It’s okay. We had Ted Lilly originally, but we traded him for Jeff Weaver…that deal worked out well!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA….::sobs::

There is a reason Jamie Moyer, Maddux, and Glavine — all of comparable stuff and velocity — pitch in the NL.

Is Kennedy the only anser for 5th starter? What do you do with Mussina? Can you really pull him from the rotation, just like that…?

I don’t even consider IGawa…unless he shuts out the entire minor leagues for a month.

Were I the Yankees I would proceed acccordingly.

With the day off on Thursday, the Yankees can pitch,

1) Clemens on Friday (5 days rest)
2) Wang on Saturday (5 days rest)
3) Hughes on Sunday (5 days rest)
4) Pettitte on Monday (4 days rest)(this assumes Pettitte doesn’t have to throw more than 110 pitches tonight)

Now, while Pete is right, it’s too much to ask a rookie to pitch every fifth day in the major during a pennant race, you can pitch him ONE game. (Boston demonstrated as much with Bucholz last Friday against the Angels)

Ian Kennedy is currently on schedule to pitch on August 28th. That also happens to be the first game of the Red Sox series. For this one game, I would promote Kennedy.

The rotation for Boston then would be:

1) Kennedy – August 28th
2) Clemens — August 29th
3) Wang– August 30th

I would tell Mussina that the team wants him to take a turn to clear his head, to regain his confidence, to rectify his mechanics, etc.

I would then return Mussina to the rotation on September 2nd against the Devil Rays.

Mussina gets paid to do a job. If he is incapable of still doing it, time to move on.

He’s not even pitching well enough to be a 5th starter for a AAA team, let alone a ML team.

Fifth starters don’t get blasted like this every time he faces a good team.

Also, no small order, they aren’t paying him like a 5th starter. If he wants to be a 5th starter, then give 10 million of this years salary back and he can be paid like a 5th starter. The “5th starter” talk is soft landing talk for Mussina. He gets no soft landing from me.

I know some on the Yankees beat don’t like the idea of calling up Kennedy because they can’t understand why fans would want “another rookie” in the rotation. As if that’s a bad thing.

Hell, without the rookies on this team, they may already be playing for next year.

I also think many on the beat like Moose because he is an interesting guy to talk to. That’s fine but, that doesn’t help win games.

The guy can’t pitch anymore. Its so evident, the fact we even having a debate on the subject defies logic.

Even in his “good” outings, its a struggle. You aren’t going to the playoffs with a guy this bad in the rotation.

Put it another way. If we had Kei Igawa in the rotation, would you like your playoff chances? I would say the answer to that question is, “no”.

Well, Moose’s numbers against good teams are Igawa-like. He’s presently the Kei Igawa of this rotation.

His past is just that, his past. It has no bearing on what he is now.

Keeping him in the rotation (if that is the decision) will keep the Yankees out of the playoffs, IMO. It will be the decision they regret most this winter.

Its a mindnumblingly bad decision, given all the work they have done to re-tool the team.

The Yankees don’t owe Mike Mussina anything. They have paid him over 100 million dollars. They owe the team, and the fans who support this enterprise, to do the best they can to try and make the playoffs.

Keeping Mike Mussina in the rotation doesn’t give this team its best chance to win.

They have spit up 4 games to the loss column in the WC hunt in a little over a week. That’s based mostly on Moose’s starts and the collateral damage (bullpen wear and tear) it produces. That’s not good.

That has to change. If not, September will be more about discussing 2008 than discussing playoff matchups.

I think the problem we all have here is that we’re remembering Mussina as a top of the rotation guy, when, in reality, he’s really more like a 5th starter now. Yes Mussina pitched horribly, and yes, Mussina inspires little confidence, but you have to take him for what he is these days. The fifth guy in your rotation often gets beat when facing good teams, especially when that team is throwing one of its top 2 guys. And the Angels are a really good team. Do I love Mussina, no, do I hate the fact that he’s whiny and often lacks accountability yes, but he serves his purpose. My biggest fear is that if we make the playoffs, Torre will show loyalty to him and give him a start, which would be a nightmare, especially in a five game series.

Its his overall ineffectiveness. His starts are so bad, he blows out the bullpen for days, leading to more losses.

Its a huge, huge problem.

Here are his numbers in the 11 starts he has made against AL Teams with above .500 records this season:

2-8, 46 2/3 innings, 62 hits, 7.42 ERA. That’s not two bad starts.

That’s Igawa-like. Its awful. In fact, its the worst in the league.

His next two scheduled starts are against Detroit, a team that pounded him, and Tampa Bay, a team that pounded him TWICE (once in NY and once in Tampa).

How in the world can they hand him the ball for those two starts?

The past is the past. At one time, Randy Johnson could actually pitch.

To spend the second half of the season retooling the team, which had gotten them back in the race, going young for old in almost every decision, and stopping with Mike Mussina is (pardon my expression) just nuts.

It makes no sense.

He stays in the rotation, they can forget the playoffs.

JMO but, I don’t think chucking the season to keep Mike Mussina happy is worth it.

He should have three choices: retire, the DL (to set up a graceful exit) or he becomes a long guy. Keeping his spot in the rotation shouldn’t even be on the table at this point.

If it is, all of our October schedules have just been freed up. It would be the most nonsensical decision they have made all year.

I, and many of my Yankee friends don’t.

Meanwhile, I agree with use a position player to pitch that last inning.

Torre’s use (abuse?) of Vizcaino since August 1st. Note the number of games where the margin was 5 or more either way.

8/1-ahead 6
8/3-ahead 5
8/4-ahead 9
8/6-ahead 2
8/11-ahead 8
8/12-ahead 3
8/14-down 12
8/16-down 5
8/18-ahead 3
8/20-ahead 1
8/21-behind 9