Rock Slide

Heartened by a discussion of how much of the material out in the blogosphere is disjointed thoughts, not "publishable" in any traditional sense, here are some choppy ruminations of my own:

How exactly does this work again? The Yanks went from red-hot, tearing through three teams in their last five series that are well over .500 (and one that was pretty close when we got to them), and now they manage two measly runs over their first two games against the Rockies. Now, these are not the same Rockies the Yanks faced last time they went to Coors Field--the humidor and better pitching means you're less likely to see a football score these days. But it's not like we're looking at the '66 Dodgers, either. The team's eighth in the league in RA+--strictly middle of the road.

Two friggin' runs! Total!

The thing with the Yanks' early futility this season is that it leaves very little margin for error. Two losses in a row, to a team that's over .500, shouldn't be the end of the world. But one more loss puts this team back to .500, which would mean they've frittered away 8% of the schedule they had left the last time they hit .500. So there's really no relaxing if you're a Yankee fan in 2007, I guess. Tomorrow, Roger Clemens tries to avert the sweep against the Rockies' best pitcher this season, Rodrigo Lopez. No pressure, huh?

***

Here's a question: things were going pretty well, and then they cast off Josh Phelps for Andy Phillips? The team had one useful bat on the bench, heading off to face the NL...and we just tossed it away. Why?

It's judgment day for Jason Giambi under Bud Selig's "talk to the Mitchell Commission or face the consequences" ultimatum. I have some thoughts on the ultimatum, and Giambi's choice, over on Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered.

Sometimes if you're a baseball fan, even when you win, you lose. For example, Jeff Weaver shut out the Pirates last night, after being one of the very worst pitchers in baseball this season. Now, your pitcher throwing a four-hit shutout when he's been going through hard times is a good thing, specially when your team's only 4 1/2 games out of the AL Wild Card lead.

So, I guess it's possible Jeff Weaver has turned things around, just as the team was about to send his backside to the glue factory. On the other hand, after the cheering dies down, it's likely that the sound you hear is a disembodied voice telling Ms fans, "I hereby condemn you to ten more starts of Jeff Weaver."

May heaven have mercy on their souls...