Collin who?

I find it hard to give him credit.

What some people interpret as good pitching, I interpret as bad hitting:

"Many will say that Gee's performance was thanks to nothing more than a slumping Yankees team that has put together a magical run to start this season finally coming back down to Earth. And they may be partially correct, but these critics should also give credit where credit is due. It's not every night that the New York Yankees are limited to four hits, one run, no walks and are fanned 12 times by an opposing pitcher. In fact, Dillon Gee is only the second pitcher since 1916 with 12 or more strikeouts, no walks and four or fewer hits against the Yankees. Pedro Martinez being the other, in 1999."

The Yankees are 50 runs behind the Orioles and Red Sox. The Yankees are on pace for a mere 660 runs. The Yankees have scored around 12 more runs than the Mets, and the Yankees are in the DH league. The Yankees have a .307 on-base%.

I feel like it was the Yankees who fell back to Earth.

"Dillon Gee suffocated the Yankees over 7 1/3 innings en route to a 3-1 win for the Mets, which means that the Yankees have dropped all four games to the Mets, which means that the Yankees have now lost seven of their last nine.

While getting swept by an otherwise middling team like the Mets in a rivalry series is bad enough, the larger concern for the Yankees is that they may regressing to reasonable expectations. How long could they continue to thrive on the dubious backs of Vernon Wells, Travis Hafner and Lyle Overbay? Perhaps not beyond the month of May, as it turns out.

Presumably, the Yankees will get healthier, but the problem is that aging warhorses like Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Alex Rodriguez -- as great as their careers have been -- carry no guarantees. Actually, it's quite possible Jeter and Rodriguez will resume their declines, with both bat and glove. To boot, the schedule isn't going to get much easier (remaining opponents have an average winning percentage of .510), and the AL East is, of course, a tough loop."

The second wave of injuries -- Nunez, Cervelli, Youkilis, and Pettitte -- should not be overlooked. 

Wells, Overbay, and Hafner may very well regress to reasonable expectations. 

Jeter and ARod carry no guarantees -- no player carries guarantees.  But, in order to improve the team, the returning Yankees simply have to outperform Romine, the recently-departed Francisco, and Brignac.  These clowns have a combined batter average of around .100.

It was fun while it lasted.

Lots of articles about the sudden collapse of the Underdog Yankees, two from the same paper ...

But at least Ken Davidoff called it a week ago:

"They don’t hit too many home runs, don’t make too much money, and don’t fall short of ludicrously high expectations. Most pertinent, they don’t motivate the masses to say, 'We need Jeter, A-Rod, Teixeira, Youkilis, etc.!!!'

To the contrary, the latest working theory I’ve heard while stumbling through Yankee Universe is that some fans don’t want the injured guys to come back at all, that the Yankees are better off with the 'fun' current group.

There’s an easy response to those folks: Be careful what you wish for. The more players the Yankees can activate off the disabled list, the higher chance they will have at turning this special start into a special season.

There’s nothing fun in an undermanned team turning a fast start into a heartbreaking finish. Just ask the 2007 Mets."

Cano isn't much of a draw.

Yankees will remember it when it's time to negotiate a contract.

Team on-base% of .310.

"As long as the Bombers didn’t get buried in the AL East, they would get a big pick-me-up when Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez – OK, maybe not A-Rod – were finally healthy and ready to contribute.

That time has come. Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis – a late injury addition – will be back Friday after they finish their Double-A rehab assignments.

So why doesn’t anybody seem excited? Based on the past four days, perhaps they should be.

Teixeira and Youkilis’ return means the Yankees have 24 hours to figure out how to make room for them – and Yankees fans have the same amount of time to come to grips with the fact that Lyle Overbay and David Adams will no longer be regulars."

Yeah, the newfound fans of the Replacement Yankees aren't going to be yelling about clubhouse chemistry after a Mets sweep.

I agree with Mattingly. I see it with the Yankees.

"But Wednesday morning, Mattingly could no longer contain himself in a pregame briefing with reporters in Milwaukee.

'There has to be a mixture of competitiveness,' Mattingly said. 'It's not, "Let's put an All-Star team together and the All-Star team wins."

'It's finding that balance of a team that has a little bit of grit and will fight you. And also having the talent to go with it. All grit and no talent isn't going to make you successful. But all talent and no grit isn't going to get you there either.'

Mattingly wasn't just talking, and to prove his point, benched right fielder Andre Ethier for Van Slyke, offering this explanation:

'There's a touch difference between, "I'm giving you best effort," Mattingly said, 'and being willing to fight you for that prize, to do whatever it takes to win. It's almost something inside you that says, "You're not beating me today. You're not getting me out."

...

