Week(end) In Review, Plus

In honor of the shortest week of the season, the shortest week in review.

Record for the Week: 3-0 (26 RS, 12 RA)
Overall: 52-36 (2nd place, 0.5 games behind Boston)

Player of the Week: The runners-up are Jeter (.333/.385/.833) and Alex Rodriguez (.417/.462/.667), and Andy Phillips (.333/.400/.889) had a nice weekend as well. But this week, we're giving the hardware to Randy Johnson, who set the tone with his seven inning, three run, six-strikeout outing to start the second half, and bested the unbeaten Jose Contreras. Mike Mussina also turned out a quality start against the defending champs.

Dregs of the Week: Do we even need to have dregs this week? Jorge Posada batted .273/.385/.273 last week, which is hardly a sin. Kyle Farnsworth gave up a run on Sunday night, which made things a little more exciting than usual. It's decided, no dregs this week, just runners-up.

Story of the Week: The Yanks set a high tone against the defending champion White Sox, while the Red Sox flounder a bit, and get the Yanks close enough to smell blood. While all this was happening, the Yanks were fielding--and getting nice performances--from castoffs like Miguel Cairo, Aaron Guiel, and Nick Green. And they were busy acquiring Cardinal castoff Big Sidney Ponson--don't tell him that big building beyond Yankee Stadium is a courthouse--to replace rotation washout Shawn Chacon.

****
Three-E-Rod

Last night's story wasn't so much Mariano Rivera's 401st save, or the Yankees' victory, but Alex Rodriguez's fielding miscues, which put groundball machine Chien Ming Wang in some peril. Don't know why Alex has been scattershot with his throws this year--he's been throwing sidearm more often than I remember from before, but that's just anecdotal--but I pray the problem isn't the beginning of a Chuck Knoblauch-style breakdown.

And here I thought that superstar players were supposed to set your mind at ease, not give you ulcers.