You can understand how this could happen.

" a grey area and complicated in our sport of baseball."
Yes can anybody say spoiled, know it all, sport stars.

I don't think that's the case FS (and believe me, I know from the Bills there are plenty of pro athletes who don't train correctly). Jeff Mangold, the old trainer, had a program with running and stretching during his tenure. Marty Miller had neither. It was like, "okay, go out there with what you've got" come as you are type training, which is why Yankee players complained that he was a complete dope. And he was.

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Yankees sweep the Texans! Woot! We've vaulted into a three-way tie for second place in the AL East, 5.5 games back. We've scored more runs than any other team in our division to date.

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Pettitte came up big yesterday. He didn't overpower hitters, but he certainly battled well and was grinding out that win.

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Matsui! Matsui! Matsui! Walking Giambi to get to Matsui, and Matsui coming up clutch is exactly the kind of danger this lineup is supposed to bring, at least on paper. This is one of the first times this year I've seen it executed. The big double gave the Yankees the go-ahead run, and it should help Matsui along his trek to improve his batting average before his injury came along.

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The Moose was stomping last night. He looked great. His control was there, and his breaking pitches were solid. Really impressed with how he did. If he can stay healthy, that's another huge plus for our rotation.

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Newsflash: Abreu is still dead weight.

Oh, sorry to post old news.

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Darrell Rasner and Matt DeSalvo will be called up to replace Phil Hughes and Karstens in the rotation. Rasner has shown flashes of being a decent pitcher, but has proven to be nothing more than an insurance 5th starter. DeSalvo, according to Giambi, has "filthy stuff" and has been in the Yankees minor league system for awhile, but has suffered some setbacks and needed to go back and get his confidence up. This looks like the right time to bring him up, as he's been dominated AAA ball in Scranton-Wilkes Barre, going 3-0 with a 1.05 ERA in five starts, allowing 15 hits, walking 13 and striking out 23 in 25 2/3 innings (according to Yankees.com).

It looks like Abreu is going to get sat down tonight, and Damon should be in the lineup, along with Giambi, both of whom are feeling 100% despite recent injury issues.

Also, let's keep our fingers crossed Igawa keeps up with his new footwork and can be the strikeout pitcher he was in Japan, and repeat his great performance of last week.

Fingers crossed!! I think he'll be fine, actually. Let's just hope the lineup is.

This would not hurt my feelings at all.

Maybe we could unload him for a starting pitcher.

Actually, the way Melky's hitting seems to be (marginally) improving, it may not be a bad idea. It would give him an everyday outfield spot.

Then we could re-sign Bernie!

OMG!! What the hell was that?? This 5th inning is almost too painful to watch. Bean?? OMG!! What were they thinking? He just gave up four runs and there's NOBODY OUT!!! NOBODY!!! And now comes Vizcaino, who will look sterling in comparison, I'm sure. That was just a trainwreck! An absolute f-ing trainwreck!!!! OMG!!

Edit: More runs scored by Seattle! 6 runs scored in this inning so far and NOBODY is OUT YET!!! NOBODY!!

calm down man! it wouldn't go on forever anyway!! but Vizcaino let two more in before finishing the inning. 5 IP 15 H, 14 ER...

I started off listening to this game in the car. It was so nice. The Yankees were winning 5-1 after the 2nd inning. It was lovely. And then there was the 4th and then the 5th and the bleeding has yet to stop. It would be almost comical if it wasn't so damn painful.

Talk about a slugfest.

More like a bloodletting.

Edited to Add: 3 run home run for Johnny Damon! Nice job! Brings the score to 15-11 in the bottom of the 7th.

Certainly not a pitching duel.

The $39M bust

NEW YORK (AP) -- Yankees manager Joe Torre raised the possibility that Carl Pavano would need surgery, and general manager Brian Cashman admitted the oft-injured pitcher has been a bust with New York since signing a $39.95 million, four-year contract.

"It clearly hasn't worked out. There's no doubt about that," Cashman said Friday. "We signed a player that we expected to be a horse in our rotation and it hasn't worked out. He physically hasn't held up. Period."

Pavano hasn't pitched because of April 9 because of forearm soreness and was attempting to be examined Friday by Dr. James Andrews, Cashman said. Pavano was 1-0 with a 4.76 ERA in two starts before getting hurt, his first two appearances for the Yankees since June 27, 2005.

Before reporting to spring training healthy, Pavano missed 11/2 years because of shoulder, back, buttocks, elbow and rib injuries. He cut short a bullpen session Wednesday in Texas after about 14 pitches, according to Torre. Pitching coach Ron Guidry gave a report to Cashman.

"It just didn't feel right and it was bothering him. Gator confirmed that," Cashman said. "He said basically you could tell that it was not a comfortable situation. He couldn't allow the bullpen to continue as is, so the next step is, well, let's get another opinion."

Torre wasn't sure what would happen with Pavano, who is 5-6 in 19 starts with the Yankees.

"I think he's pretty much going to go along with whatever the doctor suggests," Torre said. "He certainly isn't having any fun doing what he's doing, and if surgery is the only answer to changing that, then I think he'll probably consider it."