'I'm putting out my lineup that I feel is going to be the most competitive, and going to compete the hardest.' "

I take that to mean Mattingly would bench Cano once in a while, just to prove a point.

Why didn't he field the ball first and then let the umpire decide if it's fair or foul?

"Davis was holding a runner at first and shifting to cover the hole, believing it was unlikely that the right-hander at the plate, Brandon Phillips, would hit the ball down the line. He knew that the runner at third, Shin-Soo Choo, would be fast enough to beat his throw home on a softly hit ball.

When a grounder came his way, Davis ruled out throwing home to get Choo. He also decided against an aggressive attempt at a double play. On a ball like that, Davis said, stepping on first base would remove the force at second, meaning Choo’s run would count. Davis did not want to concede the run, because he knew the overpowering Reds closer Aroldis Chapman would come in for the bottom of the ninth.

As the ball skittered down the line, Davis said, it seemed to be bouncing foul. If it stayed on that course, the count would be 0-2 on Phillips. So, in far less time than it took to read about those options, Davis made the call: do nothing. Naturally, the ball stayed fair, skipping over the bag for the go-ahead hit. The Reds won, 7-4."

So the manager doesn't even matter.

The win-loss record also doesn't matter:

"Don Mattingly could not have done anything to keep Zack Greinke, Hanley Ramirez or Chad Billingsley healthy."

I am not completely sure that's accurate.


"He probably could not have done anything to get Matt Kemp out of his rut (though for what it’s worth Kemp did homer Monday night, only his second of the year after offseason shoulder surgery)."

I am not completely sure that's accurate, either.


"And Mattingly can’t make Brandon League pitch well… though arguably he could and should stop using him in key situations."

I am not completely sure any of this is accurate.

Maybe Mattingly is unable to motivate his players. Maybe they don't practice enough. Maybe they don't play intelligently. Maybe Mattingly doesn't optimize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.


"Like his mentor Joe Torre, Mattingly is a more or less competent tactician who really shines as a clubhouse leader. He treats his players well and, by all accounts, he has their respect. That can’t be measured, and clearly it is not helping the Dodgers win any games just at the moment, but it shouldn’t be written off entirely either. Like the vast majority of employees in all fields, baseball players will tell you that a good manager and a good workplace environment do matter."

Joe Torre is more or less a competent tactician?

I pick "less."


If the managers matter so little, I'll take the job at half the pay. Use the remaining money to shore up the bullpen.

Make room for Curtis.

Kevin Kernan notices the poor play of Gardner and Ichiro:

"Ichiro broke an 0-for-22 skid with a seventh-inning single and scored the Yankees second run, but struck out with the potential tying run on second to end the eighth. Gardner went 1-for-5 with two strikeouts and has five hits over his last 28 at-bats. Gardner singled in the ninth with one out and stole second and third against closer Tom Wilhemsen but Jayson Nix struck out and Robinson Cano grounded to short to end the game."

An unusual idea in Yankee Universe is that Wells ought to keep playing and Granderson ought to ride the pine.


Gardner's stats: 158 AB, .253/.324/.380, 3 HR, 7 2B, 2 3B, 20 R, 14 RBI, 16 BB, 40 K, 9 SB

Ichiro's stats: 134 AB, .239/.280/.328, 2 HR, 4 2B, 1 3B, 13 R, 8 RBI, 8 BB, 18 K, 5 SB


It's not Wells or Granderson in the Yankee outfield. It's Wells and Granderson.

Quarter pole.

Yankees in first place, on pace for 100+ wins.

Most people have been proven wrong so far, few people are willing to admit it:

"When I walked into the Yankees clubhouse Tuesday afternoon, they were not last in the AL East. They were first, tied with Texas for the league’s best record.

On one level, I was baffled. No Derek Jeter. No Alex Rodriguez. No Mark Teixeira. Until Tuesday, no Curtis Granderson, either. According to research by STATS LLC, they have the second-oldest roster in the majors and the second-most days lost to the disabled list. That should portend disaster.

Nope. Despite the ad hoc lineups, the long-term questions hovering over Jeter and A-Rod, and the division’s perpetual competitiveness, the Yankees’ excellence remains unassailable."

I'm not sure if it's because the Pinstripes are transformative, I just think the players they lost were overrated and the players they got are underrated.

Sabathia is #1 and #10 on the same list.

Matt Harvey is #5 on the list of current players most likely to win 300 games.

Matt Harvey has 7 career wins.

Don Mattingly is a good manager because I said so.

"They've moved Matt Kemp's left foot back in the batter's box."

"They."


"It's just a few inches but still enough, they hope, to allow Kemp to clear quicker on the harder stuff inside."

Baseball is a game of inches.


"Over time he'd nudged that foot toward the plate, probably so he'd have a more reasonable shot at sliders on the far side of the strike zone, though it may have been unconscious."

