As someone who was an advocate for the hiring of Joe Girardi as Yankees manager it pains me to write this.  There needs to be some accountability in the Bronx and a change of culture.  For far too long dating mostly back to the end of the 2004 season, there has been far too much of a prevailing "fat-cat" attitude in which veteran players would stroll into town looking to gravy train a ride to a championship on the backs of the guys who've done it four times before.  Except there's only four guys left from that run and they're getting older and their backs are breaking with nobody else picking up the water.

While a shouting Hank Steinbrenner is much better than an empty missive from "The Boss" via a publicist, those words need to be followed up with action, pronto.  It's not enough to tell A-Rod to go jump in a lake when he opts-out, only to come back and reward him with $300 million, especially when your captain starts talking like the Yankees won before without him and with gamers like say perhaps a Mike Lowell type at 3rd.  You can't complain or should take action if your GM didn't want Johan Santana and you did, you're the new boss, you have the final say to sign off on it.

This Yankees team should've unloaded some fat contracts along with Torre and Cashman after the 2004 ALCS debacle.  The problem here is when you scream at these guys (especially the hitters) they realize that the Yankees can't move 'em because of their contracts and there's no competition off the joke of a bench (somewhere Bernie Williams is laughing) and nobody but the likes of Brett "freaking" Gardner to pressure them from the minors.  And why if you're pegging Ian Kennedy as a big part of your future or you have guys in the minors touted as the next "Joba" or "Mo" such as Mark Melancon, J.B. Cox or Daniel McCutchen are you stunting their growth with stop gaps like Sidney Ponson, Darrell Rasner and LaTroy Hawkins?

In my view if the Yankees after playing the next five games against Boston and Tampa, end up ten games out of a playoff spot at the All-Star break, I would advocate making some serious changes.  This team can't have it both ways, either trade for some big ticket guys who'll help your squad for the next 3-5 years or rip it all down and start getting rid of the old overpaid guys. 

So far there have not been any high expectations held on Girardi like there were on Torre, whose contract renewal was dependent upon incentives such as say reaching the ALCS in 2008.  And why was Girardi chosen?  The same reason Lou Pinella was not: Brian Cashman wanted all the power and Lou Pinella with his popularity, track record and high regard from The Boss, would've usurped Cashman's power with the Yankees in wanting his own players in his clubhouse. 

So if the Yankees are ten out at the All-Star break or trading deadline, I say start making changes at the top.  Hence my new GM would be Gene "Stick" Michael and my new Manager would be Buck Showalter and if A-Rod doesn't like it, tough he can leave just like Roberto Kelly, Mel Hall and the like of the early 90's.

Following that I would try to make some deals to bring back some younger players.  For example the Yankees have a few guys in the last year of their contracts.  Thus I might try and deal a guy like Jason Giambi to a team that needs a bopper and is in contention like his old team the A's, his old manager Joe Torre and the Dodgers or even the Giants who are incredibly still alive in the sorry NL West. 

After that I'd try to flip a guy like Mike Mussina who is having a fine season to a contender where he'd get a shot at a ring.  Moose lives in Pennsylvania and the Phillies with Brett Myers blowing up, could use a vet to help bolster a post-season run and team him up with the guy he was compared with, "slow and slower" Jamie Moyer.

Though he is a quality character guy in the clubhouse and has won in New York before, would be good with the young pitchers and they would risk him not returning next season, they might be able to get something back for Andy Pettitte.  If Texas continues to hover around .500, they need pitching.  Perhaps if Arizona (closer to home) or old skipper Joe Torre comes calling in L.A. Pettitte would be open to it if for just a 2-3 month playoff run. 

Maybe a team with closer issues such as the Tigers or Cardinals takes a bite on either Kyle Farnsworth or LaTroy Hawkins.

Finally, both Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon are swinging the bats well enough this season to warrant some interest.  Perhaps a team with the need of a veteran presence comes knocking, like Oakland, Minnesota, Florida or Milwaukee.

Of course I could be way off here and the Yankees wheel off 15 wins in a row.  But in any event someone has to stand up and be accountable or held accountable and decide where the Yankees are headed in 2008 or start getting ready for 2009 and beyond.  Because you can't have your cake and eat it for too long, or else you risk getting really fat and imploding all together.

