The Fear Is Gone With The Yankees

• The absence of The Boss is adversely affecting the Yankees in the short-term:
  

I caught a glimpse of Alex Rodriguez standing next to bench coach Rob Thomson and the

thought came to me that with the retirement of George Steinbrenner and the handing of the reins over to his sons, the fear that permeated the organization is gone. It used to be that the Yankees play in recent months would have at least merited an outburst from The Boss; at worst there would have been a string of firings and desperate deals that may or may not have made sense; may or may not have worked out.
There's a comfort zone that people who deliberate before reacting are running the team and the one person in the front office who bloviates, Hank Steinbrenner, is all talk, no action and prone to drastic fluctuations in his mood depending on the time of day. This can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing. Even with all of his capricious, bullying and nonsensical maneuvers, there was always a sense that George wasn't going to allow things to spiral out of control as they have without doing something; that he would have seen the rash of injuries and ineffectiveness that the young

starting pitchers have undergone and called pitching coach Dave Eiland in on the carpet and perhaps fired him; that the odd strategic decisions that Joe Girardi has made wouldn't disappear into the wind without the manager being asked what he was thinking about; that the rightful criticism that Johnny Damon is now receiving for his inept play in center field would elicit a rapid change to someone who could actually play the position.
While the departure of the fire-breathing Boss was probably met with some relief in certain quarters, there's something missing from the Yankees that no amount of meetings, thoughtfulness and sound reasoning will be able to replace----a sense of urgency; with Hank's empty threats and the absence of a panic button in the clubhouse, there's really no reason to get uptight about their current predicament, and that's not a good thing.

• Speaking of Johnny Damon; Blue Jays 14-Yankees 3:

Before things got out-of-hand, Damon misplayed two balls----one in which it appeared that he and Bobby Abreu got their signals crossed; and another looping liner that most center fielders would have caught and appeared to (justifiably) irritate pitcher Sidney Ponson. This

problem is affecting the entire outfield because the right and left fielders are used to the center fielder taking every ball he can get to and now they have to vacillate and decide whether to take charge themselves because of Damon. As for Damon himself, either he's out of practice in center field because he's spent so little time out there in the past two years or he's unable to play the position anymore.
It's one thing to keep a player with Damon's little league arm out there if he's doing everything else correctly, but he's a pure liability and the Yankees have three options as far as I can see: A) leave Damon out there and hope that he gets his instincts back and is at least

adequate at the position; B) they can recall Melky Cabrera with the excuse that his lackadaisical play warranted a session of "time-out" in the minors and now he's back ready to play again; or C) they can get a defensive minded center fielder from elsewhere; one name that they could get for nothing more than money is Andruw Jones. The Dodgers would give him away----literally----just to get out from under his $18 million salary for next year and he can't hit anymore, but he can still go get the ball in center field. Ordinarily, such a financially imprudent move would be out of the question for most teams, but the Yankees can afford it and they can't afford to keep Damon in center field if he's going to play this kind of defense. Something has to be done.

• In retrospect---Ivan Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth:

Ivan Rodriguez's production has been far worse for the Yankees than it was for the Tigers,

but he hasn't hit for power for years (I wonder why; hmmmmmm...) and he hasn't hit at all since coming to New York. While it was a good idea to trade the always hair-trigger performance of Kyle Farnsworth for Rodriguez, it really hasn't worked for either side. If this is the batting performance they were going to get from Rodriguez, they may as well have kept writing Jose Molina's name in the lineup because his defensive prowess is far superior to that of Rodriguez and they're hitting almost identically, which is to say not at all.

• The Mets collection of Reyeses:

Since they signed reliever Al Reyes, the Mets now have four Reyeses in their system----Jose, Argenis, Jose A, and now Al. If they had the motivation, I'm sure they could

swing deals for Dennys Reyes from the Twins; Jo-Jo Reyes from the Braves; the two Angel Reyeses from the Yankees and Tigers respectively; Carlos Reyes from the Yankees; Rene Reyes from the Cubs; and Anthony Reyes from the Indians (did he bring his specially built Tony La Russa doghouse from St. Louis to Cleveland and if so, did he have to check it at the airport?) They'd be unlikely to win many games, but at least they'd set a record for having the most Reyeses, for what it's worth. They're starting to look like the clone troops from Star Wars, except they're not fashioned from a sampling from Jango Fett and they're not identical; they're just a group of different Reyeses.

