The offense exploded and Mike Mussina never imploded as the Yankees cruised on by the Tampa Bay Rays by a final of 6-1 Monday.  The win gained the Yankees a split in the series and finished off their first homestand with a record of 4-3 as they head off to play the Kansas City Royals.

Mussina was superb, going six strong allowing only one run on two hits.  Moose, who also had three K's was dialed in enough to tie Hall of Famer Bob Gibson with 251 career wins.

The offense struck early as Bobby Abreu who finished a double away from the cycle, continued his barrage of hitting heroics with an early 2nd inning HR, a two-run shot to put New York out in front 2-0.  Abreu is hitting .400 on the young season.

Flashing ahead to the 6th, Abreu tripled, Alex Rodriguez singled him in and Hideki Matsui doubled in A-Rod, increasing the lead to 4-1.  The Yankees tacked on two more in the 7th on hits by Matsui and Cano, making the final 6-1.

Finally Brian Bruney, Kyle Farnsworth and LaTroy Hawkins pitched brilliantly, thus saving the arms of Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera for the next series in KC.

Bomber Bites: Should the Yankees have hung on to Doug Mientkiewicz or Andy Phillips instead of signing Morgan Ensberg?  I'm getting the feeling he might be this year's version of Josh Phelps.

Brian Bruney is making me feel a lot better about the Yankees trading away Scott Proctor.  The guy who was the "2006 version of Joba" has looked sharp thus far, velocity wise and with his control.

Hey Joe Girardi, with Derek Jeter out can I please see A-Rod at SS, if only for a few games?

Phil Hughes faces former Mets pitcher Brian Bannister in KC and they wonder why people decry the "Los Mets" philosophy, this guy for Ambiorix Burgoss?

Jose Molina, what a steal!

I'll be the first one to admit back in late May I was calling for Gene "Stick" Michael to take over the GM duties for Brian Cashman.  Looking at what Cashman has done recently is putting those thoughts on hold.  Best of all Cashman and the Yankees seem to be concerned with themselves and not the rival Boston Red Sox.

Gone are Wil Nieves, Josh Phelps, Miguel Cairo, Kevin Thompson, who comprised the majority of the Yanks bench this season.  In are Andy Phillips, Shelley Duncan, Wilson Betemit, Jose Molina and Jason Giambi with Johnny Damon on the bench and Melky Cabrera starting.  Injuries and ineffectiveness to players such as Damon, Giambi, Phelps and Doug Mientkiewicz allowed Melky Cabrera to flourish playing every day in centerfield, while also forcing them to trust their farm system in guys like Phillips and Duncan who've injected quite a spark into this ballclub.

Getting Molina and Betemit also gives them greater versatility and a much greater sense of mind.  Betemit has popped more homers in his brief stint thus far than Cairo did for a year and a half with the ballclub.  Molina is the best Yankee backup catcher to Jorge Posada not named Joe Girardi since he left town.  Could anyone have imagined Nieves catching three straight games in Cleveland, handling that staff and collecting five hits along the way, including a four hit effort on Saturday? 

I'll admit that I thought he might be done and was a little bit leery of what Jason Giambi would do to this lineup and its overall synergy.  But then wouldn't you know it, ####, two homers in back to back games.

While it would've been nice to have Bernie Williams back, the way this bench has been re-constructed, one doesn't even hear those calls coming out anymore at this point in the season.  There are so many more options and matcups that Joe Torre has at his disposal, especially if he needs somebody to come up off the bench and pop one.  In June Phelps was "that guy."  Now Giambi, Duncan, Betemit and to some extent Damon all have the ability to launch one into the stands from off the bench.

Another area I must get back to is where Cashman refused to buckle into what Boston was doing.  Instead of making the move to get the next Jose Contreras or Carl Pavano, aka the guys Boston wanted to get, he simply said no to the Texas Rangers when they asked for Cabrera, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and even when the Rangers said they'd be ready to deal Eric Gagne to the Red Sox Cashman still said no.

Cashman deserves a lot of credit on that front in staying true to his convictions of building the farm system.  Because Chamberlain is starting to look like the 1996 version of Mariano Rivera, while Gag-ne is looking like the 1999 version of Rod Beck.  Kudos to Cashman.   

The New York Yankees are engaged in a "Cold War" of sorts.  Well armed with pitching to be sure, it's all a matter of whether the Yankees fire off any of their missles in a trade or if they can get them to fire for themselves down the stretch.  Back in the 1980's the Yankees dealt away the likes of Jose Rijo, Doug Drabek and Bob Tewksbury and ended up with little or nothing to show for it.  However in the 1990's they held onto the right guys in Andy Pettitte, Mariano Rivera and Ramiro Mendoza and turned prospects such as Sterling Hitchcock, Eric Milton and Matt Drews into Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson, Jim Mecir, Chuck Knoblauch and Cecil Fielder.  Now the Yankees must decide on what they'd like to do with a plethora of prospects which include: Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Alan Horne, Tyler Clippard, Jeff Karstens, Darrell Rasner and Jeff Marquez.

