Ok, I took a little sabatical with the new baby, but I have been watching.  Here are some thoughts:

1) To all you A-Rod detractors out there.  There is no denying this team needs him.  He is such a presence that makes everyone better, the offense is so much better with him.  But I thought that was obvious before;

2) The Brett Gardener Era is over.  Everyone gets so excited …..  I’ve seen enough.  The guy is average in the OF at best.  He is so limited offensively, I don’t see him getting much better either.  Against the phillies with the winning run on third base, if he is such a good drag bunter why not drag bunt there?  I don’t know….  all I know is that I’ve seen enough.

3) Now to the real meat of this post…   There is such disparate treatment of guys on this team it is not funny and it is a real failure on the part of Cashman and Girardi.  When Wang is pitching badly, he’s got to stay out there and take his lumps.  Then, he is discarded down to the minors because Girardi and Eiland don’t know what’s wrong.  Phil Hughes must absolutely be perfect to remain with the club and has to hold his breath if he were to have a bad outing, even to the point of volunteering to pitch out of the bullpen.  Joba, on the other hand —- all excuses are made for this guy.  He loses the game, 4-3, it’s “well, after a shaky first inning, he struck out twelve.”  DIDN’T ANYONE NOTICE THE FOUR RUNS HE GAVE UP IN THE FIRST.  Then, it’s “well, it takes him a while to get going.”  It was the rain delay, it was this, it was that.  He never gets left out in the game to take his lumps.  Joba, from now on is MR. EXCUSE.  CAN THE GUY TAKE THE BALL LIKE A REAL PITCHER AND GO AT LEAST 6 INNINGS OF QUALITY BALL.  Look, the hype is over.  He can take his 3.97 ERA and 1.56 WHIP and most of all, his 70 baserunners in 40 innings and he can go back to the minors on a mental sabatical.  70 baserunners in 40 innings is TERRIBLE.  IT’S MEDIOCRE.  Sorry Joba, I would gladly take Phil Hughes at this point. And now we don’t know when Wang is going to get another start.  He’s stuck in the bullpen where he’s never pitched and not comfortable after winning 19 games twice.  When has Joba ever won 19 games?  There’s something wrong there.  The Yankees are completely ruining Wang.  Now, we hear they didn’t handle his off season rehab properly?  As far as I’m concerned, I need to see Joba step this up big time — when he should really be in the bullpen.  This is all messed up and not the way to run a club with World Series aspirations.

4) Having said all of this, the team is playing much better and winning even though Joba is very average and the bullpen is terrible. 

I mean does everyone see what I see with Joba?