh, the irony.  

So everyone on the planet knows that Wang is not as effective when not at the Stadium, but we start him in Game 1 anyway, even though Pettite has the experience to keep us in a game and hopefully get the win in a short series.

Everyone also knows that Wang is not effective when working after too much rest...his sinker does not sink.  Bad for a sinker ball pitcher.  All his pitches were up, but you left him in.

He was charged with 8 runs, some of those inherited by Ohlendorf.  Ross Ohlendorf.  That would be the pitcher who has a grand total of 6 innings of professional ball behind him.  Did we throw him to the wolves or had you Joe decided this game was over? We had the full bull pen available.

When the game was further out of reach and a mop up was called for you sent in Phil Hughes.  Phil can give your team more than one inning, so why not go with Farns at that point?  Is Phil now done until Sunday?  

Joe, you have been criticized, and I think deservedly so, for inept bullpen management. But, Lets take a look at the lineup...

Matsui had a terrible Sept. He has terrible numbers against Sabathia.  He is a lefty on lefty. So did he sit?  No.  He was 0-4.  Were it not for a freak accident, Duncan would have sat as well.  Duncan did get in and started a rally with a hit.

Bases Loaded, none out Jorge up with a 3-0 count.  Sabathia had walked more Yankees in the first four innings than he had in any full game this year...did we have Jorge taking pitches?  No.  Did Jorge deliver?  No.  WTF?  My Little League coach once told me if we have a pitcher who is wild, we don't want to knock him out, because he will give us runs and we don't even have to swing.  You went for the KO, it backfired and Sabathia went on limping to get the win.

In the post game I saw you say that we did not get good starting pitching.  Right.  But you control how long a pitcher stays out there and there were signs that Wang did not have it, so I blame you for not pulling him.  

Joe, you need to do a better job.

Premature senility, possibly accelerated by heavy doses of Bud Light have wiped out my memory on Gene Michaels situation.  I've seen some of you talk about his great feel for developing players, and I believe he is still buried in the organization somewhere, but what happened to Michael?  Why is he not in a more prominent role?  Is his talent assessment still valid?  Does he carry any weight with Cashman?  

One of the posts got sidetracked into talking about John Sterling.  His tag line on Joba is bush league stuff.  Just reading some of the other comments about Sterling, I thought we might have some fun and have all of you sound off on some of the things he says that just make you want to pull the plug...Let me start off:

1. Hate it when he goes into his home run call..It is high...it is far...it is...caught on the track.    Please man, we know you get excited, but ya gotta make an accurate call.  
2. Runner on 2nd, none out...he will always remind us that the run can score without a hit.  Then if batter does not move runner over, he will again remind us that we now need a hit.  Hey Sterling...99.9% of your audience has played or watched baseball all their lives.  WE KNOW ABOUT MOVING RUNNERS.  You don't have to keep repeating this every game.
3. The Jeterian swing.  Now we all love Derek, but whenever Jeter goes to the right side with the inside out swing, Sterling makes it sound like he invented it, patented it and no one else can do it.  

Anyway thats for starters...whats your "favorite"

There was a lot written on the LoHud blog concerning ARods contract and Cashman's position on what the Yankees can or cannot do.  I'm a little confused about the ARod contract and maybe some of you can help me better understand the situation.  

At the end of this year, ARod has his first opt out clause.  Obviously one of the clauses that makes ARod attractive is that there is a flow of cash coming from Texas.  I believe Cashman said he would not renegotiate if it meant losing the Texas money to keep ARod.

 Couldn't the Yankees negotiate a "supplemental" contract with ARod - for the difference between what he would make under the existing contract and whatever new money we would have to pay?  

Example (I'm not sure of the actual numbers) If ARod is due $25MM in '08 from the existing contract including whatever Texas money, and the new price to keep ARod for '08 is $30MM, could we just write a new contract for $5MM in addition to the existing contract?  

I can understand that Texas might have a clause in the existing contract that voids their payments if the contract is cancelled through renegotiation, but is this "supplemental" contract a way around that?

We've all scratched our heads wondering sometimes who is making the bullpen/relief pitcher decisions.  In yesterday's slugfest, I wore a new baldspot trying to figure it out...

1.  How long can we leave Roger in when he clearly did not have it.  Even after Cano's boot, Sox were hitting Roger hard and he continued to give up runs.  If Joe thought Roger could get the final out of the inning, would he have brought him out for the third or let Karstens start the 3rd?
   
2. Myers in with 2 out, down 8-0.  Walk.  Joe out again to pull Myers.  Is there no faith that Myers can get a RH batter out?  You're down 8 runs at that point, leave him in to get the last out.
   
3. Bring in Kartens who gets the final out.  Now we all know Karstens was on the DL for three months and making his first appearance.  So what do they do?  Hang him out to dry, giving up 5 hits and 3 runs over 3 1/3.  I dont count the rehab starts, He is not ready to go longer than one or two innings.  
   
4. Villone gives us 2 solid innings, one hit.  Do we let him continue?  No.  
   
5. Farce-worth-less.  Need say no more.  Gives up two HRs, one on a 1-2 count.
   

We cannot make our bullpen moves fast enough...I know we're all looking forward to whoever that might be this weekend, but besides the pure talent, we need to have someone who can manage it, and it ain't Joe or Gator.  Girardi can.

Just wondering if Yanks can get Mike as a hired gun for the balance of the season.  His righty bat would fill a hole and most people would say that he is better than Nieves (lol). He was/is on the A's DL, signed for $8.5MM, and we may be able to get him for cash.  Questions about his shoulder and being able to throw, but coming to NY may help the healing process.  Not sure how deep the Piazza/Clemens thing is a problem.  But on the other hand, we cannot afford to let Jorge get fatigued in August/Sept. and I won't be holding my breath every time I see Nieves at the plate.