June 23: Turning Point - You Can't Be Serious!

“If there is a turning point to the season, this should be it.” Those were the prophetic words of Bernice Williams on Tuesday night after the Yankees railed for 13 runs off Travis Harper and the vaunted Tampa Bay Devil Rays. This prediction may not rank up there with the Chicago Tribune going out incorrectly with Dewey’s victory in 1948, but it sure isn’t far behind. Bernie, Bernie, Bernie – you should know better. Tuesday night wasn’t the turning point of anything and especially not this Yankee season of discontent. Tuesday night was an anomaly. A mere uptick on an EKG that is basically flat-lining. So what happened just 18 hours after Bernie made his astute observation? The Yanks went out and got punked again by that Tampa steamroller. This time, the blame fell at the feet of Careless Pavano who came inside and ended up getting knocked out in the seventh by some tomato can named Nick Green. As is typical for this staff, Pavano claimed afterward that he had great stuff but just made a couple bad pitches. Enough already. Careless is now 4-6 with an ERA of 4.6 and guess what Yankess fans – he isn’t even one-eighth of the way through that $40 million contract. Interestingly enough, after the game, Yankee PR Director Joe Torre said that a blister may have bothered Pavano, but Carl shut such talk down by saying “I don’t know what he is talking about.” Hey, he may not be able to pitch, but at least he scored a point for his honesty. So the beat goes on for the Bombers who suddenly find themselves unable to beat the hapless Rays, who have taken six of nine off the Yanks this year. To put that in perspective, the Yanks went 13-5 against Tampa last year. And that raises the question: if the Yanks can’t beat the bad teams in the league, what are they going to do against the good ones. Well, they better figure things out quickly because after this weekend’s series with the Mets, the Yanks don’t play a team with a losing record (as of today) until August 15. That is shaping up like a seven-week death march.

Brian Cashman must wake up every morning and thank god that he lives and works in the same city as Isiah Thomas. I say this because with Thomas around, Brian can rest at night knowing he is not the most incompetent general manager in the Big Apple. Here is Zeke’s latest move, as first reported by realgm.com. Isiah, having decided his team was flush with big men, has sent Kurt Thomas packing for Phoenix and in return, the Knicks will get Quentin Richardson. Quentin Richardson? This one is right in my sweet spot since I argued for much of last season that Q was one of the most over-rated players in the NBA. So what does Zeke do? He trades for him and in the process, gives up his toughest inside player. Here are some of the things you need to know about Q. He shot under 40 percent from the floor. Granted, this percentage is hindered by the fact that he launches so many threes, but at the end of the day, his percentage is still under forty percent. Now Q defenders will argue that on an adjusted basis, Q actually shoots close to 50 percent. This is true, but as long as we are breaking down the numbers, I would point out that Q almost never gets to the line. NEVER. His point per minutes numbers are certainly nothing to get excited about and more importantly, because he never gets to the line, his points per shot totals are just about the worst of any shooting guard in the league. So Zeke has brought in another one-dimensional long range gunner to go along with Jamal Crawford, who is another low percentage guy who sports a tiny point per shot total. And in an effort to build redundancy, Zeke ended up giving up a soft shooting big guy who could grab ten rebounds with one hand tied behind his back. Kurt also brings a nasty streak to the court and that will be sorely missed. I can’t wait to hear Zeke defend this one and point out what a joy it will be next year to watch that frontline of Mike Sweetney, Tim Thomas and Mo Taylor.

Staying with the Knicks, it was reported by the New York Daily News this morning that the NBA’s new CBA may contain a little clause that could help the Knicks finally dump Allen Houston and his horrific contract. This was classic Daily News – pumping a story because it was a scoop, but losing sight of the story’s actual importance. This is the deal – the News learned that the new CBA will allow NBA teams a little amnesty program where teams can cut one player off its roster and avoid paying any luxury tax on that player’s contract. So in Houston’s case, the Knicks will be able to cut him and avoid paying $40 million in luxury tax. Mind you, the Knicks would still have to honor the contract itself. The end result is the Knicks will cut Houston and save some money, but such outcomes will do nothing to help their dire salary cap situation. That is because if Houston is cut, his mammoth salary will still count against the cap so the Knicks will still be in salary cap hell. If you don’t read the News story closely, you might think this was not the case. Moreover, what difference does it make if Houston is on the team or not so long as his contract remains in place. At the end of the day, the Knicks stink and their salary commitments place them miles about the league’s cap. The new CBA and Houston’s departure will do nothing to ameliorate either of these problems. As far as I am concerned, the News story was hardly news.

