From the Bergen Record
Cashman knows mess is his fault Monday, April 30, 2007 By BOB KLAPISCH
RECORD COLUMNIST
NEW YORK -- The Yankees exited the weekend with that unmistakable dreary feeling, the kind that fills up a non-contender's ballpark in late September when all hope is lost and a chilly off-season looms. It's still April, of course, but after losing another series to the Red Sox and dropping 5-of-6 to them in a week, the Yankees have made it clear their current roster, with all its underperforming components, just isn't good enough to hold off the leaner, hungrier (and cheaper) Sox.
The current crisis may yet cost Joe Torre his job; he'll need a good series in Texas this week to keep the corporate knives out of his back. But if Torre gets fired and is replaced by, say, Don Mattingly or Joe Girardi, the Yankees will still qualify as a $180 million mess, including a first baseman who's hitting under .200, a No. 3 starter (Carl Pavano) who doesn't want the ball, and four relievers who are on a pace for 100 or more games.
"It doesn't seem to be clicking for them, does it," one major league executive said of the Yankees this weekend. The Red Sox, 7-4 winners on Sunday, have proven they have a superior starting rotation, the more dominant closer and a deeper bench. And to say Boston has the better bullpen is the mother of all understatements.
The gap between the two clubs is obvious to everyone, even the Yankees themselves. Derek Jeter, sensing that Torre's reign is in jeopardy, pleaded for him not to be fired, saying talk of a new manager is "not fair" and "should stop" because "we're just not doing the job."
Even Brian Cashman is taking his share of the blame. The general manager must be aware of the not-so muted criticism in the clubhouse lately, the second-guessing of the weak bid for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the signing of Doug Mientkiewicz, the mindless reliance on Pavano.
All these factors have combined to turn the Yankees into a sub-.500 team. And while it's true the Yankees (likely) will rebound with Mike Mussina's imminent return, and (likely) will benefit from Phil Hughes' evolution, the Bombers no longer can count on fattening their record against the Blue Jays, Orioles and Devil Rays. In fact, the Yankees are just 3-11 in the East, a sure sign of continuing struggle.
Maybe a series with the last-place Rangers will help. Or maybe not. The American League has improved since 2005, the last time the Yankees started this slowly. Teams spend their money more wisely now, and there are fewer miracle-trade possibilities for Cashman to exploit. That's why he should've given more thought to, say, Ted Lilly as a free agent, or traded Pavano for Richie Sexson (or for anyone, really) when he could have.
To his credit, Cashman now says the deficits are indeed his fault.
"As far as I'm concerned, I take full responsibility," the GM said Sunday. "If people are looking for someone to blame, they can blame me. We're not going to sit and accept what we're going through."
It couldn't have been easy for Cashman to see Boston's Hideki Okajima outperform the entire Yankee relief corps once again. The Japanese lefty is just one of the ways the Sox outmaneuvered the Yankees this off-season.
Matsuzaka is the other, of course, with the strong possibility that J.D. Drew will turn out to be a more significant weapon than Bobby Abreu.
Okajima, a hunch signing by GM Theo Epstein, smothered a Bomber rally in the sixth inning with a constellation of weapons that stunned, if not overwhelmed, the Yankee hitters.
"You can't see the ball out of his hand, he's got a weird release point and it's tough to pick it up," said one veteran. "And there's one pitch he throws, I don't know if it's a slider or splitter ... whatever it is, it's filthy."
After Jeter reached on an error leading off the inning, Okajima got Bobby Abreu looking at a third strike and, after Alex Rodriguez's single to center, struck out Jason Giambi and got Hideki Matsui to bounce back to the mound.
Okajima was just as unhittable in the seventh, getting two of his three outs via strikeout. He was the perfect bridge to the eighth and ninth innings, where Jon Papelbon made it a perfect 8-for-8 in save opportunities. The Yankees, meanwhile, can only hope Mariano Rivera's cutter is fixed. The rest of the pen, however, appears beyond repair.
Yankee relievers already have thrown 36 more innings than their Red Sox counterparts, and that workload has sabotaged Scott Proctor more than anyone else. In his last six appearances (five of them against Boston), the right-hander's ERA has risen from 2.70 to 5.14, having allowed six hits in 42/3 innings.
Proctor still can hit 95 mph on the radar gun, but one teammate ruefully says, "His fastball is straight as a string right now." That's the surcharge for overwork, which is the price every Yankee reliever is paying for the starters' failure.
Put it this way: if Chien-Ming Wang can't outpitch Julian Tavarez, even because of a perfectly acceptable excuse like a split fingernail on his right index finger, then the Yankees' need for change goes beyond a new manager. They need Sexson, Roger Clemens and/or Dontrelle Willis.
If Cashman can't produce these saviors, how will Don Mattingly?
E-mail: klapisch@northjersey.com
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