It Gets Late Early

Too Clever By Half

Last night Joe Girardi showed that in baseball, you can be too smart for your own good.

Last night in KC, Ian Kennedy was scheduled to start. The weather forecast called for heavy rain, and heavy rain sooner rather than later.

So, MJ Squared (that's Joe Girardi, aka Manager Joe II aka MJ2 aka MJ Squared . . . thank you, iris) decides that he won't "waste" Kennedy in a game likely to be stopped and not restarted. A side benefit of not losing Kennedy is that Kennedy could then pitch Thursday in KC and Pettitte could open in Boston on Friday.

But as with all diabolically smart plans, there was a flaw. Two, actually. No, wait . . . three.

Flaw 1: It might not ever rain hard enough for the game to be stopped.
Flaw 2: With the Yankees not scheduled to return to KC this season and the Thursday forecast ugly, the crew chief might do everything possible to get the game in.
Flaw 3: Getting nine innings out of a parade of relievers means a lot of different pitchers which means the odds of one or more pitchers having an off night are increased.

All three flaws came home to roost. Except for a little while in the second inning, the rain never got to call-the-game intensity. The ump could've stopped it then, but mindful of the logistics and the Thursday forecast, stuck it out. And Kyle Farnsworth lost Reliever Russian Roulette and gave up two runs, which, the way we're hitting . . . was two runs too many.

Then, the game now official (and officially over, pretty much) MJ Squared sticks Kennedy in there to start the sixth inning!

So let Me get this straight. We didn't want him to start, pitch three innings, then have to shut it down. So, um . . . pitching innings 6, 7, and 8 was somehow better? Kennedy, predictably, was not sharp and gave up two window-dressing runs.

And not that this matters, but, please, once, just once . . . can a manager just own up in the press conference and admit he outsmarted himself? Please? One time? I will freely admit that MJ1, Joe Torre, wouldn't have figured out the stop-Kennedy-start-Bruney strategy.

Score one for MJ1. But it's early.


Whew, It's Good To Get Molina's Bat In The Lineup!

Jorge Posada had an MRI on his shoulder yesterday. The results were negative. Negative meaning no structural damage. Not negative meaning "Posada can't throw for shit." Although right now both are equally true. Jorge is suffering from "dead arm," according to Gerardi, the first non-pitcher in the history of baseball to ever come down with that particular condition that I'm aware of. (The rumor that Bully Crystal stole three bases off Posada in an intrasquad game this spring can't be confirmed at this time.)

And here is a situation where MJ Squared is light-years ahead of MJ1. Torre would've let Posada make the play/don't play call himself until Posada's arm fell off. MJ Squared realized that base runners stealing at will was hurting the team and is playing Molina.

Which is a good thing, since Molina is pretty much our hottest hitter.

But it's early.


Twelve pitchers. Brilliant.

Again, it has to be asked. What is Hawkins doing on this team? What possessed Cashman to sign this guy? Albaladejo, who did nothing but get people out when he got the chance, gets sent down. Chris Britton apparently did the wife of someone in the front office . . . there's no other logical explanation for his continuing to languish in Scranton. But Hawkins remains.

And Farnsworth is perhaps the stupidest pitcher I've ever seen. I think it was Cone last night who said of Fonzie something along the lines of "he just has no idea how to pitch to certain guys in certain situations a lot of the time." Ya think?

Hawkins and Fonzie worry Me a lot.

But it's early.


Too Clever By Half, Part II: The Man-Genius Of Baseball.

It came out yesterday that Morgan Ensberg had an ankle injury and would be put on the DL, thus freeing up a roster spot so that Gonzalez could be called up while Jeter is sidelined.

But Ensberg didn't know about his supposed injury. Then it comes out that no, no DL for Ensberg. Shelley Duncan will be sent down to make room for Gonzalez.

iris' comment on this chain of events was that "MJ Squared is the Eric Mangini of baseball," referring to Mangini's refusal to ever give the press a real answer about any Jets' injury.

The Man-Genius of baseball.

But it's early.