So what else happened in Baseball last night? We’ll start in Cleveland where the Red Sox nailed down a real nice win, coming back three times before winning it in the ninth and completing the three-game sweep over the Tribe. Wade Miller was not terrific last night, but he kept the Sox in the game and the offense responded with some very clutch late-game hits. Alan Embree actually made a contribution last night by coming into the game and getting out of a bases loaded – no out- jam without giving up a run. Proving that all good things must end, Embree put two guys on in the seventh that both came into score. How long will it take for Theo to pull Everyday Eddie G out of Seattle? It feels like a Boston breakout is coming and its time for Theo to bring in some more armor to breach the gap. On the second base watch: Belhorn went 0-3 with two whiffs last night while Little Pedro (Dustin Pedroia) went 1-4 with a double in his first game at AAA. If this kid hits at Pawtucket like he has hit everywhere else (Tempa, Sarasota, Wilmington, Portland), he won’t be there too long. By the way, his Sun Devils are still alive in the CWS.

Out West the Angels took command of the division by completing the sweep over the Rangers. Kenny Rogers came out flat and got rocked for the second time in his last three outings. It was a brutal series for the Rangers who were outscored 19-7 and lost with their three best pitchers – Rogers, Young and Park They now find themselves 4.5 back which isn’t terrible but it does give the Angels some breathing room as they prepare to move forward without Steve Finley. I am not sure that injury is all that significant anyways since the Angels have proved to be pretty resilient. Hell, if they managed without Vlad for three weeks, they can easily get by without Mr. Finley, especially if Erstad remains warm. Elsewhere in the AL, the Twins got punked again and even though they scored some runs early today, it looks like this team just doesn’t have enough firepower to be consistently good. The top of the staff is solid and the bullpen is terrific, but where is all that production from Mauer and Morneau? Neither played yesterday and let me tell you, nobody is scared of a team that hits Torii Hunter cleanup. That guy hits sixth in a big time lineup. Baltimore’s lead in the East was trimmed to one when the birds came up empty against Pete Walker, a guy who hasn’t started since 2002. Melvin Mora missed the game with a strained hammy and if that injury lingers, this team is in real trouble. They have had a nice first half, but injuries are taking a toll and it feels like a swoon is coming. And speaking of poor cleanup hitters, what is Sammy still doing in the four hole? If I were Maz, I would flip him with Raffy and go righty-lefty-righty. On second thought, does it really matter?

Why is anyone throwing the ball to Andruw Jones right now? The Braves have no one in that lineup and Jones is just mashing the ball. He has nine bombs in his last 11 games and for some reason or another, guys keep throwing him strikes. Those must be mistakes because there is no way in the world that Johnny Estrada’s presence is forcing guys to throw strikes. When the Braves and Fish got together last night, it may have pitted the NL’s two worst leadoff men against each other. Both Rafael Furcal and Juan Pierre have been staying at Motel Struggle this year although Furcal was able to scratch out a hit and a couple runs last night. For those of you asleep at the wheel – the Fish are now at .500 and are pulling up on the Yanks in the race for this year’s most disappointing team. Jason Schmidt sure knows how to hold an audition? Last night, Schmidt threw eight shutout innings with a number of scouts looking on. He has now had a couple of real solid starts and he therefore is no longer being shown out on the lawn of a rummage sale A couple weeks ago, a team probably could have had Schmidt for a bag of balls and some Ben Gay for Barry’s ailing knee. But who knows anymore. Giants GM Brian Sabean is probably going to hold out for good value now that Schmidt has proven he isn’t a total basket case. Here is my wild prediction: Sabean will hose the Yanks on Schmidt. The Yanks will give up Wang and get stuck with Schmidt’s ailing arm and $10M option in 06. Finally, we get to the Mets who lost a nail-biter down at the Little Lock Box in Philly last night. The Mets actually got a good performance out of Victor Zambrano, but that trusty bullpen could not keep the team in the game. Aaron Heilman certainly did not impress in his first appearance as a late innings guy. Has anyone noticed that Kenny Lofton is having a sick year for the Phils. He doesn’t have a ton of at bats, but he is hitting .380 and slugging almost .500. It stands to reason that the Yanks decided to let this guy go and are now looking for a centerfielder to take his place.

The clear leader in the race to win 2005’s worst signing is Eric Milton. Check out some of these factoids. Eric Milton has given up 25 bombs while walking only 24. That is not a reflection of Eric’s great control. Instead, it just shows that this guy simply can’t keep the ball in the park, whether it’s at home on the road. The other thing worth noting is that Milton is letting right-handers hit .335 and slug .650 against him. In essence, Milton turns every righty into a batting champion and silver slugger. At 3-9 and with an ERA of almost eight, this guy is an absolute meltdown waiting to happen. The word is that Cincy is already trying to dump this guy but good luck, nobody is taking that contract so long as Milton continues to throw BP.