The revelation of steroid use by David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez creates significant problems for Major League Baseball.  The disclosure was hardly a surprise; Manny had been exposed eariier in the season, and anyone who has foloowed Big Papi’s career knew that he was dirty.  After all, this is a guy who was released by the Twins at age 26 after the 2002 season.  He turned up in Boston the following year, and was suddenly the second coming of Carl Yastrzemski.  Then after the Mitchell Report was issued and testing began, he suddenly couldn’t hit any more.  So it was hardly a shock to have it confirmed that he was juicing.

But Major League Baseball now has a significant problem.  For the first time, we know that a World Series Championship was won by using steroids.  Two actually.  The Red Sox champions of 2004 and 2007 were built around Ortiz and Ramirez.  Without them the Red Sox don’t even contend, let alone win.

Such has not been the case up to now.  The Yankee players who have been tied to illegal substance use did so after the championship years of 1996-2000.  The only possible exception is Roger Clemens, and Clemens was only a significant player in 2000 (he was with the team in 1999, but was hurt most of the year and was only the fourth starter).  None of the significant players on the 2001 Diamondbacks, the 2002 Angels (who fortunately beat the Barry Bonds-led Giants), the 2003 Marlins, the 2005 White Sox, the 2006 Cardinals, or the 2008 Phillies has been tied directly to steroids.

But with the outing of Ortiz and Ramirez, no one can doubt that the two Red Sox champions were built around steroids.  The question now becomes, how should these teams be addressed in baseball history?  Should their championships be rescinded and awarded to the National League teams?  If I were a Cardinal or a Rockies fan, that’s the remedy I would be demanding.

Or should the record books put a big asterisk next to those teams places on the list of chamions?  Such a solution has been suggested for Barry Bonds’ home run records.  Can those Red Sox teams remain on the list without something to denote the taint on their accomplishments?

And inevitably other quesitons will arise.  Have the Red Sox cheated in other ways?  Why are they such a good team at home, but a sub-.500 team on the road (except when playing the moribund Orioles)?

What is clear is that doubt will now surround everything that happens in Fenway Park.  The suspicion will grow that a culture of corruption permeates the Red Sox clubhouse.  Major League Baseball needs to confront this problem before it infects all of baseball.

The Yankee infield has generally been a strength this year.  At the break we can conclude as follows.

TEIXEIRA – The Tex signing has been a success.  After eight years of Jason Giambi, it has been a revelation to have a first baseman who can field, and Tex fields with the best of them.  I can’t complain about his offense either, but his tendency toward streak hitting is maddening.  Tex started the year with a whimper, batting .200 in April with 3 HRs.  He had a monster May, batting .330 with 13 HRs and 34 RBIs.  He sank back to mediocrity in June, batting .263 with only 4 HRs and 16 RBIs.  So far in July, he is hitting .299, but his power is down, with only 3 HRs and 7 RBIs.  His erratic performance seems to confirm his reputation as a streak hitter who tends to start the season slowly.  The Yankees have to hope Teixeira will once again thrive during the second half of the season.  GRADE – B+.

CANO – Cano spent 2008 flailing mindlessly at anything thrown to him.  The result was a career low .271 average with a pitiful .305 OBP.  Over the winter Cano seems to have found religion.  He came to Spring Training with improved focus, and the results have been encouraging.  So far he is batting .305 with a .338 OBP – still not great, but considerably better than last year.  He also has 14 HRs, and seems on a pace to hit 25-30.  His defense is still lackadaisical, but he appears to be concentrating in the field more than in the past.  GRADE – B-.

JETER – Over the past winter, the pundits buried Jeter.  They said he had no range, and couldn’t hit any more.  He had lost his speed and his power.  In short, he was finished, done, kaput, verdunfte, verfallen.  These obituaries ignored the fact that Jeter  injured his hand last May when he was hit by a pitch, played through the pain, and was never himself.  Well, this year the Captain has demonstrated he still has it.  So far he is batting .318 with a .395 OBP, 10 HRs and 18 stolen bases.  He was the consensus All Star shortstop, and is once again the catalyst of the Yankee offense.  And his fielding has been inspired.  The Soul Of The Yankees can still bring it.  GRADE – A.

