Yankees' Notes

May 25, 2007
By Anthony Tripicchio

THE GOOD
Derek Jeter is incredible. Last year, he was MVP worthy, but he’s been even better this season. Jeter’s improved on his average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage from last year and his strikeouts are down. He recently passed Joe DiMaggio for fifth on the all-time Yankees’ hit list and he’s on pace to be first in three years. Build his monument now.

THE BAD
Micah Owings (3-1, 4.10 ERA) notched a complete game win against Houston in his last start, the best of his young career. Who is Owings you ask? Owings is the pitching prospect that GM Brian Cashman should have acquired in the Randy Johnson deal instead of Ross Ohlendorf. Ohlendorf is currently 1-3 with a 5.19 ERA in AAA Scranton.

Cashman has proven, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he has no clue about pitching. His long list of pitching futility is scary: Jeff Weaver, Kevin Brown, Steve Karsay, Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, and Jaret Wright to name a few. Those moves alone would have cost most GMs their jobs by now, but not Cashman. The Boss is on the right track. Brian Cashman should be gone, not Joe Torre.

THE SHAMEFUL
Carl Pavano’s heist is complete. After official word that the fragile right-hander will have Tommy John surgery on his elbow, he will in all likelihood, never throw another pitch for the Yankees. Pavano successfully swindled $40 million out of the Yankees for 19 games.

The fact that other teams were bidding on Pavano doesn’t excuse the Yankees from signing him. Pavano was injury-riddled for years prior to his two healthy years in Florida. In fact, those two years mark his only seasons in which he threw 200 innings or more. At the conclusion of those years, Pavano still had only won 10 games or more twice. Four years and $40 million later, the Yankees have an expensive arm on their shelf. It should lead to a GM on the chopping block too.