I'm Not As Angry As You Think I'd Be.....

I'm not angry at all actually. Really annoyed after giving one away on Friday night (more pissed at Torre than Mo...more on that later). Absolutely hate losing to the infidels anytime, anywhere. But let's be honest folks, if we took two out of three this weekend, it would have been cause to do the Beat It Up Dance (see Tyrese in the movie, Baby Boy).

But we always seem to lose that first series at Fenway so all I was hoping with two junior high school pitchers going for us was for the games to be respectable. Which they were. So considering the state of our rotation and our bullpen running on fumes, a sweep was a possibility.

But I love the fact that all of these infidels like Bill Simmons still have Don Quixote syndrome. A sweep is a sweep. Can't take anything away from the accomplishment. But let's point out a couple of things before we annoint the Sawx to their first division title since 1995.

We were able to bang up their three best starters. All of them got touched up over the weekend. But here's the importance of having a healthy rotation. When your starters get banged up, you can got to a relatively fresh bullpen. The Sox have one of the bullpen ERAs not because of their personnel. But because they're rested and rarely used. Outside of Papelbon, I would take everyone of our guys over theirs. But when you have Scott Proctor pitching in 12 of the team's first 16 games...And Vizcaino throwing four out of the last five days....and Bruney pitching on fumes....something's gotta give. This is going to happen when your two of your top three starters are out and you're going with four rookies.

So while I won't go so far as to say that I predicted something like what happened the past four games would happen, but I wasn't in the least bit surprised. When quality starts (Six innings, three runs) are as elusive as no-hitters for your rotation, then your bullpen is going to suffer. A-Rod can hit 150 homers this year, and the team will still struggle to win half their games.

We get Wang back tonight and Moose next week so hopefully they get start to turn things around. I was happy to see them bring up Phillip Hughes and am excited to hear he's pitching Thursday night.

Which brings me to pet peave of the day...the intellectual dishonesty and mishandling of this whole pitching situation by the Yankee brass and Joe Torre.

I kept hearing that Chase Wright was brought up before Hughes because they said that he was further along than Hughes was. By what standard? Hughes has been called the best prospect in the Yankees system. He dominated Double A last year and is 2-1 in Triple A this year. Many scouts thought that he was ready to come up last year had the brass decided not to baby him with these ridiculous pitch counts. Everyone was salivating over his stuff in spring training.

You're going to tell me that Hughes wasn't more ready for the majors than Chase Wright, a kid who's never pitched above Double A before last week? Personally I think these pitch counts are bogus and are actually stunting his growth rather than helping it. He'll never learn how to get out of his own jams if you put him on a 80 to 100 pitch count.

If you want to tell me that they don't want to take any chances on the kid and despite our rotation problems, fine. If you want to say that he's the future and can't see him being called up before June or as a September call-up, fine. But don't tell me that Wright was more advanced than Hughes when this guy has been in the minors for seven years and hasn't gotten past Double A. Coddle Hughes if you want, but don't treat us like idiots.

My other beef is with Torre and the way he's handled the bullpen. Kyle Farnsworth in particular. If Torre's lost faith in him then let him go, trade him, whatever. But the idea that you have a all hands on deck situation and you have a 100 mph flamethrower on your bench Friday night is inexcusable. Vizcaino, Proctor and Bruney's arms are about to fall off and you can't get Kyle in the game?

I understand trust is a big part of what makes Torre effective. But if you can't expect these guys to hold up until the All-Star break much less the season if you don't get some new blood in there. Use Farnsworth or let him go. I'm tired of seeing Proctor giving up bombs to bums like Mike Lowell because he hasn't had a day off in a week.

The other problem I have with Torre is his use of Rivera. It's clear to me and everyone who watches regularly that Rivera's problem isn't age. It's rust. He's not getting enough game time and Torre's babying isn't helping. Regardless of what Mo might say, he's not the same "seven pitch warmup and I'm ready" guy that he was several years ago. He needs work even if it isn't a save situation.

There's no reason for there to be nearly a week between appearances for Mo. He blows the rubber game in Oakland last Sunday. The next time he appears is in the eighth inning of Friday's game. Huh? Joe couldn't have gotten him some work in the Cleveland series? Just to shake off some rust? I know Joe wants to save some bullets, but this is way too early to coddle him.

I owe all of you an apology....more on that later....