AROD – Agh.  Herein lies the heart of the Yankee conundrum.  Arod is not himself, and at this point the question is, will he ever again be himself.  At this writing it appears doubtful we will see the real Arod in 2009.  Arod’s hip injury has been well documented, and he will require additional surgery in the offseason.  In the meantime, he is not hitting like Arod.  He still has good power – 19 HRs and 52 RBIs in two and a half months – but he is batting only .250.  And he has hit only 7 doubles, a sure sign that he is not at full strength.  His slugging percentage is .546, not a bad number for a mere mortal, but nothing special for a guy who normally slugs over .600.  Part of the problem is the inability of the Yankees to find an effective number 5 hitter to bat behind him and provide protection, resulting in innumerable walks as pitchers pitch around him.  But this is not the Arod we have known.  I suspect what we have seen up to now is what we will get for the remainder of 2009.  GRADE C+.

RANSOM – Ransom is the only utility infielder on the team, and his presence reflects a significant team weakness.  Ransom is a 33 year old career minor leaguer.  He is batting .233 and has yet to hit a HR.  Worse, he is predominantly a third baseman.  Although he is capable of handling shortstop and second base, he plays neither well.  In short, he is inadequate.  Ransom is a Girardi favorite.  Girardi has a history of favoring gutty but inadequate minor leaguers (see Dan Geise), and the suspicion grows that Girardi’s favor is the only reason Ransom is on the team.  If the Yankees are to go all the way, they could use a better utility player.  GRADE – F.

In summation, the infield has been at the heart of the offense.  Now if only Arod could be Arod…

During the first half of the season, the bullpen has been the Yankees’ Achilles heel.  At the All Star break the bullpen is no longer the disaster it was during April and May, but it looks nothing like what we expected.

On Opening Day, the Yankees appeared to have a strong, deep bullpen.  The 9th inning was secure with Mo at the helm.  Brian Bruney and Damaso Marte were expected to hold down the 8th inning.  Coming off a strong 2008, Jose Veras would pitch the 7th.  Backing them up were Edgar Ramirez, Jonathan Abladaba, and young Phil Coke.  The bullpen appeared to be a strength.

Well, as we now know, nothing worked as expected except for Mo.  Marte and Bruney got hurt.  Veras couldn’t throw strikes and was exiled to Cleveland.  Ramirez could throw stirkes, very hittable strikes, and was sent down, as was Abladaba.  Coke was thrust into the top lefty reliever role, where he struggled.  The bullpen became the team disaster.

But things are looking up. The Yankees have gotten help from some unexpected sources.  The situation now looks like this.

MO – Incomparable as always.  The greatest closer in baseball history.  Nothing more to say.  GRADE – A+.

HUGHES – Whoda thunk it.  Phil Hughes has saved the bullpen.  After struggling as a starter, the supposed second coming of Walter Johnson has been lights out in relief.  He is now the setup man for Mo.  Unfortunately, his current position removes him from consideration as a starter.  If Wang does not return and Hughes has to fill the fifth starter slot, the bullpen will be back wher it was in May.  GRADE – A.

ACEVES – Another suprise.  Aceves looked like a spot starter, but has emerged as an effective reliever.  He doesn’t have great stuff, but he knows how to pitch, and he has guts.  HIs versatility is also helpful.  He can pitch multiple innings or come in for a couple of outs.  A good addition.  GRADE B.

COKE – Another guy who doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but has gotten it done.  He has struggled at times, and will never make anybody forget Mike Stanton, but he has been effective.  GRADE B-.

BRUNEY – Bruney has been a major disappointment.  Since returning from two stints on the DL, he has been ineffective.  Our resident genius (Girardi) seems to have lost faith in him, and with good reason.  His future is clouded, and he appears to have no role with the team at present.  GRADE – D.

TOMKO – A classic mop up guy.  His presence on the staff is proof that the bullpen is still a weak point.  GRADE – D.

ABLADABA – Recently recalled, he has been spotty, and was sent back down.

