Baseball Playoffs

Yankees-Angels

First blood. That's what NY needed against a run till you drop Angels team. Something to slow them down, put them back on their heels.

What Joe Torre gave us was Mike Mussina. The same tired armed, spotty Mussina who'll never be the pitcher he once was, but is being rewarded via the good old boy network over younger, more athletic pitchers.

Either Shawn Chacon or Chien Ming Wang was the far better choice for so many reasons. Both bounce off the mound and can negate small ball, the Angels penchant for bunting, and both have better pickoff moves than Mussina and that takes away the Halo's base stealing abilities as well.

Have I mentioned that both pitchers have also had a better season...pitching?

The tomorrow's-another-day Yankees needed a post-season wakeup call, and pushing Mussina back to a Yankee Stadium start...if indeed he was even given a start...would have been the perfect eye opener for Torre's slow starters. It would have sent a message to the entire team that results were going to count more than seniority, that winning was to be favored over reputation.

The Yankees can still win this series, but even if they do it will be a grind it out, come from behind mess that leaves them ill prepared to take on the Red Sox who shouldn't have all that much of a problem with the offensively challenged White Sox. Randy Johnson, Chacon and Wang are a formidable 2, 3, and 4, with Small waiting in the wings should he be needed as well, but it's smallball that the Angels excel at, and it's small thinking that permeates the NY dugout.

Yankees in 5, IF Randy Johnson wins Game 3. Playing the Angels on their turf is like college football...seas of clamoring, vibrant red-clad fans, waving, stomping, shouting and doing whatever they can to make the old guys uncomfortable, and the WORST possible starter to face them down was the one picked to do so.

How'd the Yankees even make it to the playoffs? Johnson, Chacon, And Small. Johnson isn't even starting until Game 3, the still recuperating Wang who needed the extra rest is starting Game 2 over Chacon, and that's all you need to know about the teams "brain trust". It will be interesting to see if the team can once again win in spite of the horrid managing.