don't ask for whom the bell tolls, hacky mcheadfirstslide, it tolls for thee!

and it's about damn time, too

This definitely make the Yankees the favorites to win it all this year.

Yada Yada Yada, Yankees this, Red Sox that...

Meh. Yes, this has been an unlucky year for the Yankees, but it's really kind of a case of all their bad luck catching up with them at once. They've had very, very good luck avoiding injuries to their major contributors over the past 10-15 years.

They've had very, very good luck avoiding injuries to their major contributors over the past 10-15 years.

Isn't that about how long it takes steroids to start breaking down the bodies of hardcore users?

Older teams get injured, blah blah blah. But you gotta admit that two pitchers having lisfranc injuries is pretty weird and unprecedented.

Since this seems to be the newest Yankees thread, I thought this was interesting:

Did you know Phil Hughes (left) has scrapped his slider in favor of a cutter? I did not. But once I found out, tonight's outing made a lot more sense.

Throughout the game, Hughes kept having success with an 87-89 mph pitch that seemed to have more movement than his regular fastball but too much velocity for a slider. He used it to strike out George Kottaras in the first inning, he used it to get a double play in the second, and he threw it off the plate to setup a 93 mph fastball for his final strikeout in the fifth. I thought he might be taking something off his fastball and getting a little extra movement, but no. New pitch. New to me, anyway.

The slider I thought I saw in the third inning was just a cutter with a lot of movement.

My own ignorance of the Phil Hughes arsenal aside, the guy pitched pretty well tonight. His fastball touched 95 four times in the first inning, and regularly sat 93-94 most of the night. He leaned heavily on the fastball and cutter through the first three innings before mixing in his other pitches more often in the fourth and fifth. He threw three straight changeups the second time he faced Chris Carter. The first two missed up. The third got a routine popup.

Chad Jennings

And to save Crispix the time, he's more valuable than Santana. ;)

Also, Jennings is an excellent beat writer. I hope he gets a job with a major league team soon.

Boo frickin' hoo.

Yea, they're not even close to being the most injured pitching staff in the majors.

Yea, they're not even close to being the most injured pitching staff in the majors.

But toss in the loss of Posada (basically all season) and Matsui, and A-Rod earlier, they're pretty close on a team level.

Hampton doesn't count anymore. At this point, it's just a bonus if he's healthy.

That's why I put him last, still, lose both our aces, both our 'closers', and our best setup man. Glavine isn't great, but he's forcing the depth. If he were healthy, Chuck James is working on his HR rate in Richmond.

No team can keep up with this. The Yankees might catch up, but if they lose Pettitte and Chamberlain, they're done. And that's what happened in Atlanta. We can expect some players to be lost, but not 3/5 of a staff. That's beyond expectation.

But toss in the loss of Posada (basically all season) and Matsui, and A-Rod earlier

and Jeter (no DL, but played through both quad and wrist/hand injuries), Damon, and heck, Albaladejo and Bruney

The point is, the original article was: "Oh no! Chamberlain is hurt! Woe are the Yankees!"

I pointed out what a team ravaged by injuries really was. We can argue the details, but we're probably missing the point. Is Chipper's DL = ARod's DL? Jeter = Escobar? Not the point.

The Yankees have not lost their two aces, and their three best relievers.

The Yankees have not lost their two aces, and their three best relievers.

How are Wang and Joba not their two aces?

if Girardi feels that Damon can handle centerfield, you’ll see a lot of him there with Nady in left.

I think I might be inclined to give Nady in CF and Damon in LF a shot.

We can expect some players to be lost, but not 3/5 of a staff. That's beyond expectation.

You do realize that Hughes, Kennedy and Wang are 3/5 of the Yankees season-opening starting staff, don't you? Then there's Bruney, Albaladejo, Britton, and now Chamberlain. It looks like they're definitely in the "boyond expectation" range, and are at the least giving the Braves a run for their money.

Hey now -- 36 year-old catchers are usually quite durable...

Hey now -- 36 year-old catchers are usually quite durable...

the funny thing about Posada is that the injury that might take him away from behind the plate perminently doesn't seem like a typical catcher injury - a bum shoulder can happen to any player, it doesn't seem like something that would happen due to the stress of catching.

Hey now -- 36 year-old catchers are usually quite durable...

Smoltz and Glavine make Georgie look like a teenager.

I suppose I should also point out that the Cardinals didn't have Cris Carpenter all season, have lost Adam Wainwright, for what... 6 weeks now? I'm sure there are plenty of other Cardinal injuries -- but I've been tuning out the complaints since about June.

The Brewers lost Yovani Gallardo - though I suppose Ben Sheets' freakish health this year compensates.

The Cubs lost Soriano for 6 weeks - and have also seen Zambrano and Wood hit the DL.

The Mets have been without Moises Alou virtually all year and Pedro Martinez for most it -- plus Billy Wagner now DL'ed.

The Astros lost Roy Oswalt for what... 3 weeks? Not to mention Wandy, Matsui, etc.

The Diamondbacks were without Snyder and Tracy to start the season, and have missed Eric Byrnes virtually all year, not to mention outages to the Big Unit and Doug Davis.

The Red Sox have been without David Ortiz for a good portion of the year.

The Yankees hardly have any sort of claim to being the poor, poor beset by injuries contender - but if they want to make a run at being the biggest whiners about, I suppose that's your call. You've got a ways to go to catch the Cardinals, though :-)

The Yankees hardly have any sort of claim to being the poor, poor beset by injuries contender - but if they want to make a run at being the biggest whiners about, I suppose that's your call. You've got a ways to go to catch the Cardinals, though :-)

okay, we get the point, every team suffers injuries. Of all the teams you mentioned, I see one that didn't noticeably fall behind when they were hit with injuries (Cubs), two that no one expected to contend (Astros and Cards) and a bunch that were supposed to be the cream of the crop but instead turned into mere contenders. The Yankees belong in that last group, that's all that's being said.

The Red Sox have been without David Ortiz for a good portion of the year.

Curt Schilling, too. But you don't hear them crying about their injured SS!

As far as pitching staff injuries go, I don't think any team is close to Texas.