Yankees Fire Strength and Conditioning Coach, and a Rant and Rave about ESPN

The Yankees must be listening to me because yesterday they fired their strength and conditioning coach Marty Miller. This is welcome news. It is just inconceivable to me that so many pitchers could have so many of the same problems without there being a root cause other than just plain old bad luck. This begs the question though, what took them so long? I reported weeks ago that I thought the new training staff could have something to do with all of the early injuries. I don't pretend to be a physical therapist, or a great sports writer, but when you smell smoke chances are there is fire.

In other Yankees / injury related news, Mike Mussina is expected to make his return to the mound tonight against the Rangers. Chien-Ming Wang will go Saturday despite cracking a fingernail on his pitching hand, and Carl Pavano is reportedly set to see a specialist about his forearm. We'll see about Pavano, as I have previously mentioned there are unsubstantiated rumors that he may never return. If that is true it would be nice for him to let us know for once.

On a side note, I have come to the conclusion that ESPN is filled with Yankee haters. It seems as if every day one of the headlines deals with how the Yankees are in trouble and may never return to glory. Jayson Stark's article from May 1st about how much April matters, and how basically the Yankees are doomed, was the feather that broke my back. While I don't question the accuracy of his statistics or the general importance of EVERY month of the regular season, this article seems to be written by someone who wants the Yankees to lose and is looking for any statistical proof possible to back that up. Every team ebbs and flows throughout the season but 6 games out is not a terrible place to be for a team like the Yankees. As you all remember the Yankees were able to gain 5 games on the Red Sox in just one weekend last year. Assuming we get back on track with pitching (granted, that is a big assumption) there is no reason why the Yankees couldn't do something similar this year. So for ESPN (or anyone) to count the Yankees out is overzealous, premature, and is gerrymandering to anyone who hates the Yankees but for no other reason than they are jealous of our success....unless you are a red sox fan and then I suppose you do have a few historical reasons to not like us, I'll at least give you guys that.

*Last nights game was postponed due to inclement weather....and by that I don’t just mean rain, I mean a freaking tornado warning.

** I added a picture of Marty Miller Speaking to Rivera in strange tongues about how straining your hamstring is actually a good thing

Two Fingers Pinched On the Bridge of My Nose

Ouch...my head hurts. No it's not from drinking, it is from a serious lack of good news (or wins) to report about from the Bronx. Not great considering we head into a weekend series against the red sox, and especially since I stand to lose even more money. So here is the recap from last night, hopefully I'll have better news to report after the weekend:

Last night Yankees pitching prospect Phil Hughes made his major league debut. So how did he do? Hughes went 4 1/3 innings allowed four runs and seven hits. He struck out five and walked one in the Yankees 6-0 loss to the Blue jays. Not terrible (for Hughs) I guess, but certainly not what we had all hoped for. I will say that the guy is only 20, and Torre said that it didn't look like he was out of his league, but also wouldn't commit to announcing another start for right now. Mussina was supposed to make a start tonight in the Minors, but due to weather he is most likely going to throw a simulated game at Yankee Stadium.

Offensively we just couldn't get it done last night, A-Rod appears to be cooling off a bit, and Abreu didn't bring his A game. But to give credit where it is due, most of it had to do with a dominating performance by Burnett.

Lastly, we have yet another injury to report, DEREK JETER is out with a sore hamstring.

Pass me the aspirin please.