ROBERTSON – Another guy who is limited.  He has yet to show he is worthy of more than mop up duty.  GRADE – C-.

MARTE – Listed here because he is currently on a rehab assignment and may return soon.  No way to know if he can contribute.  GRADE – INCOMPLETE.

MELANCON – The closer of the future has appeared overmatched.  He is clearly not ready for prime time.  GRADE – F.

OUTLOOK – Hughes, Coke, and Aceves have stabliized the bullpen, but it still does not stack up against the Red Sox staff, and only matches the Rays because of Mo.  Unless Marte can come back, the Yanks need another guy here if they hope to go to the World Series.

I know I promised an analysis of the Yankees at mid season, but I must momentarily diverge to comment on the Roy Halladay frenzy.  Ever since the Blue Jays announced that Halladay was on the trading block, the yahoos on talk radio have been demanding that the Yanks trade half their roster to bring him aboard.

Allow me to offer an opposing view.  Unless the deal is very very good, the Yankees should not deal for Halladay.

Roy Halladay is a fine pitcher, one of the best in the game, but he is 32 years old.  He has missed parts of at least three seasons with major injuries.  He is not a strike out pitcher.  Aside from 2008 when he had 206 Ks, he only averages around 140 strike outs per year.  In short, he is good but limited.  Like Randy Johnson, he is a short term fix, and we all remember how well the Randy Johnson fiasco worked out.

Not that Halladay wouldn’t be a nice addition.  But the Blue Jays are asking the moon and the stars for him, and the Yankees would be foolish to mortgage the future.  Nearly every scenario I have heard includes Joba Chamberlain and Jesus Montero, plus others.  Those players lie at the heart of the Yankee rebuilding effort.  Trade them and we return to the bad days of 2005 when the team was old and weak.

The Yankees are poised to turn over their roster.  The team of the future will be built around Teixeira, Cano, Montero, Austin Jackson, and Brett Gardner on the field, and Sabathia, Hughes, Joba, and (hopefully) Wang on the mound.  Matsui will be gone after this year, and Damon will probably go with him.  Andy is nearing the end of the line.  The Yankees are finally developing a young team.

But trading the heart of the youth movement for a 32 year old will gut the future.  Yes, Halladay could give us an edge this year, but at the expense of the next five years.

I would love to see Derek and Mo have one more moment of glory, but not at the expense of conceding the future to the Red Sox and Rays.  Trading for Halladay is the wrong move.

At the all star break, the traditional half way point of the season, the Yankees find themselves in acceptable position.  They are in second place in the American League East, 3 games behind Boston, and in the lead in the Wild Card race, 2.5 games ahead of Texas and 3.5 games ahead of Tampa.  While this team is not going to make anyone forget the 1998 club, things could be a lot worse.

At this point it is possible to draw a few conclusions about the team.  Today we will look at the starting pitching.  So far we can say the following.

SABATHIA – Reasonable minds can debate whether CC has been worth $160 million dollars, but all in all, he has provided the Yankees with a viable number one starter.  He has not shown the overpowering stuff that made him the best pitcher in baseball over the last two years, but he has won 8 games, including 2 complete games and one shutout, and has kept his ERA under 4.00.  More important, he has imbued the team with confidence when he pitches.  Without him, the Yankees would likely be in 4th place.  GRADE – B+.

BURNETT – I was a major naysayer when the Yankees signed AJ.  As some of you may recall, I referred to him as AJ Pavano.  It remains to be seen if he can stay healthy, but at this point I have to admit he has not been bad.  His stats are actually slightly better than CC’s.  He also has 8 wins, more strikeouts than CC (101-95) and a slightly better ERA (3.77-3.86).  The trouble with AJ is, he is like the little girl with the curl in the nursery rhyme:  when he is good, he is very very good (one hitter against the Mets), but when he is bad, he is horrid (blowing the 6 run lead in Fenway).  He also trails CC in one significant category:  innings pitched (107.2-128.1), which means the bullpen suffers greater strain when he pitches.  We shall see if he can keep up the good work.  GRADE – B.