OK, good to know.


"Either way, Kemp's setup had become closed, and now his stance is, while not open, at least sneaking up on neutral."

Sneaking up on neutral?


"The techies upstairs report the ball is coming off Kemp's bat well enough, presumably with the kind of velocity and trajectory that suggest better than one home run, eight extra-base hits and a .277 batting average through more than 150 plate appearances."

Who are the techies upstairs?

And who are they to conclude that the velocity and trajectory are better than .277 and 1 HR?


"This, anyway, is what Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said."

Anyway.


"It's small stuff – an inch or two of dirt or bat or ballpark that are the difference between an offensive anchor in the three-hole and a five-tool superstar in the National League West. Then, you take that inch or two, spread them over a roster, over a disabled list, over a stadium-full of expectations, and they amount to something.

Currently, they add up to the relative instability of Mattingly's employment, or at least the daily public referendum on his employment, because the Los Angeles Dodgers – as a result of all those misplaced inches – have been nothing like anyone figured they'd be."

Mattingly sounds like he'd make a heckuva batting coach.


"Generally, the conclusion to fire a manager is the call of the uninspired. The domain of the simple-minded. These are the same people who rail against the waiter when the fish of the day runs out."

Yes, the uninspired, simple-minded people who call for the firing of a baseball manager are ... the same people who rail against the waiters when the fish of the day runs out.

Not to rely upon simple-minded, nonsensical generalizations, or anything ...

I actually think the Heat are kind of boring. They play at half-speed until their backs are against the wall. Shoot a bunch of threes, wait for Lebron to save them in the 4th quarter.

"It doesn't matter whether you love the Miami Heat or hate them. You watch them. They are the team in professional sports, at least in this country, to talk the most about."

What if you don't care about the NBA? What then?


"People still call the Yankees the Evil Empire. They’re not, they don’t generate the emotion they used to one way or another, even when they're going good the way they are now. The Heat are the Yankees now."

I think Chris Nelson and Preston Claiborne are offended.


"LeBron James is the biggest star we have in sports and the Heat are the star team, more than the Yankees or any other baseball team, more than the Lakers and Celtics, more than any team in pro football.

They give off the most heat, in all ways."

The Heat give off the most heat. Brilliant.

Is Mike Lupica arguing with the voices in his head again?


For what it's worth, the dilapidated Yankees still lead the league in attendance and are still worth $2 billion.

Oh, and the dilapidated Yankees just happen to be in first place.

There's a pretty good story there. But it would require a writer to identify the Yankees as underdogs.


"The Orioles may not have a pure No. 1 starter, but I still think they’ve been the best all-around team in baseball this season.

And you better pay attention to the kid at third base, Manny Machado, because he is going to be a huge star for Buck Showalter for a long time."

The Yankees are in first place, by the way.


"By the way, do people still think that Mike Trout was the real MVP of the American League last season and not the guy who won the Triple Crown?"

Sure ... because last season was last season.

Do people still think R.A. Dickey was the real Cy Young of the NL last season?

That's "Mister Rivera" to you, pal.

When he returns from the DL, maybe Teixeira can add some depth to the bench.

Overbay is hitting .264 with 6 HRs and 20 RBIs.

Those sound like Teixeira stats at 1/20th the price.

Big Papi was on the list.

Sorry, but he loses the benefit of the doubt.

I don't see the connection.

"The signs are everywhere now. Panic on the sidewalks of New York, lumps in throats ... hope and faith and belief in miracles in Beantown. It can’t be happening again. But it is. Because if it can happen to Joe Torre and Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, it can sure happen to Carmelo Anthony.

Only this time, it isn’t the Boston Red Sox who are desperate to Reverse the Curse. It is the New York Knicks, champions last in 1973. And this time, the choke’s on them."

This is actually confusing.

This time, the choke's on the Knicks, instead of the Yankees ... and the team looking to reverse the curse is the Knicks, instead of the Red Sox.


So people are actually talking to Kevin Millar, Derek Jeter, and others in an attempt to force this comparison.


Basketball vs. Baseball.

First-round vs. ALCS.

Curse of the Bambino vs. No Curse at all for the Boston team trying to come back from a 3-0 deficit.


Let's listen to Brian Cashman for some common sense, who is a baseball GM inexplicably providing basketball commentary:

" 'I don’t see a comparison,' Yankees general manager Brian Cashman told the Post’s Mark Hale. 'The Knicks will beat Boston if healthy. The Knicks are considerably better than Boston. The Knicks are supposed to win. They will win.' "


Serby gets the final word, proving just how tough it is to force this comparison:

"And the Celtics never sold Bill Russell to the Knicks. But could this be some Curse of the ... Jambino ... anyway?"

I don't know what that means.