I’d rather put a little twist on your theme, Steve. I want to stick with the interesting thing that stands out theme, but instead comment on the interesting thing that stood out to me.

And to me, it was Nick Swisher tied for the league lead in RCAA in Sunday’s report. That’s not going to last, but I do want to see him take the RF job away from Nady. Nady was definitely the better player in 2008, but that was a career year that he’s unlikely to ever repeat and Swisher had a career worst year that I don’t think he’ll duplicate.

It’s too early to make a definite assessment yet BUT….. the bridge to Mariano is still not exactly Stanton-Nelson-Mendoza either. Steve the could/woulda/shoulda game with going 5-1 doesn’t really apply in this instance because it’s too A early and B Charlie Cheeseburger and the Wanger stunk up the joint with their first two starts. They were effectly not in those games, but they were definitely in the mix last night. One can make Swish , Coke, or Girardi the goat yesterday, BUT Gil Meche didn’t pitch that badly yesterday and the Royals didn’t lay down and die (arguably Gym Teacher Joe’s bullpen change helped, though that’s Coke’s job to execute properly and get the job done). And according to Gym Teacher Joe, he’s going with the matchup stats, not with some kind of gut feeling old skool type of thing….

And agree with crank, I think my beef will be moot before june because melancon will be getting every out in the 8th and bruney/marte will split the 7th. Although considering he throws 3 pitches an inning, maybe we should consider making him a starter!

The bullpen doesn’t concern me at the moment, but the way it was used this week does. The obsession with same side matchups yesterday was of particular concern. I love what coke and veras bring as middle relievers, but I’m not ready for them to be getting the last out of the 8th in a 1 run game.

What stands out the most in my mind, this past week, is that the Yankees went 3-3 and that record, with some better bullpen usage/results, could have been 5-1.
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I actually thought the Yanks would escape the first six games at 4-2 and head home at 5-4. Still within reach but you’re right, we could be better than 3-3 right now.

To be fair though, where the pen has had a blunder or two, they have also done some great work. In our 3 wins the bullpen has pitched 6 2/3 innings and only given up two hits and one run. That’s pretty impressive and it only shows that bullpen performance fluctuates. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s awful and sometime it falls somewhere in-between.

Can our pen be in trouble? Sure, but can it be really good? Definitely. Also, if for some reason our pen just falls to shreds we’re lucky enough to have some talented arms in Melancon and Robertson to come up and fill in. The beauty of pitching depth is a great thing.