What Sheff doesn’t have right now is a first baseman’s instincts. A perfect example is that ball he ranged too far to get to, leaving first base open. Mussina had to run to cover the bag, didn’t get there in time, and because of this two runs scored (I believe it made it six-nothing at that point). Maybe this is just me, but I also find it a bit annoying that Sheffield has this hey-ma-check-me-out-playing-first-base attitude about the whole thing. It seems like a big joke to him, but in reality it’s a huge question for the team.

What’s going on right now is a team-wide slump: Damon, Jeter, Abreu, A-Rod, Sheff (who just got back) and Melky have not been hitting. Damon is REALLY in a funk right now.

Apparently Chris Russo said the way to beat the Yankees is to walk guys to get to A-Rod (to put him in a pressure situation). I thought this was pretty silly, but then I saw A-Rod swing at the first pitch with the bases loaded today and pop it up. Maybe Russo is right. No, A-Rod is not going to get a hit every time, and like I said a lot of these guys are slumping, but the team just got stomped on because of errors in the last inning, you have the bases loaded down by four, and he pops up on the first pitch? It seems symbolic.

Maybe it’s the neurotic guy in me, but I don’t feel as good today as I did a week ago (when I was brimming with confidence). And you guys are right — Giambi needs to get back in the lineup. They miss his patience and power.

I don’t want to give the impression that I’m against the Sheffield-as-infielder experiment. I’m fine with the team checking him out there during this little run of semi-meaningless games. But I hope the clowning around will stop when the team gets to October. Giambi is a better 1st baseman than Sheffield at this point and, frankly, so is Aaron Guiel.

While I appreciate that Sheffield needs more time to get his swing back, I don’t think they Yanks can carry him into October with their fingers crossed that he gets it going.

I guess I’m not terribly objective on this point since I’ve totally turned my back on him. The mere sight of him angers me in the same way the sight of Jeff Weaver and Javier Vazquez angered me. I know that’s not fair since Sheff is a few trillion times better than those two dogs but it is what it is…I just hate Sheffield and never want to see him at Yankee Stadium again. He’s my own personal ARod.

I meant this October. Geez.

By the way why did Roger sign with Houston again? They blew another win for him tonight. I realize he’s in the NL, but he’d sure come in handy this weekend.

I don’t blame Torre for trying him at first, and while it doesn’t look like it will work, it was worth a shot. As far as his hitting, remember he didn’t get any rehab games so hopefully he’ll get rolling soon. We’ll see.

The more I think about things, it seems to me that Giambi is really the key to this team – I think Steve showed some numbers earlier this season that backed that up. I’m hoping that the third time was a charm as far as his cortisone shot.
I don’t know why, but my confidence as far as the playoffs went right in the toilet today, and I don’t know why (the loss was meaningless although I’d like to see Mussina look sharper). Then again, the last few years my confidence was sky-high, so I don’t know anything.

It’s going to be a close call on Sheff. He says he needs 30 ABs to get his timing down. Since Joe is lifting him from games, that means he’ll just be around 30 ABs by the last game of the year. Since these games mean “nothing” I wish Torre would leave him in to play the whole contest. He’ll get those 30 ABs sooner that way.

In all reality, the last good baseball this team has played besides the 5-game sweep at Fenway was the 3-game sweep of the Blue Jays at the start of August. Besides that, the team has looked tired and flat. The Yanks might be considered favorites but they don’t look like World Champs right now.

And let’s just hope a) Giambi gets healthy and b) Torre comes to his senses about the whole Sheffield at 1st base thing. As Baileywalk said a few days ago, no matter how natural an athlete Sheffield might be, Giambi, by virtue of experience, is a better 1st baseman than Sheffield can become in the next week. I’m not enjoying the Sheff experiment at all. And if he’s still hitting .100 by next weekend, can Joe really bring Sheffield to October in good conscience?