Go Get 'Em Hank !!

I say kudos to Hank Steinbrenner for his blustery attack on the Yankees decision to keep Joba Chamberlain in a relief role. He sees his franchise going down the tubes this year, he knows who is leading his bunch of planning miscreants, and he doesn't like it. Not one little bit.

Even as a devout Yankee-hater, I cringe at the ridiculous mistakes made by Brian Cashman over the years. So it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that the voluble Hank should go after him. How could he not? Cashman passed on Johan Santana this year as part of his plan to develop his young pitchers.

For the sake of a plan, Cashman chose to go forward with a starting rotation of two old guys, two new guys and just one relatively no-risk starter. But Cashman's errors are legion, starting with ignoring erstwhile Boss George to select Nick Johnson over Big Papi himself, perennial MVP-candidate David Ortiz.

I look forward to quite a few more attacks on the smug Cashman from Hank's direction. And I love his tone. Especially the "idiot" part. That word surely fits the bill. I mean....Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth, Kei Igawa, LaTroy Hawkins, and going back some, Kevin Brown, Jay Witasik, Javier Vasquez, Jaret Wright, Steve Karsay...

And how about others he passed on....Curt Schilling, Hideki Okajima, Bernie Williams. How about trading Mike Lowell to the Marlins for three pitching prospects (in Brian's muddled mind) named Ed Yarnall, Todd Noel and Mark Johnson. Real household names are those three!

Without going into the tell-tale statistics, let's just review the current situation. The Yanks are 10-10. The Red Sox are 14-7. Kennedy and Hughes haven't panned out yet, and not only that, but they show not a hint of ever coming out of their funk. Mussina has been dreadful. Pettite has been very good, but how long can that continue?

All the Cashman apologists will point to the success of Joba in his setup role for Mariano Rivera. (Keeping Mariano is one of Cashman's good moves, to be fair). When the Yanks have held a lead going into the eighth inning, nobody can hold a candle to finishing up with Joba and Mariano. And you'll hear the yada yada yada as to how and why Joba will get injured in a transition.

But how many leads will they take into the eighth? Doesn't a contending team need at least three legitimate starters? Shouldn't there just be one day out of every five that the whole team will give up because they're down by seven? Not three out of five days, that's too much. Even for the Yanks lineup.

Let's look at the alternatives. For starting pitching, there are no good alternatives. In the relief area, there is one good one, at least at the current time. Brian Bruney has been impressive, showing every indication that he can handle that setup role.

Let's look at motivation. Joba wants to start. Just the fact that he wants to start would go a long way towards ensuring that he wouldn't injure himself on the way to stepping into his dream job. How hard is it anyway, this transition? Put Joba in a long relief role, a couple of innings, then three or four, then he's a five inning starter, then the sky's the limit. In a few weeks, he'd be a starter, and you wouldn't lose his services along the way.

Imagine Wang, Pettite, Chamberlain, Mussina, rookie. Four out of every five starts will be competitive, three out of five could be dominating starts. Good pitching four out of five days would go a long way towards motivating that Yankees batting juggernaut too.

Yes, the move makes sense. From a baseball and business standpoint. That the best pitcher in baseball went to the Mets doesn’t make things any easier for Cashman. That ticket prices will be going up in the new stadium doesn’t help his position either. What’s the first question you ask when thinking about attending a game? Who’s pitching? Kennedy? Um, I’ll pass. Santana? Sure, when do you want to leave?

<>And I think it’s quite possible that his master plan for developing young pitchers is founded on his rock-solid history of selecting bad ones. I also think Cashman had better start communicating with Hank, at least a little bit. It sounds as if he’s talking to George and Randy Levine a lot, but not with Hank. Big mistake, worse even than all his pitching snafu’s combined, if that’s even remotely possible.

The enormity of Cashman’s huge failures in the pitching department would be hard to exaggerate. Carl Pavano’s 4-year 40 million dollar contract would have to top the list as he went 4-6 in 2005, 1-0 in 2006, and then never pitched again. Kevin Brown comes close though. The Yanks picked up the remainder of Brown’s record 7-year 105 million dollar contract in 2004 and Brown went 10-6, then 4-7 in 2005.

<>Randy Johnson at 41 years of age was picked up for a mere $57 million for just two years, including the cost of dropping his no-trade clause. Jeff Weaver, another costly acquisition, though, did lose a Game 4 2003 World Series game to a walk-off home run by a light-hitting Alex Gonzalez. How about paying Clemens all that money last year on a start by start basis only to have him pitch badly and then be named in the Mitchell report?

More recently, of course, Kei Igawa signed for a relatively meager 5-year $20 million. He won a couple of games, lost a few more, and you just don’t hear too much about him anymore.

<>So.. is Hank allowed to question Cashman’s genius? It’s been suggested that Hank’s just a clone of his father, that because he inherited his Dad’s money, he should just shut up. I don’t think so.

I think he’s showing a bit of his Dad’s good instincts, as when his Dad suggested the Yanks acquire a guy named David Ortiz.