If I'm the Yankees, I'm not letting any of these guys go at the deadline period.  Not that I'm writing off the division just yet, but if this team as currently constructed with enough talent, can't catch the Cleveland Indians who are just four games ahead of them presently in the Wild Card standings, then they don't deserve to make the playoffs. 

What the Yankees should do is unload Kyle Farnsworth on somebody, call up Phil Hughes to replace the recently demoted Kei Igawa (which will happen assuming all is right, this Saturday), call up Jeff Karstens to be their long-man/spot starter out of the pen and call up Joba Chamberlain to pitch out of the pen.  The worst case scenario is for the Yankees to remain stagnant, the best case is that their moves aid them much like the 2002 Anaheim Angels where Phil Hughes becomes John Lackey and Joba Chamberlain mirrors Francisco Rodriguez. 

Would a guy like Eric Gagne, Chad Qualls or Octavio Dotel be an upgrade over Farnsworth?  Yes.  But worth the prospects?  No. 

What is all comes down to is that the Yankees can't be afraid to trust their own guys, especially their heralded prospects.  Over the last three years (2005-07) the Yankees have called up players that weren't initially on many people's radars nor were they trusted until injuries or poor play necessitated their call-ups.  It was Robinson Cano and Chien-Ming Wang who were called up two years ago to replace failures like Tony Womack, Kevin Brown and Jaret Wright.  Last year it was Melky Cabrera getting called up due to the injuries of Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui.  This season it's Andy Phillips getting the every day nod in place of the off-season disaster situation at 1st.  In summary, Cano, Cabrera and Phillips while pumping life into this club as every day regulars are all hitting around or over .300 on the season and Wang has 12 wins as the ace of the staff after missing almost a month of the season. 

While it would be nice for the Yankees to also further upgrade their bench at the deadline, they'll likely have to hope that Jason Giambi can come back at full strength either as a power bat off the bench or as a DH.  If Giambi can come back at 100% it would do wonders for the type of protection A-Rod needs.  Because A-Rod knows that he has to be the guy to knock in runs consistently given the fact that others usually don't and thus with opposing pitchers knowing that, they aren't giving A-Rod anything to hit, which in turn is frustrating A-Rod and making him impatient at the plate.  A healthy Giambi would curb that.  However what a healthy Giambi should not curb is the playing-time of the surging Melky Cabrera.

Hall of Fame Perspective: Anyone happen to notice about 70,000 fans descended upon Cooperstown this weekend?  This was for two guys in Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. who transcended the game, were class acts and were guys who you could just respect and admire watching as a fan no matter what team you rooted for.  Imagine then given the proximity of New York Yankees and New York Mets fans state and city wide with Cooperstown in their own backyard so to speak, just how jam packed that place will get when players like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens and Mike Piazza all get inducted one day?  Perhaps we'll get a barometer and a small taste for that next year when Goose Gossage is finally enshrined at Cooperstown. 

With Bernie Williams seemingly out of the picture, the New York Yankees continue to lack any righthanded pop off their bench.  Andy Phillips and Josh Phelps have proven they can't even be useful utility players and it's looking more and more as if Doug Mientkiewicz will be the regular starting firstbaseman.  It really is odd to not have Bernie at least on the bench, given the sad state of the Yankees bench, which doesn't even have a solid backup catcher, Mike Piazza would've been nice.  But with "backup catcher," Miguel Cairo and "other firstbaseman," the Yankees had better pray they don't have any major injuries like they did last season with Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui.

On the pitching front the Yankees still look solid with their top three.  However my only gripe is that the brilliant pitching of Jeff Karstens this spring will go for naught.  The Yankees in a panic move once again with Boston, felt they had to jump and sign Kei Igawa for an insane amount of money.  Proof that once again they never give their farmhands a shot until unless out of necessity.  In 1995 Jimmy Key went down with an injured rotator cuff and Andy Pettitte was slotted into the rotation.  Back in 1996 they almost dealt Mariano Rivera to Seattle for Felix Fermin because they weren't confident Derek Jeter could be the everyday shortstop.  Mariano Rivera became one of the Yankees top relievers and eventual closer because they'd tried and failed with everyone else in the 1995 playoffs.  Chien-Ming Wang and Robinson Cano emerged in 2005 after great spring training's and injury and ineffectiveness of Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano and Tony Womack.  In addition because of injuries last season and after a great spring showing, Melky Cabrera also came into his own.  So while all the attention may be focused on Phil Hughes, it may well be Karstens who will come up into the rotation and save the Yankees bacon in late May or early June.