WiR: The Titanic Edition, Con't

Story of the Week -- Here are three non-stories of the week:

Yanks consider voiding Giambi's contract -- Uh, yeah, sure. Wake me up if someone files something with the commissioner's office. Or even better, with a local court. The word "consider" is the tell that this story is essentially meaningless. You can consider anything. Anyone who clicks the Fantasy Girl links on Gleeman's blog considers, at least momentarily, having sex with Jessica Alba. Considering it doesn't make it happen, doesn't make it more likely to happen, doesn't mean that you're actually doing anything to make it happen. The Yanks can consider away, my money says they're still paying Giambi to play baseball next season.

Kyle Farnsworth criticizes Clemens' Family Plan Clause -- First of all, it's been reported the "Family Plan" clause doesn't exist. It's just a handshake agreement between Clemens and the ballclub, just as it was in Houston. Second of all, Kyle should spend more time worrying about his poor pitching this season, and less time worrying about his teammates. Last I heard, Farnsworth was hardly in a leadership position with this team. Finally, the many, many sportswriters who've taken up criticizing Clemens for his clause, and for signing with the Yankees, need to check themselves. It's been three years that Clemens goes home between starts. His teammates were so bothered by his selfish conduct, that the Astros made it to the NLCS twice during his Astros tenure, winning one of them. Sportswriters were so bent out of shape by the way that Clemens was disrespecting his Houston teammates that they awarded him the Cy Young in 2004, and he was third in the voting in 2005, and all the while he was going home to see his kids' high school games on days that he wasn't pitching. The horror!


It's time to fire Joe Torre -- Last year Joe Torre held together a club that lost two-thirds of its starting outfield, got the Yanks their ninth straight division title, and was rightly hailed for the job he did, finishing fourth in the Manager of the Year voting. That only lasted until October, when the Yankees lost out in the Division Series, and people called for him to be fired. So it's no surprise that with the Yanks under .500 in mid-May, the calls would start again.

But is Joe Torre really what's wrong with this ballclub? Torre couldn't have protected Darrell Rasner or Jeff Karstens from the line drives that broke their bones, and I haven't heard it suggested that he was responsible for the hamstring strains that cost Wang and Mussina DL stays in April. He didn't sign Kei Igawa, or Doug Mientkiewicz. Is it Joe's fault that Mariano Rivera looks mortal? That Bobby Abreu's swing broke down? That Carl Pavano suffers from whole body systemic failure?

Torre hasn't changed his approach one bit from the style that made him one of the most successful managers in Yankees history. What's changed is his roster, which has gotten older and more fragile, not to mention more expensive.

There's always the chance that this club needs a change of scenery, and that a manager who is more of a hardass than Torre could light a fire under these guys. But if Torre goes, it will be change for change's sake.