It sounds odd to say just days after Friday afternoon's debacle, but when one takes a step back and looks the the 2008 New York Yankees after 81 games (44-37) they are much improved compared to the 2007 version (40-41) at this point.  Which not to slight Torre, but makes me wonder with the kind of talent he had if Buck Showalter wouldn't have done as good if not better or if Don Zimmer really was the "man behind the curtain" whom Torre had little post-season success without from 2004-2007.  In any event the Joe Girardi Yankees aren't perfect but they are better.

Jorge Posada (A): I know Jorge hasn't had a huge sample given injuries, but he can still flat out hit and his presence alone on this team really shows. 

Jason Giambi (B+): Who says the ghosts don't still come alive at Yankee Stadium?  This guy was dead in April, but now leads the team in homers and is in the top five in the American League and probably should be an All-Star.  Contract year sure, but Girardi really cracked the whip on him in Spring Training and it shows.

Robinson Cano (F): I know that Robbie has picked it up the last two weeks or so, but given his new contract he has just looked lethargic this season.  Terrible on base percentage.

Derek Jeter (B-): Ok its a bit of a pass but Jeter is a gamer, coming back quickly from a strained quad and playing regularly after getting hit on the hand.  Jeter like Cano has picked it up in the average department the last couple of weeks, but it would be nice to see some more power output.

Alex Rodriguez (A): Sure Mike Lowell would've plugged in nicely, but like with Posada and Kobe and Shaq, the Yankees couldn't do without A-Rod.  A-Rod has been blazing a trail since his return and is still near the top of the A.L. with 15 homers and a .327 batting average.

Johnny Damon (A): Another guy who looked almost completely lost but has been burning up the basepaths of late.  Damon has been the consumate table setter, leading the team in hits with 93, doubles with 20, steals with 13 and is sporting a .322 batting average.

Melky Cabrera: (C): Melky got off to a hot start which really raised expectations in a hurry.  No he's not Bernie Williams yet (if ever) but he does give the Yankees a plethora of contributions either in the field or on the bases even when he's not hitting.

Bobby Abreu (A): Probably the most consistent of all Yankees hitters to date.  Abreu leads the team with 53 RBI, is second in hits and third with 10 homers.

Hideki Matsui (A): Was tearing it up, now his knee might be torn up, again.  Helped to carry the team in the early going, but with all of these knee injuries I really have to start wondering about steroids with this guy.

Bench (D): The bench pretty much gets a D.  Duncan didn't play enough, Betemit was hurt too much and Ensberg was a Josh Phelps-esque bust.  Moeller and Molina have provided some stout defense as well as Gonzalez but this group just can't hack it.  Bring back Bernie anyone?

Mike Mussina (A): Speaking of those ghosts at Yankee Stadium, Mussina has been flying around New York but instead with a super-hero's cape.  Moose was being counted on as a 4th/5th starter to win 10-11 games.  In order to keep the Yankees in the race he's had to pitch like a 3rd starter and has already won 10 to lead the staff before the All-Star break.  He would've probably tied last year's total had the Yankees game in Pittsburgh not been rained out.  Who would've thunk Mussina would be the leader in wins and Giambi the leader in homers at this point? 

Andy Pettitte (B+): After a rocky start Andy looked a little tired from all of the off-season circus that was the Mitchell Report.  But with 9 wins and a recently concluded 20.2 scoreless innings streak, Pettitte looks primed for another huge 2nd half.  Pettitte is the best 2nd half pitcher in baseball and who wouldn't rather have him at $16 million for this year than Johan Santana for $150 million minus your best prospects? 

Chien-Ming Wang (B+): Wang looked as if he'd put those doubters to bed with a rapid 6-0 start.  He tailed off a tad and was just starting to get back into a groove before his freak injury.

Darrell Rasner (C): Some of his early starts Rasner got no run support.  In some of his more recent starts he's gotten knocked around.  But Rasner is what he is, an adequate back of the rotation guy who can eat up innings and keep you in the game.

Phil Hughes & Ian Kennedy (F): It should probably be an incomplete because of injuries but a combined record of 0-7 doesn't cut it boys.

Joba Chamberlain (A): Last year contrary to popular belief, he not Roger Clemens spurred this team onto the post-season.  Joba was lights out again in the pen and will try to save the Yankees bacon again, this time as a starter.  One can tell already just how mentally tough those late inning situations out of the pen have helped in Joba's progression.