JOBA – Joba has been a great disappointment.  He is 4-2 with a 4.25 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 89 innings.  He seems incapable of getting out of the 5th inning.  Worst of all, his velocity is down.  A couple of weeks ago Brian Cashman noted that Joba has not been the same since he was injured in Texas last August.  Maybe, like Phil Hughes in 2008, he needs more time to regain his strength.  But his repeated failures, coupled with his refusal to take advice from anyone, have become a major problem for the Yankees.  If he cannot straigten out, the Yankees will be in trouble.  GRADE – D.

WANG – Wang has never recovered from the injury he suffered running the bases during moronic interleague play last year.  In the process of attempting to rehab his leg, he has now hurt his arm.  It appears doubtful he can contribut meaningfully this year.  If he can’t, the Yankees will be without a fifth starter unless they bring Phil Hughes out of the bullpen.  GRADE – F.

ANDY – The gritty veteran hasn’t got a lot left, but he has guts, and, as the drill sergeant said, guts is enough.  Andy has won 8 games, and is presently the key to keeping the Yankees in the race.  The question is, how much longer can he keep winning on nothing but guts?  If he falls apart, somebody had better be ready to step up.  GRADE – B-.

OUTLOOK:  Pitching wins pennants.  Despite everything, the Yankee starters have gotten it done so far.  But their margin of error is thin.  If anyone falters, the season could die fast and hard.

Jake Peavy, the former Cy Young Award winner from the San Diego Padres, is out for one to three months with an injured ankle. Why is this news relevant to a New York Yankee blog?  Because of the way he was injured.  Peavy was hurt running the bases.

Flashback to 2008.  The Yankees were playing the Houston Astros during an interleague game.  Chien Ming Wang somehow got on base.  He was – get ready – RUNNING THE BASES when something snapped in his foot.  He tore a tendon, and his season was over.  So was the Yankee season.  Based upon what we have seen this year, Wang’s career may be over.

Despite playing abysmally most of the year, the Yankees won 89 games, finishing 6 behind the wild card winning Red Sox.  With Wang pitching every fifth day instead of Sidney Ponson and Darryl Rasner, the Yankees just might have won enough games to overtake the Sox.  But Wang’s injury foreclosed any chance of that happening.

The point of this diatribe is this:  the National League’s refusal to adopt the designated hitter is dangerous.  Pitchers do not belong in the batter’s box or on the base paths.  Aside from CC Sabathia, they can’t hit, and when they do reach base, they are not prepared to run.  All they can do is get injured.

So called “purists” will whine that the game is “supposed” to be played with the pitcher hitting.  The purist offer no basis for this contention, other than the fact that things were always done that way.  This is the sort of stone age thinking that has always infected sports.  For example, when Jacque Plante started wearing a goalie mask in the 1950s, he was derided as a sissy.   Can anyone today imagine playing goalie without a mask?  The same thing happened when Fred Thayer invented the catcher’s mask in 1876.  The purists have resisted every positive change.  For years they insisted that night baseball was an abomination.

National League apologists will tell you that allowing the pitcher to bat is exciting because it creates “strategy”.  “Strategy” like the double switch (which former Twins manager Tom Kelly once derided as “the rocket science stuff”).  This theory suggests that watching a manager move players around is more exciting than watching a batter hit.  Gee, if that’s true, why play the games at all?  We could just download a bunch of stats on our computers and spit out the results.

The truth is, watching a pitcher bat is boring.  Watching a batting pitcher ruin a rally is worse.  And watching a pitcher like Wang or Peavy get hurt is downright painful.  One of the main reasons American League baseball has been superior over the last twenty years is its use of the designated hitter.

So why do I care?  After all, the Yankees play in the American League, where the DH is used.  But in the middle of each season, we have interleague play, and when the games are played in a National League park, the pitchers have to bat.

Which is how Wang was injured last year.  And how Peavy was just hurt.  If the National League wants to cheapen its product by having the pitcher bat, so be it.  But I object to exposing American League pitchers to injury during interleague or World Series play.  When the National League plays the American League, it should be forced to join the 21st Century.

