Williams: Notes outside the sox

-The Following notes were sent to me by Nick Williams on late tuesday night. Notes around the AL, and some more comments on the state of the Yankees.-

Because the Wolfman has you up to date on the Sox, I figured I would catch you up on baseball outside of beantown.

First off, let’s start out with everybody’s favorite topic: the Yankees. It’s only May 3rd and the Bronx Bombers have already pushed the panic button. The Yanks shifted Hideki Matsui to center, moved second baseman Tony Womack to leftfield, and basically set up a Bernie Williams/Jason Giambi platoon, with Giambi presumably in against righties and the switch-hitting Williams playing versus left-handers. That’s over $25 million of one year money committed to two players who can’t play the field and will split batting duties. To put that in perspective, the Sox are paying DH David Ortiz $5.25 million for 2005.

I was of the opinion that the Yankees would snap out of their early funk and rip off a multi-game winning streak. I thought the night A-Rod clubbed three homers in a rout of the Angels was the coming-out party, apparently not. Since that night, the Yanks have lost 5-out-of-7 and things aren’t looking up.Tanyon Sturtze is on a rehab stint in AAA and the Big Unit has been scratched from his next start. On top of that, rumors have started to circulate that Jaret Wright might not be back until July. Meanwhile, Carl Pavano and Mike Mussina are both sporting ERAs in the 4's and Kevin Brown is coming off an outing in which he allowed a whopping 13 hits and eight earned runs in five innings against the (gulp) Devil Rays. Brown saw his ERA balloon to a mind blowing 8.25, simply unacceptable for someone making over $15 million per season.

I know it’s hard to fathom a team with a $200 million payroll missing the playoffs, but I’m beginning to have serious doubts. Now 11-16, the Yanks will be forced to shake things up even more than they have if they continue to dwell near the bottom of the AL East. It might force Brian Cashman to be an actual GM and not just sign checks. Either way, it should get really interesting.

As for other AL news:

-The Twins continue to impress me. They never seem to be out of a game and they have the best pitcher in the game in Johan Santana and maybe the soon-to- be best closer in the game in Joe Nathan. By the way, the Twins acquired Nathan from the Giants before last season for A.J. Pierzynski, who the Giants released this season in favor of Mike Matheny. But that doesn’t even come close to the biggest steal on GM Terry Ryan’s team. Remember two years ago? Ryan plucked Shannon Stewart from the Blue Jays for outfielder Bobby Kielty. Stewart went on to bat .322 in 65 games that year for Minnesota and led them to the Central Division title, finishing fourth in MVP voting in the process. He hit .302 last year and is batting .280 so far this season. Kielty, meanwhile, never lasted in Toronto and is currently a backup hitting .238 for the Athletics.

-Speaking of the A’s, Billy Beane’s moneyball lineup has average a meager 3.48 runs per game this season—a ridiculous number that tops only Pittsburgh’s 3.16 average in MLB. Top culprits: 1) Eric Chavez – just signed a big deal and is batting .200 with 2 homers and 9 RBIs. 2) Jason Kendall – the prized off season pickup is hitting .240 with no homers. 3) Erubiel Durazo - .250 and 2 homers is not enough from your cleanup guy.

-I've read rumors of Todd Helton going to the Orioles. It doesn’t make sense since Baltimore already has Palmeiro and Gibbons to play first, plus you would think Colorado would want a cheap, premiere, major league talent. Brian Roberts comes to mind but you can be sure the O’s won’t be dealing him anytime soon.