Atlanta Braves Disease...

Where to start...

Well, clearly King George will make some stupid knee-jerk reaction and probably fire Joe Torre. And make a bigger knee-jerk reaction and hire Lou Pinell. Of course, that isn't a given, but all the stories and "sources" are claiming it to be true. Lou Pinella for Joe Torre. Interesting change of attitude - Joe is the ultimately relaxed people manager, Lou is a psychopathic volcano who'll kick the ass of players who don't perform...possibly literally, as Rob Dibble can attest.

But where does the true blame lie?

Well, A-CLOD sucked AGAIN in a post-season. And I mean really sucked. 1 hit in 14 at bats for the "best player in baseball". Same with Gary Sheffield, although in HIS defense he didn't play much of the season because of an injury, and frankly, I wouldn't have played him much. But 1 for 12 isn't going to cut it. Cano at .133 and Giambi at .125 blows too. Bottom line is the Yankees didn't hit. Period. Sure, Jeter and Posada were around .500, and Abreu was over .300, but the rest of teh team couldn't hit it out of the infield if you spotted them the dirt. But the GLARING people who didn't perform were A-CLOD and CANO, neither of whom had an RBI...at all. And frankly, A-CLOD gets paid a SHITLOAD of money to perform, especially in the post-season. And he hasn't.

So here's Thew's opinions on the Yankees (and he's a Yankees fan)...

Keep Joe Torre (although I'm only about 75% sure here)...
Trade A-CLOD for pitching.
Keep Mussina, he's still got a couple of good years left.
Keep Randy Johnson, I still think that he can chuck it (he did win 17 games).
Now that Abreu is in RF, you can trade Gary Sheffield for pitching...please. Matsui/Damon/Abreu is an outfield I LOVE - and Cabrera is a decent subtitute.
Jaret Wright MUST GO. This guy was a flamethrower once, like a million years ago, but it's obvious his best years are behind him.
Mike Myers has to go too. I don't care that he's a submarining left, he's got control problems and only throws like 2 pitches, and is too inconsistent.
I like Bruney, Farnsworth (could use some control tweaks), Proctor, and Henn in the bullpen (Rivera is a given). Johnson, Mussina, Wang, and Lidle (give him a full year in the Bronx) are a decent starting rotation, and if we can trade A-CLOD for a quality pitcher that would be peechie. Villone is ok, I'm neutral about him.

And a GRUDGING congrats to the Tigers and a $25 gift card to my friend Mark who lives right outside Detroit. Bleah...