Damon's Gaffe Costs The Yankees And Other Stories

• Blue Jays 2-Yankees 1:

There's an old axiom in baseball that when there's a weak defensive player somewhere on

the field, the ball somehow finds him. I doubt that's true statistically, but it just seems that way because their mistakes cost teams games and are therefore more prominent. The Yankees had to know that they were taking liberties defensively by putting Johnny Damon back in center field; they didn't have much of a choice given the struggles of Melky Cabrera and the return of Hideki Matsui, but it's a lack of fundamentals in Damon's game that should be of greater concern than one or two misplays.
Last Saturday against the Royals, Damon batted with runners on first and second in the bottom of the ninth inning of a tie game; logic dictates a bunt to move the runners over; manager Joe Girardi, citing Damon's lack of skill at bunting, allowed him to swing the bat and Damon struck out; Derek Jeter then grounded into a double play to end the inning. In the end, this didn't cost the Yankees in the standings because they won the game, but they had to play four more innings and use Mariano Rivera for two in what could have been a regulation game ending with the same result. Last night, Damon allowed two balls that hit his glove to bounce away and the second cost the Yankees the game.
While it's understandable that Damon no longer has the legs or arm to play center field on

a regular basis, this is still a player who has almost 1300 career games at the position; there must be a certain amount of savvy that he's accumulated to account for some of the physical deterioration, but he still played the position like an amateur, and that's a big problem. Damon got spun around on the play and may have been slightly out of whack because he's played the position so infrequently this season, but there's no excuse for a major league player not to hang onto a very catchable ball in that situation where the error cost his team a game that they couldn't afford to lose.
These circumstances don't have anything to do with Damon's weak arm, about which there's little that can be done; this is about basic fundamentals. The leadoff hitter has to be able to bunt when the situation calls for it; and the center fielder has to be able to catch the ball, period.

• AL Manager of the Year should be closer than it will be:

It's clear that Rays manager Joe Maddon is going to win the American League Manager of the Year and he's a deserving candidate, but it's somewhat unfair that the job Ron Gardenhire

has done with the Twins----this season and over his managerial career----has been so underappreciated. While Maddon's team has taken a tremendous leap from the netherworld that had been the Rays home for their entire existence, looks like a sure shot for the playoffs and might win 100 games, that doesn't account for the fact that his teams lost 100 and 96 games in his first two seasons as manager. Gardenhire has had solid teams, but maintains a consistent record of success in the standings despite losing stars due to payroll constraints and his teams execute fundamentally whether Johan Santana's on the mound, or Kevin Slowey's on the mound. There's something to be said for doling out awards due to a body-of-work and by that criteria, Gardenhire deserves the nod over Maddon partially because he's never gotten the recognition for being as good as he is.
Looking at the talent levels for both teams, they're very similar. Maddon has had to handle

shepherding young players like B.J. Upton and discipline them without alienating them. Gardenhire's discipline is instilled in his players from the time they join the Twins organization with the simple threat of playing time being slashed if they don't play the game correctly. Both teams had limited expectations before the season started and have launched themselves into surprising contention. Both are worthy candidates and Maddon is going to win because this is the first time the Rays have had any success and he is deserving, but Gardenhire shouldn't be ignored and is actually a more deserving candidate because he's been historically successful and his accomplishments in 2008 are as, if not more, impressive than those of Joe Maddon.

• If you're intent on throwing money down the toilet, give it to charity or, better yet,
  
  give it to me:

From today's New York Times----Christopher "Mad Dog/The Biggest Idiot In the World" Joins Sirius/XM Satellite Radio----let me say right here that this will not work.

Team Meetings Work Brilliantly...If The Next Day's Starter Is Any Good

Smart managers tend to try and coincide a team meeting/explosion with when their best

pitcher is scheduled to start the next day to present the illusion that the meeting "sparked" something. The Yankees had their team meeting last night in which it was reported that not only manager Joe Girardi spoke, but the coaches and Johnny Damon and team captain Derek Jeter did as well. If the Yankees had won today, it would have been perceived that the meeting made a difference. That was undone because they had a journeyman pitcher starting the game and proving why he's a journeyman; why he's a pitcher who makes a living at Triple A and is a useful fill-in starter, but not someone a team with designs on a championship wants to count on to stop a losing streak.
This isn't to denigrate Rasner in any way because the man gives everything he has; it's just

that what he has is so limited when facing a lineup like that of the Red Sox that it's unlikely he's going to be able to hold them down unless he's nearly perfect. The homer by Mike Lowell was a prime example of a good idea for a pitch, a decent location for that pitch, but an inability to execute that pitch. In the fifth inning with the score tied at three and two runners on base, Rasner threw an inside fastball to Lowell; Lowell, the experienced hitter that he is, knows that Rasner's fastball doesn't have enough velocity to blow the ball by him on the inside part of the plate, so he has full coverage of the outside corner and is able to adjust to that inside fastball

by collapsing his forearms and still has enough power to get the ball out of the park. This is the problem a guy with limited ability like Rasner has; he must be perfect and when he's not, he gets pounded.
When he was recalled in early May, the Yankees pitching staff was in shambles; both Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes had fallen on their faces and they were desperate for someone, anyone who could give them some innings. Rasner was exactly what they needed in five of his first six starts; since then, the big league hitters have caught up to him and are raking him all over the place. He's one of those pitchers who will always have a job because he's a professional and knows how to pitch, but won't be an important member of a pitching staff or even a full-time big leaguer because he doesn't have the tools. The team meeting will be seen not to have worked, but that has nothing to do with anything; the Yankees lost because they didn't have a pitcher on the mound who was able to fulfill his end of the bargain and keep the team in the game. Team meeting or not, a lack of ability is not something a pep talk will be able to fix.