Mariano Rivera (A+): You can tell I don't throw around A+'s lightly.  Think the Yankees may have wanted to give MO a 4th year on that contract?  Rivera an ERA under 1.00 and perfect in saves with 22, enough said.

Kyle Farnsworth (C+): Has been better than most in the Yanks pen which isn't saying a lot, but he does seem a little more confident with Girardi at the helm.

LaTroy Hawkins (F): I'm sorry but did anyone mention to Brian Cashman that this guy has the worst ERA of any pitcher at Yankee Stadium?  Forget O'Neill or Clemente, why does this guy have anyone's jersey number? 

Ross Ohlendorf (F): Maybe the Yankees should groom his as a starter because his confidence looks shot.

Edwar Ramirez (C+): If this guy could learn a pitch to compliment his change-up he might really turn out to be something good.

Jose Veras (B-): Sometimes he's lights out, sometimes he's lit up.  Effectively wild with some great velocity.

Bullpen etc: Bruney and Albaladejo were solid early before getting hurt, Giese was decent in long relief, but Traber and Igawa have looked like flops as lefties out of the pen.

All in all Joe Girardi has navigated this group fairly well in the early going.  He's done a much better job of balancing the bullpen and seems to have instilled more aggressiveness into this squad.  Given injuries to A-Rod, Posada, Wang, Jeter, Matsui, Hughes, Kennedy, Bruney and Albaladejo, considering the Yankees are only four games back in the loss column to Boston speaks volumes about Girardi.  No Girardi hasn't been as "rah-rah" in public as say Billy Martin, and sometimes he does look like a 2nd year manager still learning the ropes, but he does know and uphold the principle of the "Yankee-way" of the late 1990's. 

This Yankees squad, somewhat in transition is in almost the same place as another pioneer Yankee team.  The 1993 Yankees under 2nd year manager Buck Showlater posted a record of 46-35 after 81 games.  That was the last Yankees team in a non-strike year to miss the playoffs, however had there been a Wild Card back then they would've made it.  This Yankees squad is better than that one talent wise and this time around there is a Wild Card, but the division is still very much within reach.

Patriots fans can now find solace in that according to most NBA experts that they and the Celtics were underdogs when playing for the championship in their respective leagues.  Sounds pretty laughable doesn't it?  An 18-0 and 78-24 team viewed as the presumptive underdog?  As a fan of both the Celtics and Giants, all I need now is for the Steve Phillips' of the world to tell me how the Yankees won't win the World Series in 2008 and I'll be a very happy man.

If you've read my earlier columns, you'd know I've made clear my displeasure of these so-called "experts" not giving enough credit to the Boston Celtics.  Whether it was the league not liking the "bland, pale, un-marketable" franchise, which boasts the most tradition and titles.  Or ex-coaches, execs, players and commentators harboring old bitter feelings of jealousy, racism and hatred of the once and now proud franchise. 

The experts said the Celtics were stuck after the lottery balls went awry.  Blasted them for only getting Ray Allen and then questioned if they'd gotten rid of too much for Kevin Garnett.  Then went on to criticize the team as having no depth, "The Big Three and Scalabrine."  After that it was questions of age or if they could all jell and co-exist on the floor at the same time.

There were then questions as to whether the Celtics could topple teams in the Eastern Conference such as the Cavs, Pistons and Bulls.  Following that it was the matter of the Celtics being able to win against quality teams, then quality teams from the Western Conference, then win against quality teams on the road, then quality teams from the Western Conference on the road. 

Had the Celtics not lost KG to injury for a short stretch after the All-Star game and had they not just coasted down the stretch (though they won more of those games than not at the end) the Celtics probably could've bested or tied the Bulls record of 72 wins.  But it wasn't about the regular season for these Celtics, they had far greater aspirations as mentioned right from the beginning but few seemed to be listening or believed their lying eyes.

When the Celtics got to the playoffs questions arose about Doc Rivers ability to win in the post-season.  The Celtics at times during the Atlanta series never looked better or worse than they did the entire season.  The naysayers rose up again, if the Celts couldn't win on the road they were toast.

The Celtics then got to what ended up being their most difficult series against Cleveland.  Yet even as Boston knocked out the Cavs in a hard fought seven game tilt against the defending Eastern Conference Champs and quite possibly the best player in the world in LeBron James.  The experts seemed to forget those two "inconvienent" facts and still wouldn't give Boston any credit.

