Quatrociento Quadrangulares

When Alex Rodriguez gives, he gives a lot.

Last night, it was a 4-4, 2 home run performance. The second one was number 400 on A-Rod's career. He is the youngest guy to ever reach the 400 homer level.

And riding on that performance, the Yanks gave Mike Mussina 12 runs with which to hold off the Brewers, salvaging one game of the three game set.

A lot of different ways to feel about this. Optimists are taking this as a sign of life and a potential turn-around point. Pessimists think that the season is already over, in June. I'm stuck in between--I'd like to see how the Yanks do against the Cards before jumping to conclusions.

As for Alex, I'm super happy for him on this achievement. It's a shame that we can't have this without 1) someone asking about pursuit of Hank Aaron (just look at Alex's former teammate, Ken Griffey, Jr., to see how a perfectly reasonable pursuit of immortality can go wrong), or 2) without people claiming that it's meaningless because Rodriguez isn't "clutch."

Meanwhile, in the Daily News Brian Cashman tells the public what Yankee fans in the blogosphere have known for a while: there is no "flexibility" to this roster. The Yanks will live or die with what they have on hand, and Jaret Wright might not be one of the things the Yanks have on hand, at least not this season.

The Yanks may wind up paying $4.5MM per game pitched in Jaret Wright's Yankee career. If that happens, he will have a great case as the "Worst Free Agent Signing Ever" particularly since I doubt the Yanks were able to get Wright's shoulder insured.

A few sundries:

New one up at Baseball Prospectus, a Notebook piece about the Pirates. Enjoy.

The Devil Rays designate for assignment a DH with five homers, and it's a cause that launches a hundred ships. Dan Szymborski has a funny take here, Pinstriped Theologian Steve Goldman preaches that the Yankee way is to pick this boy off waivers here, and Brother Joe bodyslams the entire Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization, here. Since it's a subscriber piece, here's a short quote:

Maybe Tampa Bay is an impossible market for major-league baseball, but we'll never know until they actually get major-league baseball.

Ouch.