The question should be: When Wang is starting (and now it looks like he’s the #1 starter for the post season) who do you want at first — Giambi, Sheffield, Guiel or Philips. I’m not worried about the bat, Yanks have enough of them and when Wang’s out Torre will put a thumper back in the lineup.

It’s decisions like this one – taking Phillips over Guiel – that really irritate me. Phillips can’t hit AT ALL and plays only one position. Unless someone convinces me otherwise, I haven’t seen Phillips demonstrate himself as some sort of stand-out defensive first baseman. Guiel hits better and plays four positions (1B, LF, CF, RF). And before anyone says that Phillips plays 2B too, please remember that comedy is not appreciated at 11:40 when I’m hungry for lunch.

A lot of important news broke last night:

Randy Johnson will miss his next start because of a bad back, which he’s been dealing with for a while.

Torre has apparently decided on Cairo and Phillips for the post-season roster.

On the one hand I guess you can call this semi-good news about Johnson, since it explains why he’s been so awful lately, but on the other hand he’s now slotted for game three of the playoffs, and he’ll be working on twelve days’ rest. If I was Torre, I would get Rasner slotted into that spot as a backup plan. And in a perfect world, I would just start Rasner over Johnson (I just don’t trust the guy).

Cairo and Phillips seem a little redundant to me to make the post-season roster. Neither can hit. Guiel brings a lot more to the table than Phillips does — he can play a pretty good first base (meaning he can spell Giambi or Sheffield) and he’s a decent power lefty bat off the bench.

If Sheffield doesn’t start hitting soon, they should leave him off for the first round. But if both Giambi AND Sheff aren’t hitting by the ALDS, the Yankees could be in trouble. Since you can’t count on A-Rod, you’d have to hope that Jeter, Bobby, Damon and Cano go wild.

hehe, well, I think Cannizaro and Green will fight for the utility man’s role next year.

Good looking Steve, that was funny. It’s always good to see career minor-leaguers get at least a day of sun in the majors, and look on at them with raging jealousy:)
In related news, when Tobey Maguire gives up the Spider-Man/Peter Parker role, we have our replacement!