Moving onto Detroit, most picked the Pistons because they were battle tested, playoff proven and could win on the road.  Fair enough, though Cleveland and James had singlehandedly dispatched of them with ease in last year's Conference Finals.  What did the Celtics do but win more games on the road than Detroit did, including the series clincher on in The Palace at Auburn Hills.

Finally to the NBA Finals where everybody was drooling over Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson and how they'd breezed through a seemingly tough but beat up Western Conference and this time unlike the regular season they'd be bringing Pau Gasol. 

But to paraphrase the late Senator Lloyd Bensten, "the Boston Celtics had seen the Atlanta Hawks, they'd played the Atlanta Hawks and the Los Angeles Lakers were NOT the Atlanta Hawks."  Old "Head and Shoulders" wouldn't be passing "Red."  Kobe was barely Michael Cooper let alone Michael Jordan.  There was no Shaq, no Magic, they certainly weren't Worthy and By Scott did they ever get Kareem'd!  Heck after game six the Lakers might've well been that other team from L.A.

Perhpaps the "experts" were just trying to keep everyone interested by creating far sexier storylines than a 66 win team in the regular season coasting to a championship.  Be we fans know better, we know if the C's had lost, it would've rivaled the biggest choke 'round Boston since Billy Buck.  Instead the Celtics celebrated their first title since that fabled year of 1986 and brought it back home to Beantown, even though only one in five dentists agreed that they were truly the best.

The National League is the only league left anywhere that pitchers still bat.  While I'm of a younger generation, I still consider myself a big time historical baseball aficionado.  And I can see both sides of the argument, strategy and purity and tradition vs. offense and entertainment, I get it.  That being said its really stupid and boring to watch pitchers bat.

I say this coming from the perspective of a Yankees fan, American League baseball fan and as someone who has known nothing but the DH in the AL growing up.  And to that moron Steve Phillips (are the Seattle Mariners going to rally back and make the playoffs this year Stevie?) over at ESPN who talks about the "tradition of the game," I've got news for you.

If baseball stuck to tradition Chien-Ming Wang wouldn't never gotten hurt running the bases.  Know how I know how?  Because if baseball stuck to tradition and never installed inter-league play, American and National League teams wouldn't meet until the World Series in October and hence Wang never would've been running the bases because the Yankees wouldn't have been playing in Houston, but maybe in Arlington you know against a team in their own league who they've still yet to play this season! 

Does this come off a bit as sour grapes?  Sure.  Could Wang have gotten hurt as easily running sprints in the outfield warming up?  Possibly.  Say what you will of how fluky the injury was or how asinine it is that anybody would come up lame like that just simply running the bases, but the point is Wang should've never been on the bases to begin with.

I've voiced my opinion in previous posts about my feelings on instant replay and the wild card and while NL owners stick with the pitcher batting for financial reasons, I have no use for it as a fan.

Nobody wants to see a pitcher bat in the All-Star Game, but it can still happen in an NL park.  Sure it makes things interesting in the 6th or 7th inning strategy wise, but in the 3rd or 4th inning with runners at the corners and two outs, nobody in their right minds wants to see the pitcher come up to the plate.  One could even argue that in a close game in the AL, the manager of the team with the lead has to make more of a decision strategically.  Do I leave my starter in to face the power hitting DH or do I go to my pen, or do I go to my pen because there's basically no easy automatic outs in the lineup.  In the NL if I'm a manager with the lead and the pitcher comes up, there's no way my starter is coming out, so I sit there and say ok go strike 'em out kid! 

If you enjoyed watching Billy Crystal batting in Spring Training, then knock yourself out, because like him most pitchers are an automatic out, but the sad thing is these guys aren't 60 years old either.

And you thought the New York Yankees were done with fat, moody, booze bag, washed up head cases as pitching solutions right?  Except this time it won't be David Wells but apparently Bombers brass thought it poignant enough to give Sidney Ponson a second go-around before say I don't know Sidney Crosby? 

Ponson is 4-1 this year with a 3.88 ERA, but if you're a pitcher not named Edison Volquez and the Texas Rangers get rid of you, that's not a good sign.  If one wants to argue he'd be able to eat up some innings if nothing else in the interim, fine.  But you can't tell me that David Wells wouldn't have been a better fit.  Plus Wells is a lefty to boot, something the Yankees really can't boast at the moment. 

Just to note, Ponson in his first stint with the Yanks in 2006 had an ERA of 10.47, yikes!