The one player move they made in acquiring reliever Chad Qualls was done because of injury to pitcher Grant Balfour when he and pitching coach Jim Hickey were involved in pre-game horseplay in the outfield and some wrestling occured resulting in Balfour falling on the ground. Maddon downplayed the incident calling it a freaky thing that guys do almost every day. Nobody will be disciplined.

He used to have an email address, but the Daily News did away with it. Wish I could get my hands on it now.

Conversely, because of his closeness to Omar and the Wilpons, he has a blind spot for the Mets in the opposite direction.

His columns should just come with disclaimers at this point detailing his biases.

Loopy the bitter old bagel man. Nice image especially on a Sunday morning.

I see Loopy more as the tenured professor who started out a middle of the road guy and now is a screamer from the fringe. He obviously doesn’t keep up on the current thinkers, doesn’t hear anything other than what he and his cronies say to each other over drinks. They breathe each others fumes, marveling at how sweet the fragrance.

So true. I read the first four paragraphs this AM and had to stop.

He is so clueless its reached the comical stage right now.

He should just stick to doing what he does best……suck up to Imus and Omar Minaya, give Fred Wilpon investment tips, and leave covering the Yankees to Mark Feinsand.

He’s a shell of what he used to be as a sportswriter.

He’s like the bitter old men I see in my local bagel store each day. Especially the one’s who are Red Sox fans when I wear any Yankee clothing! lol

Today is a no pressure game for them.

If they lose, they split these 6 games with the Rays Post-ASB and that’s not bad.

If they win, all the better.

Either way, they leave Tampa in first place and with a better team than when they arrived.

Hard to ask for much more.

As far as Cash and the off-season…..

Its easy to second guess every move. Especially after 4 months. However, as a GM, all you can do is make moves and hope they work out.

Look at the various off-season transactions….

I don’t know a lot of people who didn’t like the Granderson trade. Ian Kennedy had no future here. Austin Jackson isn’t the long term answer in CF. If you saw Phil Coke in all his glory yesterday in Boston, you see why the Yankees traded him.

Granderson has played a very good CF this year and, so far at least, hasn’t hit the way the Yankees wanted. However, this is not a one year acquisition, nor is the season over.

The guy is a very good player and they will continue to work with and see how it shakes out.

In the end, Austin Jackson would have been in Scranton this year and not in NY.

If you are a GM, you make that trade 100 times out of 100.

Javy Vazquez. Simply put, he’s been the Yankees second best starter since Mid-May.

Melky Cabrera has done nothing in Atlanta and Vizcaino, while an intriguing arm, tore an elbow ligament, further showing that going ga ga over propsects in lower or short season A Ball is dangerous territory. Too many things can happen along the way. From the Yankees perspective, regarding their needs, that’s a steal.

Nick Johnson. I think that’s the one move you can say and not second guess, is a tough one. Simply because of the injury history. Probably the one move Cash would want back, IMO.

I’d rather they make that move though, than overpay for Matsui or Damon because the Johnson commitment is only for one year.

Both Matsui and Damon have struggled this year. In Johnny’s case, the Yankees wanted him back, offered him more money than anybody else, and he ended up taking a lesser deal.

If you are the Yankees, you can’t second guess that one because they did everything they could have done to bring him back. They just weren’t going to overpay to do so.

Yesterday’s moves……

Two things strike me about yesterday…..

1. Cashman didn’t stubbornly stick to his guns, keep the roster intact, as a way of defending off-season moves that didn’t work out. It takes a secure guy to do that in a very insecure industry and I applaud him for that.

2. When a bankrupt team takes on more payroll than the Yankees during the trade deadline, something is not only VERY wrong with the system, it tells me the Yankees are being run by people who understand the baseball industry. Just because they are the Yankees, it doesn’t mean they can’t have other teams take on money.

The Wood and Berkman deals have Cleveland and Houston kicking in over 6 million dollars in payroll relief. All three deals are the classic “no lose” deals from the Yankees perspective. They gave up nothing of value and if these guys help them win 2-3 extra games, it could be the difference between winning the division and being in the WC.

Overall, a very good day for the Yankees yesterday.

Did you know that the Yankees blew the Cliff Lee trade by being “too cute?” Loopy has much better sources than I do of course. I have none. But I wasn’t aware that the Yankees blew the Cliff Lee deal.

Did you also know that the Yankees are being general managed in an “almost twitchy way”? According to Loopy, trying to make deadline acquisitions to help them hold off the Rays means they are more scared of the Rays than the Bogeyman.

First of all, the Yankees are not trying to win the Division from the Bogeyman. They are pretty sure they have to beat the Rays. They are therefore indeed more afraid of the Rays than the Bogeyman.

Second, yes, I know the Yankees spend more than anybody, yada, yada. But I also know that the Rays are the most reprehensible franchise in modern Major League History, a whore masquerading as Cinderella at the Ball. The Rays ownership spent ZERO for years, debasing the AL East, embarrassing their fans and preserving the owners’ savings, content to wait around for enough 1st round picks to fall into their threadbare laps to make a contending team. And now they are the model franchise that hypocrites like Loopy like to hold up to the Yankees’ excess? Utterly disingenuous. Because what happens next year? They let stars walk: their closer, Carlos Pena (gulp, a former Yankee prospect), and Carl Crawford.

Third, regardless of how the Rays came by their talent, which is considerable, the Yankees have to beat them if they want to win the Division. So they have to be better. So they make deadline pickups. Sorry, Loopy. Another strawman argument up in smoke. But he’s not done.

After excoriating the Yankees for making deadline pickups, he goes on to rip the quality of the pickups??? And then he rips Berkman in advance for inevitably saying that playing for the Yanks is a dream come true. Oh how I wish this guy would just stick to playing Polo in the Hamptons with his social betters and keep churning out his teen Travel Team “novels.”

He opens your eyes to a lot that you otherwise would not see, a good guy and a total gentleman.