Somebody has to explain to me what the Yankees are doing.  Why is Chien Ming Wang being force fed into the starting rotation NOW???

By NOW, I mean during a stretch where we play the Rays, the Red Sox, and the Mets in consecutive series.  The Yanks were rolling along.  They had a great May. They were in first place.  But over a ten day period, they were scheduled to play their three biggest rivals – the two teams they have to beat in the American League East, and their cross town rivals from Queens.

So they pick this point in the season to experiment with Wang.  Wang is still not himself.  He has yet to regain his strength from last year’s foot injury.  Phil Hughes was giving them credible if not always spectacular starts.  So why pick this moment to put Wang back into the rotation?

Now I understand that ultimately the Yankees need Wang if they are going to seriously challenge for the pennant.  He was their most consistent pitcher over the last three years, and his return to form would give us arguably the best starting rotation in baseball.

But nothing in Wang’s brief bullpen performances since he returned from the minors gave any indication that he was ready to return to form.  So why pitch him NOW, and in Fenway Park?

Given my detestation of Joe Girardi, I would like to blame this decision on him.  So I will.  The entire Yankee braintrust deserves blame here, including the normally sagacious Brian Cashman.  But Girardi is the man in charge on the field.  At the end of the day, the decision to put Wang back in the rotation NOW was his call.  And once again, he blew it.

Then he made things worse.  When Wang got into trouble early, he had Robertson up.  But when Wang finally tanked, he ignored Robertson and rushed Hughes into the game before he was properly warmed up, and before he could hit a groove, Hughes gave up a two run homer to Youklis, effectively putting the game out of reach.

Girardi’s handling of Hughes tonite highlights a recurring problem  Time and again he has rushed his relievers in before they are ready.  Is it any wonder that Mariano cannot abide Girardi?

The Yankees have a contending team, but so long as Girardi is in charge, they will be working at a disadvantage.

Well that was friendly.  Without much in the way of an offensive showing, the Yankees just willed their way past the Rays in another sweet come-from-behind victory.  The Rays led 3-1 into the bottom of the 8th.  But then the Yanks – through a collection of singles, walks, a hard-hit ball bobbled by the Rays’ third baseman, and then a slow-moving chopper up the middle that Matsui beat out to avoid an inning-ending double play, which allowed the go-ahead run to score – took the lead in improbable fashion.  The 3-run 8^th led to one-two-three 9^th from Rivera, which – coupled with a timely loss by the BoSox (thank you Rangers) – lifted the Yankees back into 1^st place. 

While there are still issues that need to be worked out, all indications are that this is a different Yankees team from the last few years.  This marks the Yanks’ 20^th comeback win of the season – and it’s only June.  This team has not only heart, but a determination to win – a refusal to lose – that has been lacking for too long. 

And it’s not as if there haven’t been setbacks.  The Yanks have been without Chien-Ming Wang.  They were humiliated twice by Cleveland.  They have yet to win a game against the BoSox, starting the season series 0-5.  And they have had at least two 5-game losing streaks.  Yet despite all this, the Yanks are now 18-6 in their last 24 games.  They are in first place.  And they are winning games which they would have lost quietly this time last year.  Today’s victory was a case in point. 

It’s not clear to me why the chemistry is different this year.  Whether it’s the addition of Sabathia and Burnett; or the maturing of Joba, Cano, and Melky; or Teixeira and A-Rod becoming a premier one-two punch; or the team and Girardi getting more comfortable with each other; or that crazy mofo Swisher enlivening the bench with his zany behavior. 

Whatever it is, stay with this team.  The pieces are falling into place.    

The mindless bureaucracy that runs major league baseball offered another exhibition of incompetence this week.  Bud Selig’s minions issued a ruling so illogical as to boggle the mind.

I refer of course to the Burnett suspension.  AJ Burnett has been suspended for six games for throwing behind Nelson Cruz in Tuesday’s game.  Taken by itself, Burnett’s action could well merit a suspension.  But when placed in the context of the surrounding events, the suspension represents an appaling act of administrative bungling.

