On the Yankees beat

Kat,

Have a good time with the fam and enjoy your weekend.

Kat,

You have a great time with your family and a safe flight. I'm sure the cast of characters will fill in for you while you're away.

KATWOMAN-
Enjoy the "time off". Use it to keep your Fantasy Team rolling. Your starting to climb into the Playoffs.

Enjoy the weekend Kat

From Steinbrenner's mouth - not a release by his PR machine but the Boss himself:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2882684

QUOTED NEWSDAY ARTICLE:

The Boss speaks out
Debunks Torre job rumors, slams Giambi, and says of general manager Cashman: "He's got to deliver"

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Despite constant speculation about manager Joe Torre's job, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner says someone else also needs to deliver as the team looks to reverse its floundering start: general manager Brian Cashman.

"He's on a big hook," a spirited Steinbrenner told The Associated Press in a rare interview from this Tampa office. "He wanted sole authority. He got it. Now he's got to deliver."

Steinbrenner's comments came with the Yankees' record at 21-24, sitting 9 1/2 games behind the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox. The Boss said he was encouraged by the Yankees' performance this week in taking two out of three games from Boston -- and he felt the return of Roger Clemens could provide another boost.

"We hope we have turned it around," Steinbrenner said emphatically. The 44-year-old Clemens brings "a winning attitude," he continued. "I think Roger is capable of sparking the team. He is a veteran and will bring stability. I am happy he is coming back. I love him."

Steinbrenner, 76, felt "The Rocket" needed at least one more minor-league start to sharpen his stuff, and Yankees officials said Thursday that the right-hander will likely pitch Monday in a Triple-A game.

That would put the seven-time Cy Young Award winner on track to return to the majors in Fenway Park next weekend against his old team.

As for Torre, the Yankees manager since 1996, Steinbrenner said "we are not considering a change." The owner did say he was impressed with Torre's bench coach, ex-Yankee great Don Mattingly, and that he "could possibly" become manager someday.

"Mattingly is a good one," Steinbrenner said. "He is very thorough guy. He understands what it is to be a Yankee."

Steinbrenner had praise for captain Derek Jeter, who passed Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio this week for fifth place on the franchise hits list, and pitcher Andy Pettitte.

"He's a real gutsy guy," Steinbrenner said of the left-hander, who resigned with the Yankees in the off-season. "We are happy he is back with us."

He was less generous toward Jason Giambi, whose recent comments to USA Today that was "wrong for doing that stuff" were interpeted by some as an admission of steroid use. Giambi reportedly admitted to a 2003 grand jury that he used steroids.

"He should have kept his mouth shut," Steinbrenner opined. "The matter is in the hands of the baseball commissioner."

Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973 and has presided over six world championships and 10 pennants while building the Yankees franchise into the most lucrative in sports.

The Yankees' owner is also known for his generosity to those in need off-the-field especially young people.

He said he was deeply moved by the April massacre at Virginia Tech. The Yankees made a $1 million contribution to the school's "Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund" to assist the victims' families, and honored the victims before playing the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night. Virginia Tech's president threw out the first pitch and the Yankees wore VT logos on their caps.

"I feel very strongly about the young people," Steinbrenner said. "I feel so strongly about the teachers and the school, all the people affected by this. We wanted to help in the healing process."

As far as the Yankees' fate, the message of the legendary Boss was as strong and clear as ever:

"We just have to get out there and compete, compete hard, and win," he said.

finallY!!!!!

i've been writing here forever that cashman is a terrible GM, and finally it is stated by someone whose opinion actually counts...

cashman is not merely average, he is down right horrible. look at all the GM's pulling miracles with budgets a quarter the yanks' size. people like ryan in minnesota, beane in oakland, the brewers, the braves, and the list is endless.
look at the tigers, bonderman, verlander, robertson with andrew miller coming up, that's 4 bona-fide starters from the farm system, that's evaluating talent. and not to mention minaya, epstein and GM's of richer teams (yet still with lower budgets).
i think that if you can instantly think of at least 15-16 GM's better than cashman, you know we have a problem.

another factor - cashman is not only spoiled with the huge yankee pockets when it comes to FA's or prolonging contracts, think of the draft: small market teams often have to pass on a high pick because they knoe they can't afford the signing bonus. cashman doesn't have that problem, he can choose whichever talent he wants.

this freeloader inherited a team constructed by gene michael and basically dismantled it. some of his gems:
kevin brown
randy johnson
jaret wright
carl pavano
kei igawa
karl farnsworth
jeff weaver
luis vizcaino
this year's bench
trading for injured pitchers sanchez & ohlendorf, knowing they were injured
and there are many MANY more... as i wrote a week ago, 7 GM's could have been fired based on so many mistakes.

i really hope he gets fired regardless of my hope that we turn this season around. there are some great GM's out there who wouldn't say no to working with unlimited resources.

This blog is a joke. Newsday's Yankees coverage has gone in the toilet since Baumbach left.

Go to the Times or Journal News or Daily News. Their blogs contain actual baseball information by baseball writers

Max:

Some of us visit other blogs as well as this one, in addition to gleaning from other news sources. Those of us who continue to come here regularly seem to be mostly here for each other's commentary, which is often [I admist not always] worth reading. As I've mentioned here before, the best bloggers often don't get the best commenters, and vice versa.

GIL

His failure to land Beltran is still a mystery to me.Instead we have a good player in CF 4 yrs older on the downside of his career

1 note Robertson was picked up in a trade which sent Mark Redman from Detroit to Florida