You could all do this yourselves, but I'm bored:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bellicl01.shtml

Yankee fans - do you remember Clay's RBI double in the 2000 ALDS vs. Oakland? I don't. But if Clay came up and hit for himself, it must not have been a big spot.

Does Roger Clemens have any Greek ancestry?

I still feel like I can help a team.

I'm sure the Fresno Grizzlies find him somewhat helpful.

honestly (I don't think any player would tell the truth about this), do you think Bellinger would rather play for Greece in the Olympics, or be the Pirates' utility infielder next year?

I wish him good luck.

The guy has 2 WS rings, I think he's seen his fair share of good luck.

I was at The Yankee Stadium when Bellinger hit hit 1st career HR ....you would have thought the Greek God of pants o' fire was after him, the way he ran around the bases.

did they give him a ring for that one at bat for the 02 Angels?

Vizcaino, Sojo, and Bellinger in the same inning -- such fond memories of the Yankees' futility-infielder-o-rama...

Good call, Jay. Too bad they haven't changed much. Enrique's the new Sojo (wouldn't you much rather have Pokey Reese for the extra $300K?), Sojo even played last year, and now they have Miguel Cairo. Whither Erick Almonte?

Also, note that Enrique was traded for Damaso Marte, who is currently awesome at a low salary.

Lastly, if I'm Bellinger, I pick the Pirates, because it's not like he has millions of dollars to fall back on.

Did someone say fag?

Bellinger must have one of the highest ratios of postseason games (19) to regular season games (183) ever. Sojo (43 to 848) did pretty well for himself, too.

It's really amazing how bad the Yankees bench has been during the Torre years. It doesn't matter all that much during the regular season -- especially in the AL -- but even in the post-season, they stick with the same scrubs. You would think you wouldn't want guys who have played so poorly and so little as your bench come playoff time.

Given that, I propose a new two-pronged strategy for the Yankees, bench wise. Note: The first part is not the exciting part.

1. On or before August 31st, the Yankees trade for the up to six players to fill out their post-season bench. The starting nine is set -- and very, very, good -- but the current bench for '04 (Flaherty, Cairo, Sierra, Wilson, 1B-to-be-named later) is fairly weak.

By late-August, plenty of non-contending teams will be happy to take a C-prospect and unload a month of salary (plus any potential '05 option buyout). Think of the players who could be available: Glaus, Garrett Anderson, Delgado, Vidro, Cabrera, Colbrunn, J.T. Snow, Alou, etc. Richard Hidalgo makes $2 million per month and has a $2 million '05 buyout. I'm sure Drayton McLane would be happy to unload him for Erick Almonte if they're out of the race.

But how could the Yankees, even with their deep pockets, afford 10 or 15 million bucks on playoff bench upgrades? Read on...

2. Before the late-summer bench upgrade, the Yankees award the 25th spot on the roster to a contest winner. The winner would get a week or ten days or so with the team before the next contestant takes over. You can be Clay Bellinger! You can be Enrique Wilson!

What sort of contest, though?

"Yankee Idol"

Yes, a baseball version of American Idol, airing on the YES! Network. There would be tryouts with scouts, Yankee trivia challenges, mock-media interviews with Micheal Kay, etc.

It would become an absolute phenomenon if done well. They could have celebrity contestants and judges. Bring in the "Crash Davis" guys, the players with the most minor-league service time who've never gotten a big league cup of coffee. Limitless possibilities.

It's a plan Bill Veeck himself would love. The money the Yankees make from finding baseball's Clay Aikens for April to June goes right to buying Delgados and Hidalgos in August.

That 2000 postseason, which featured the aforementioned trio and was capped by Sojo's Series winning-RBI, went a long way towards inspiring me to start my site. Blame Joe Torre, or perhaps Chuck Knoblauch's throwing problem.

Wilson is Sojo lite (or heavy), worth more as an organ donor than as a bench player unless Pedro Martinez is on the hill. I have a hard time believing that the Yanks will carry both him and Cairo while leaving Sierra as their 5th OF. I guess a lot depends on who they get as their backup 1B. I can only hope they're not trying to squeeze Ron Coomer into the uniform he wore two years ago...