Torre also suggested the injury might be more than forearm soreness.

"Obviously, it's elbow related," he said "so we'll see what the doctor says."

Source: SI

I couldn't watch the game last night because I don't get My9 in my area (so I watched the Sabres ), but I'm really surprised Igawa pitched from the stretch ALL NIGHT LONG. C'mon, Guidry. He did great his last start - he blended his windup with his stretch, with his new foot placement, and he had all his control and break back with his pitches.

Any Little League coach, even an amateur fan, knows that while the stretch (or set) brings a quicker delivery to the plate (which is why it is used with men on base), it yields less control, less velocity, and oftentimes less break because the pitcher does have his usual arm tendencies from the windup.

I still am not willing to give up on Kei. Guidry needs to take this kid aside and figure out how to work his foot placement in with his windup. Putting him out there to pitch from the stretch an entire game (well, 5 innings worth at least) is clearly not the solution.

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Bye-bye Colter! Yeah. What the fuck. I love the website "freecolterbean.com" because Colter has played so well in the minors, he deserves a shot at the major leagues. No. Yet again, when called up, he fails miserably. You're telling me Ron Villone is worse than this? Even with his used-up arm, he has to be an improvement. Vizcaino too, he's having a rough go at adapting to the AL, and the "innings eater" we were getting has turned into the "early exit" after giving up big hits, usually home runs.

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Who better than...Mike Myers? Whoa. Seriously. It was the longest outing of this career with 4 consecutive innings of work, and he did a great job trying to make something out of nothing. Kudos to the former LOOGY turned long-man.

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Is Bobby Abreu finally out of his funk? Three hits, two runs scored. Let's hope so. He DH'ed and was third in the lineup, but I still would move him down in the order. Give Giambi or Matsui the #3 spot in the order, keep A-Rod at 4th, either Giambi/Matsui at five, Posada at sixth, Cano at seventh, and Abreu at 8. He still has great hitters directly in front of him, so he should have some chances at RBI's. And the way he's playing and Mientkeiwicz is hitting homeruns, he may get some good pitches.

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Let's hope the Yankees can capitalize on some old flavor today. Jeff Weaver returns to Yankee Stadium in Mariners teal (?) against Chien-Ming Wang. Wang has fixed his broken fingernail issue with some superglue and says he's 100% ready to go. If the Yankees offense can giddyup and get some runs going, and support Chien, hopefully he'll get his first win this season.

Did you ever notice that Giambi looks like a beefed up Aj from the Sopranos

You mean an AJ on steroids?

A great win today for Wang to get the Yankees back on track and also to give the bullpen a breather:

8 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, 0 BB, 4 SO, 1-2 with a 3.98 ERA

OMG!! SC used the "S" word!!!

Great win for Wang. With only three perfect games in Yankee Stadium history (Larsen, Wells, and Cone). Coincidentally, more perfect games have been thrown at Yankee Stadium than any other ballpark (the next closest is Dodgers Stadium in Chavez Ravine). I'm really glad to see Wang do so well. Despite his outstanding performance since entering the league a couple of years ago, the media and even fans don't seem to take him seriously, and the fact that he is the ace of the rotation is always put in "quotes." That's crap. There are few pitchers in the league better than Chien-Ming Wang in my opinion, and you probably could count them on one hand (and their names include Santana, Oswalt, and Clemens).

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Darrell Rasner gets yet another chance to try and earn a spot with the Yankees rotation today. Let's just pray he doesn't get bombed.

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Is Abreu finally back to form?

I don't know. He'll have to fill it out in triplicate.

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Colter Bean was optioned down to AAA Scranton-Wilkes Barre today.

That's the best move the bullpen has made all season long.

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Can I get a witness? The Yankees have been fervently talking with Cleveland about Paul Byrd, and supposedly had a deal going until Jake Westbrook got injured. Yikes. Now it sounds like the Dan Haren alert is up. Word. Well, Cashman is tight with Billy Beane. Maybe they can work out a deal.

Good thing the Yankees have at least One Wang on the team.

Now they just need two balls!

Big Trade Rumour: The Giants will be having prospects Tim Lincecum and Jon Sanchez near major league ready very soon. There are supposedly talks that would send Noah Lowry to the Yankees for Melky Cabrera.

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My take?

Fuck Lowry. His walks are too high. Package Melky and some other parts for Matt Cain. Now we're talking.

Good News! Now let's hope that he can get up to speed quickly.

Why? Doesn't he have until around October?

I think the Yanks could make the playoffs just fine without him. We'll see though, it'll be interesting to see how many regular season games he pitches.

He says he could be ready in about a month

This will give them a solid starter. They should get a good 6 innings with each start

Rasner looked good today!

5-0 and only four hits allowed today.

Meh. I'm not so thrilled. Another aging, big name at the end of his career. Typical Yankees. I don't think he can regularly give them 6 or 7 innings, and that's what they need. And after screwing them when he left for Houston, I don't think he deserves to be back in pinstripes.

But that's just me. And it's personal.

I think he can help them more than hurt them - and that's all that's important right now...

I can't wait 'till the hypocrisy starts from some Yankee fans.