If you’ve seen the Yankees offense please bring it to Yankee Stadium, it’s gone missing.

Seriously, I’m getting tired of the Yankees making average to crappy pitchers look great. Over the last month or so the Yanks have been shut down by the likes of Dustin McGowan, Noah Lowry, Josh Fogg, Shawn Marcum, Rodrigo Lopez, Jeff Francis and now Chad Gaudin, who combined with Rich Harden to throw a CG one-hitter Saturday. Maybe they should fire Kevin Long.

The Yanks will face the best pitcher in the AL Sunday, Dan Haren (ERA+ of 224 and a beard). They have no chance.  

4-0 game, top of the 7th, Igawa has only thrown 88 pitches and an idea pops into Joe’s brain. Hey, let’s tax the bullpen for no reason! He continued to use Proctor, Myers, Vizcaino and Villone in a game where three of them should’ve had well deserved days off. Plus, he brought in Vizcaino to issue an IBB…again.

Gun to my head, I think Scott Proctor is a pretty good reliever (ERA+ of 125 last year, 122 this year). But, he is human and can’t handle the work load that Joe puts him through. Torre makes good relievers bad and bad relievers (Farns) terrible with these idiotic moves. Fire him now.

I believe it’s called winning, but the Yankees haven’t experience it in so long, I really can’t be sure.

2007 Salary: $5,666,667

How’s this for a road trip, 1-7, with a lead in a suspended game, against three garbage teams?

“I’m not worried about saving my job,” Cashman said. “I’m not worried about doing my job. In doing my job, you have to balance both [now and the future.] I don’t think it is a tough call. You have to make the right call. I’m not being paid to save my job. I’m being paid to do a job.”

Cashman said that Steinbrenner agrees with this stance on not trading prospects.

“At the same time, [Steinbrenner] doesn’t want to give up those young guys either,” Cashman said. “But that could always change, too.” (Source)

The reason I don’t rip Brain Cashman is because he gets it. He gets a pass for Igawa, Damon and having no bench or bullpen this year. Why? Because he gets it, he has a plan.

He understands that you need to stockpile your minor league system with young, power arms to win championships. Since he has gained full control of the organization, he has done nothing but that with the Yankees adding a bunch of arms through the draft and trades.

 He isn’t trying to save his job by trading Hughes or Joba for Tex. He’s in it for the long haul and that’s why we should keep Cashman.

As for Torre, well he should’ve been gone after last year.   

The Yankees are trying to bring Shea to the Bronx.

Shea Hillenbrand could become the next righthanded hitter to play first base for the Yankees. The team is engaged in serious talks to acquire the 31-year-old who is about to be dumped by the Angels, according to a person familiar with the situation. (Source)

Look, I’m as glad as anyone that Miguel Cairo won’t be playing first anymore. But, I can’t be too happy when they are replacing him with Shea Hillenbrand, who has a worse VORP than Wil Nieves (-9.0) making him one of the worst hitters in the entire league. I still wouldn’t give up Joba, Ian or Phil for Tex, but this is getting rediculous.

Number of Yankees Runs. 1-7 on the road trip.

An ESPN.com blogger found a pair and called out the hopefully soon to be unemployed Torre. Great job, Rob.

2-2 score, bottom of the ninth, big spot, who does Torre send in? With his entire bullpen beside Farns to choose from, he selected one Scott Proctor.

Proctor L (1-5) .1 IP 1 HA 1 ER 3 BB

It really summed up the entire year, starter keeps us in the game, bad clutch hitting, Torre blows an important bullpen decision and costs us the game. Fire Joe Torre.

I know this year hasn’t been what any of us expected, so everyone is looking ahead, including me. I was thinking about this off-season and it is going to be one expensive off-season. No really, this is going to be sick money spent.

First order of business for Brian Cashman is to sign the Hammer of God Mariano Rivera. That will run him $10-$12 million per year on a two or three year deal.

Next is Jorge Posada, who is having  a tremendous year in his walk year. Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui both signed 4-year $52 million dollar deals after ‘05. With the year Posada is having, I bet he uses those deals as leverage and doesn’t get a penny less than $52 million.

Now, it gets interesting. First base is sure to be a need this off-season, are the Yanks prepared to throw 7-years $105 million at Mark Teixeira? We don’t have a centerfielder, will Torii Hunter be an option for 7-years $130 million? Or will it be Aaron Rowand / Eric Byrnes for 4-years $32 million? They probably won’t bring back Bobby Abreu, will the Yanks sign Ichiro to a 4-year $52 million deal? Or will they go for a Jermaine Dye / Jose Guillen for 2-years $14 million just to hold them over until Jose Tabata is ready?

Plus, not to sound like Jerry Seinfeld, but what’s the deal with A-Rod? Will he opt out of the 3-years and $81 million left on his deal? (Most likely) If so, are the Yanks going to offer him 6-years $180 million? How can they not if he hits 60+ HRs and 150+ RBIs?

Everyone is saying the Yankees are bad for baseball with their payroll and their problem is they have too many free agents and not enough homegrown talent. Well, that may be true and the farm system is getting better and producing more, but this team is going to spend more than $100 million for ‘08 contracts alone, book it. Do the math, between Mariano ($12 mil), Posada ($12 mil), A-Rod ($30 mil), Tex ($15 mil), Torii ($20) and others.

Just wait for the ‘08 off-season, if you think the Yanks won’t throw the biggest contract for a pitcher ever at Johan Santana, then you’re crazy.   

The message is simple: Shut up and win. No more excuses. Don’t look at the Red Sox, the division is over. Concentrate on winning and wild card contention will come with that.

First, we need to solve a few things:

Bullpen — DFA Kyle Farnsworth and Ron Villone, Call-up Edwar Ramirez, Chris Britton and Sean Henn. This will give the Yankees better pitchers and younger pitchers. Ed is 26, Sean is 26 and Chris is 24. 

Damon — To make room for one of the relievers, we can DL Johnny Damon. It needs to be done, he can barely swing a bat.

1B — I don’t want to trade any prospects for a 1B. I would rather send down Chris Basak, Call-up Shelly Duncan, who is hitting .300 / .388 / .584 at AAA, and have Andy Phillips and Shelly Duncan platoon with Phillips as the defensive replacement.

These moves and getting a new back up catcher should get the Yanks back on track to getting better and younger as we make a wild card run and go into this off-season.