I just can't be sure how I feel about Torre's mgr. abilities. Years ago, I felt like I could guess along with him and I usually knew and understood the moves he would make. Now I am often flabbergasted and find myself shouting at the tv when he yanks Mussina or some other starter after the 5th or in the middle of the 6th inning. No wonder Yankee pitchers hurt themselves so often. They never learn to stretch their arms in the Yankees rotation. You'd think that Stottlemyre would remember that pitchers were more durable in the old days of 4 man rotations and routine 300+ inning seasons. But maybe he's more sensitive these days because he remembers his own career-ending rotator cuff injury.

No one on the Yankees starting staff knows how to battle for a win. It's like they all have the "five and fly" mentality that infects non-championship teams.

Injured pitchers often either end their careers when Torre abuses them or they mysteriously get healthy when properly used by other managers when they leave the Yankees.

The bullpen? Sorry, Torre's either phoning it in or he thinks he's managing a Stratomatic team where you can use the same guy 162 games without his card/arm getting tired.

As for position players, I am stumped as to why Bubba Crosby is allowed to stagnate on the bench. It's not as though the Yanks have 3 gold glove outfielders. Matsui needs rest. Bernie always needs a defensive replacement. Sheffield could use a night off every once in a while. Womack is still a secondbaseman even though he does give you 100% when moved to an outfield position. But Bubba is a talented outfielder with speed whose butt is stapled to Torre's bench. I often wonder if Torre just refuses to use young players when he can use a tired veteran instead but, then again, he's burning out Cano everynight.

And, while I'm on the subject, can't someone tell Cano to take a pitch every now and then? He's constantly making outs on the first pitch. Every pitcher in the league knows he'll swing at the first pitch (even after 2 guys walk ahead of him!) and he will still hack at anything anywhere as soon as he walks up to the plate. He's killing rallies with embarrassing swings immediately after Jeter worked a pitcher into a deep count.

And why not play Flaherty an extra game every couple of weeks. It's not like Jorge is having one of his better seasons so maybe Flaherty can get something going or, at best, maybe Posada can get refreshed.

There may be something to the concept of those "super" teams that were handed to Torre at the start of his Yankees career. Even if that were the case, you'd like to think that Torre would have learned something about managing and about chemistry just by sitting and watching those Yankees teams.

And now Torre's saying that he's taking Aaron Small out of the rotation to make room for Jaret Wright. That makes perfect sense in this new world order...take one of your most effective and durable starters out of the rotation and stick him into the bullpen where Torre can wear him out in about 2 weeks.

For now, I guess I'll just go back to the tv now and scream at the set for the next 3 innings while Torre tries to put together a bullpen to clean up after another Al Leiter 500-pitch 5-inning start.