Big Do-ings

            Sometimes you need somebody to tell you why you're a bad guy.  Sometimes you just know.  For the last hour or so, the missus has been upstairs tending to the boy's first-ever sniffle, and I've been fielding calls from Tony Sherry, laughing so hard I'm crying hysterically as we watch Scare Tactics, hosted by Tracy Morgan on the Sci-Fi Channel.  Dude, if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor.  My boy is fighting a cold, and my face hurts right now from laughing.  Bad guy.

            Mike Sherry called me today on the way to Yankee Stadium, guaranteeing a win.  Bold.  Usually people talk about doing their best, making winning a priority, etc.  Rarely do you get the outright guarantee.  At 11am, no less.  Nicely done, dude.  And I promised you a shout-out for your boy The Goose for going into the Hall.  He was, as you said, a great Yankee.

            So it was towards the end of the thumping that the Yankees were handing the O's today that the news came in.  Pudge.  Funny.  Most of the guys I talked to were pleased, but strangely, Farnsworth had grown on everybody.  He had gotten good press of late, even pitching the equivalent of a 10 inning no-hitter in his 10 outings prior to the Boston series.  There was a lot of talk about Girardi, having caught him in Chicago, knowing how to get the most out of him, etc.  Acc summed up the sentiment pretty well.  The bullpen wasn't broke, so why are you messing with it?  My answer - because the bottom of the order was most definitely broke, and you needed to fix it.  The question is this.  How many games did you win this year because Kyle Farnsworth got the job done when somebody else would not have?  And we'll never know the answer.  And how many games did the Yankees lose because they couldn't hit Jose Canseco if they were Vai Sikahema?  Again, we'll never know.  But man, I have to imagine it's a big number.  There have been so many failures at the plate this season, particularly when it counted.  So I'll take Pudge and some tough at-bats at the back end of the order.

            Manny.  I'll believe it when I see it.  The Red Sox desperately, desperately, do not want to deal Manny.  They want to bring him back to do what he always does.  Rake.  It's like a drug.  So tough to quit.  It's hard when you sell your soul for championships.  I think the Red Sox would have been content to do what they've always done.  They've always hated dealing with his antics, but in the end, they always suck it up because they can't live without his production.  But now he's publicly calling them out.  Taunting them.  So now, they're at least going through the motions of acting like they're going to try and trade him.  Like I said, I'll believe it when I see it.  Bottom line is that nobody does what Manny does.  If they go get Jason Bay or whoever, they would be a worse team than they are now with Manny.  That's why I don't think he's going anywhere.

            One of the tenets of the last ten-plus years in the AL is that the Yankees can't beat the Angels, the Angels can't beat the Red Sox, and the Red Sox can't beat the Yankees.  So now that the Angels have won eight straight against the Red Sox, maybe it's time for the Yankees to turn the tides on the Angels....  A guy can dream, can't he?  

            Can we talk about Josh Beckett for a second?  One of the knocks on him before he got traded to the Red Sox was that he was one of those "he's got great stuff, why doesn't he win more consistently?" guys.  His record, season-by-season starting in '01: 2-2, 6-7, 9-8, 9-9, and the "breakout year" in '05 was 15-9.  Then he went to the Red Sox and slipped down to 16-11 with an ERA over 5.  Then last year there was "breakout year II," a truly great year at 20-7.  Then this year he's right back to 9-8 with an ERA over 4.  So Beckett, billed as one of the best pitchers of this generation, is averaging what - 10 wins a year in his first 8 seasons?  And I know he's supposed to be a great postseason guy, but I don't know if the sampling knocks me over.  He's got great numbers.  He's 6-2 with an ERA under 2 in the postseason, but I don't know.  Eight postseason games is fine, but it isn't 28 postseason games.  Not sure what to make of Mr. Beckett. 

            Get ready for the four best games of perennial Yankee-killer Garrett Anderson's season.  He's salivating, I'm sure.

            One of the few reasons I'm bummed the Yankees don't play in the NL East is because I don't get to hear things like this from Keith Hernandez yesterday; "With two outs and two on the Mets now have to face an extremely dangerous hitter in Cody Ross."  Must be nice, when Cody Ross passes for an "extremely dangerous hitter."

            One comment again?  Come on guys....  Thanks, gjp....

            Mr. Pettitte.  Show them what they came to see.