AAAAAAAARRRRRGH!!!!

Are you bloody serious?! Tanyon Sturtze in a tight ballgame against the Red Sox?! How much more do we all have to see of this? It's become a ranting obsession of mine, but I think I have good reason to be so furious.

It's going to take an edict from The Boss himself to banish Tanyon forever to the Abyss. Mr. Steinbrenner, sir, it is my sincere and humble request to you, as a lifelong Yankee fan, please please please force your subordinates to rid us of this plague on our house. Tanyon Sturtze MUST GO!!!

What happened in the later innings wasn't his fault. I can't pin the Yankees' problems on one man, but it's a disaster waiting to happen when you give Clueless Joe a toy to play with that is clearly labelled "Not for children under the age of 3, or Joe Torre". It's asking for trouble. Despite a career long slump, Torre asks his worst pitcher to enter the game in a close affair against our biggest rival, in the swing game of the series and get out their best hitter. What happens? He walks him. And many of us consider that result lucky. Villone was the guy that gave it up, but where did it begin? Sturtze. Villone hardly pitches and isn't sharp. Why? Sturtze leads the Yankees in appearances.

That's all I'm going to say about that today. I can't stomach anymore.

Far more unnerving is the loss of Hideki Matsui to what sounds like a fractured wrist. His streak of games played is snapped, but that may end up being a good thing for him. He may need the rest. The problem for the Yankees is that we are without Sheffield already, and Matsui was just getting hot. His absence will likely be of the longer variety, like 3 months, and even when he returns he'll need to strengthen the wrist to get his power back. It doesn't just happen that you return from the DL and get back into the groove right away. We need to solve this problem with Melky and Bernie and Bubba.....how does that sound to everyone? Hmmm.....

Bernie Williams may become more important now than anyone thought he would be at any point in the 2006 season. He hasn't been great, and there's plenty to complain about, but the bat is at least still earning him a few singles here and there that may help us drive in a few runs. As it is, the bottom of our order is now extremely weak and I have to wonder what's going to happen now.

The loss is one thing (this one's on Torre) but the injuries are piling up and we're off course for the time being.