and they are great at informing us about things of that nature.

I absolutely do not trust the Post to accurately report on anything, unless it has to do with area men chopping off their penises and throwing them at cops. They've got that market covered.

That being said, Phil Mushnick is a different animal. All he does is obsessively follow the media's coverage of sports and point out the foibles of the biggest personalities in sports journalism.

That's it. That's his entire job. I'm not sure it's the most honorable of professions, but if you want to find out which sportscaster is making an ass of himself, he's your man.

I did hear Cashman state what I said in a earlier post, he was surprised by Hank. I guess that's where I got confused, I apologize to the King and fellow posters. Also, The Post should almost never be used as a measuring stick for accurate reporting.

That's the plan I read about all spring, BAW. Unfortunately, the plan is blowing up. No one could predict the Hughes and Kennedy injuries and some relievers not meeting expectations. Moving Joba to the rotation has a great impact on the bullpen in close games, just as previous writers stated. At least the Yankees stuck to the youth movement, although it's not going the way it was imagined.

Never ever EVER trust ANYTHING that Mike and the Mad Dog say.

Ever.

They are the most notorious flip-floppers in the game. In one breath they will criticize moving Joba to the rotation, then in the next, when they have Joe Girardi on the show, they will say what a great move it is to put Joba in the rotation.

If you don't believe me, read Phil Mushnick's columns in the Post every Friday (I think - it's sometime on or around the weekend). He's been chronicling this stuff for years.

Actually, Joba did go into spring training preparing to be a starter. After they determined that Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes were ready for rotation spots (what? who said that?) they decided to start Joba in the bullpen. But that wasn't the only reason.

As was previously mentioned, they needed to limit his innings, so they decided to start him in the bullpen, then move him to the rotation mid-season to keep his innings down.

In case I’m not being clear here: The plan all along has been to do exactly what they are doing now.

You might argue that Hank Steinbrenner changed the course by forcing them to do it earlier in the season than they wanted to, but this was always in the cards for Joba this year. If you follow the Yankees all year round, none of this should be a surprise.

Not Fort Street. They are traffic-jamming along Jefferson, past Joe Louis Arena, home of the Wings. A genuine Detroit drive-past, honk and show off evening! Cool cars, cute women, and great hockey.

For the past half hour, Detroiters have been honking and shouting for their Red Wings. Downtown Detroit (normally empty): Sounds of celebration!

Along Fort Street, I suppose... I am heading down there now, with my dog. People are happy. People are loud. Hooray for the Detroit Red Wings!

. . . The needs of the team should also be a consideration. Some of us see Joba's switchover as possibly costing the Yankees Monday night's game as well as Tuesday's, when Kyle Farnsworth was assigned the task of trying to get to Mariano Rivera because Joba wasn't available.

But there's a bigger story in all this. It's all good for those of us who don't care for Hank Steinbrenner's imitation of his dad--his dad from the bad old days before the elder Steinbrenner turned things over to Joe Torre and his front office. Clearly Girardi is not the real manager, and that is good news for the rest of the American League East, because Girardi looks like he could be pretty good if he were allowed to run the team. Hank looks like an idiot, but most owners do when they think they should make out the lineup card. However, he also talks when he should shut up and sounds like an idiot. It could be a long hot summer in the Bronx.

King!

When I try to find you in the normal Salon order of yesterday's posts, you are not there. Granted, once you come up with a new post for tomorrow, today's post will be available up front. And, you are available in the little menu on the upper left.

But, some data nerd at Salon is dissing you. You need normal visibility. Plunging Salon should be kissing you, not dissing you.

When will we see a new King Kaufman mini-TV-show?

"That would be a 28 percent increase, and, especially if they're headed for the playoffs, the Yanks might have him skip a few starts to protect him, especially if they've got some breathing room".

Everything about protecting the pitcher sounds valid, but they're making this change while in last place. The Yankees can't be thinking about breathing room at this stage, can they? And they're disrupting the one thing this team does consistently, finish games they have leads in. I think he will eventually become a solid asset as a starter, but who will hold til the ninth?

I could be wrong(it seems this often happens) about the Yankees original plan, but I don't believe this move actually helps them this year b/c of their current situation. This is the Yankees organization(the things I mentioned in 1st post) and the one I forgot, it's Hank's 1st year at the helm. Imagine he misses the playoffs for the 1st time in a decade and in the final year of the stadium! That must be weighing on him.

I listened to the Mike and The Mad Dog Show the day after Hank Steinbrenner first came out and spoke of Joba changing to the starting role. They had Brian Cashman on who reiterated that the plan was to keep Joba in the 8th inning role, and that he knew nothing of what Hank was saying. My memory is a little fuzzy, so they might have only had the audio of Cashman saying it, but I heard it from the horse's mouth. Mike Francesa is a fairly reliable source for a sportsradio guy and his main interest is the Yankees. He has been commenting that this is a change of strategy for the past few weeks and claims that the veteran ballplayers are not happy with the change due to its potential negative effect on this season. Anybody in the NY/NJ area hear the same things from the show?