Flash back to Tuesday evening.  Vincente Padilla was on the mound for Texas.  Now Padilla is notorious for hitting batters.  This season, he is second in the majors in that statistic, trailing only Tim Wakefield, who hits batters because he throws a knuckle ball, a pitch that comes to the plate at 75 miles per hour and is almost impossible to control.  Padilla, on the other hand, throws a 90+ mph fastball and hits batters because he can’t control his emotions.

In the first inning, Padilla hit Mark Teixeira, an act that did not appear to be intentional.  But in the fourth inning, as the Yankees were in the process of scoring seven runs off the hapless Padilla, he plunked Teixeira again, this time in the backside.  Everyone in the ballpark could see that Padilla hit Teixeira intentionally, but the umpire chose to ignore this blatant act of violence.

When it became clear that the umpires would do nothing to protect the Yankees, Burnett took matters into his own hands.  He put a pitch behind the head of Nelson Cruz, one of the Rangers’ best hitters.  Unlike Padilla, Burnett did not hit the batter.  He just sent a message.

Thursday the suits who run baseball issued their ruling.  Padilla, who hit Teixeira twice and could have caused serious injury, was fined.  Burnett, who hit no one, received a six game suspension.  Go figure.

I do not write to defend Burnett.  If baseball wants to send its own message to pitchers not to retaliate, that’s fine.  But there is no justice in suspending the pitcher who throws behind the batter while turning a blind eye to a head hunter like Padilla.  When a pitcher clearly throws at a batter, he should receive the primary suspension.  Getting hit with a pitch can cause serious injury, and some pitchers do it as a matter of course.  I vividly remember a game several years ago between the Yankees and Red Sox.  The two were battling for first place.  Pedro Martinez hit Soriano on the wrist, putting him out of the game.  The next batter was Jeter.  Martinez hit him on the wrist too, putting him out of the game as well.  With the top of the Yankee batting order and middle of the infield gone, three guesses who won that game.  Yet nothing was done to the immortal Pedro.

If baseball really wants to stop head hunting, it must start suspending the pitchers who do it.  Baseball suspended the wrong man here.  But then again, what can we expect from a sport operated by Bud Selig, the world’s most ineffectual executive.  If there’s a decision to be made, we can always count on Bud and his underlings to foul it up.  It is a testimonial to the universal appeal of baseball that it can survive this kind of leadership.

I am watching Andy Pettitte give up four runs, seven hits, and six walks over five innings, and I am depressed.  Not because the Yankees are losing (well, that’s depressing too), but because we are witnessing the end of a great career.  Indeed, we are seeing the final act of what was likely the greatest rookie class in Yankee history.

Flash back to 1995.  Four rookies came up during the course of the year.  The first was Andy Pettitte, who made the team out of Spring Training.  The other three made their appearances during the course of the season.  Their names were Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera.  They would form the nucleus of the last of the great dynasties, the Yankees of 1996-2001.

At age 23, Andy went 12-9 in 26 starts and finished third in the Rookie of the Year balloting.  With his help the Yankees won the Division and took the Mariners five games before succumbing.  The following year he won 21 games, and along with David Cone formed the one-two punch that carried the Yankees to the pennant.

Andy became a fixture as the number two starter in the Yankee rotation.  He gave us nine years and 149 wins, years that included six trips to the World Series and four championships.  Inexplicably, Steinbrenner chose to let him go after 2003, and he spent three years in Houston before coming home in 2007.  To date, Andy has 220 wins, six more than the much ballyhooed (and overrated) Curt Schilling.  Along with Jeter, Posada, and Rivera, Andy represents the last vestige of the remarkable 1998 team, arguably the greatest team in baseball history.

But now Andy is old.  After tonight’s loss he is 5-2, but he has been a shadow of his old self, struggling through each game, pitching mostly on guts.  Aging is a painful process for all of us, but it is especially bittersweet when watching a consummate pro like Andy Pettitte slowly decline.  It will be worse when it happens to Derek and Mo.

But Andy is still with us, and for however short a time, we can still enjoy watching a truly classy guy give us his best.  Maybe things will break right, and he will have one last chance to pitch in the World Series.  He deserves it.