But I admit – I am now kicking myself for not drafting Wang, and he was available up until the latter rounds.

Betemit is on the disabled list with a condition he said was a corneal ulcer in both eyes. He had conjunctivitis over the winter and had trouble adjusting to new contact lenses this spring. Glasses were uncomfortable, he said, and a doctor determined this week that he was not a candidate for laser eye surgery.

And the Red Sox aren’t running away with anything, either. True, they’ve won a couple more games than the Yankees. True, they’ve also had a brutal schedule as far as days off go, but they did get to play a few more home games (which could be the difference in the wins column). No one is running away with anything, and this is the silver lining to the Yankees cloud.

All these misfortunes are happening early in the season when there is ample to time to heal, re-adjust, re-assess, get their act together, so to speak. That’s a silver lining, too.

As poor a start as Hughes and Kennedy have gotten off to, a few well-placed hits by the offense could have afforded a couple of wins for each of them. The offense shares the blame for this. I know I expected them to have a rough road of it; I expected them to be making mistakes, having to make adjustments — learning on the job. BUT I expected the offense to cover for them by scoring enough runs to allow them the luxury of working through the hard times. That hasn’t happened, and I seriously don’t blame Cashman for that. It was a calculated risk, and with a team that scored over 950 runs last season, one I would take every time. Now, Hughes has been a far cry from what was expected, but his first start of the season was very good and he would have won with even a little run support. Kennedy should also have at least one win. And frankly, I’ve seen more signs of Kennedy improving – he gets more confident as he gets into a game.

I think Hughes has never experienced this level of frustration. He has never had to deal with hitters of this caliber and sending him to AAA won’t solve that part of it. He’ll get through it, but booing him is not going to help. We should be partners in his development.

SJ44 and/or CB –

If you’re reading this morning, I have a question for you. Until the last 2 days I hadn’t heard anything about Phil Hughes’ mechanics being changed. Was it? And when was it, if it was? Thanks.

Steve Balboni -

I think it’s perfectly okay if Kennedy is “never better than a 3rd starter.” I don’t think he was ever projected to be an ace. You usually don’t find 5 aces on one team, although those Baltimore Orioles of old, and the more recently the Atlanta Braves came pretty close.

True, but they are contributinng factors for a lot of teams. Red Sox schedule in April was brutal. Three series in 3 continents to start the year, just finished playing 20 days in a row, flu bugs, couple missed starts by Beckett, etc. The Angels have played the season without last year’s #1 and #2 starters. Tribe has had issues, Tigers, etc. Lot of teams have had injurues. Lot have played in the cold. That’s April for a lot of clubs this year.

It’s a shame that our outfielders are pretty much the only guys hitting right now because otherwise I’d like to see the Yankees bring up Gardner to get some small ball going with our 2 best sluggers out. Too bad he doesn’t play 3rd base or catch. It would be nice if Cano got into one of those grooves real soon.

You’re right. Key injuries to teammates, tough scheduling, and mother nature aren’t excuses, but certainly are contributing factors.

I say it’s confidence because he’s healthy. I also know that he’s pitched well in the majors and can get guys out when he trusts his stuff.

I wonder if we’d have had the same result tonight with Hughes if Molina had been behind the plate…I wonder if we’d be talking about confidence issues…

That lack of communication between Hughes and Stewart was mind boggling…I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before…

I say we give Hughes another shot, but this time let’s field the best defensive team on the field that we can-that means Melky in CF and Molina behind the plate…and then we’ll see…

GO YANKS!

True we’re in the process of rebuilding but I wouldn’t concede defeat for this season just yet-I mean really, it’s only April 30th! And we have a better record than last year at this time-didn’t we make the playoffs last year?

Have faith…rebuilding and making the playoffs are not necessarily mutually exclusive…we’ll just wait and see…

GO YANKS!