Roster Gymnastics

The Yanks have made a couple minor moves in the last couple days to prepare for Armageddon.

* Lidle goes to the bereavement list to attend his grandmother’s funeral, so righty Brian Bruney comes up at least until Lidle’s scheduled start on Monday.

* Peter Abraham of the Journal News (who’s blog should be required reading), reports that Andy Phillips felt a “little tweak” during yesterday’s game and “in a stunning development” has been placed on the 15-day DL. T.J. Beam replaces him on the roster.

Phillips hadn’t played much since they acquired Craig Wilson (who is what most of us thought Phillips could grow up into) so he’s a superfluous part. By putting him on the DL, they free up a roster spot, which they would have had to DFA him to do otherwise. Phillips will be eligible to return after the Sept. 1 roster expansion, so he’ll at least finish the year as a Yankee. Beyond that though, I think we may be seeing the last of ol’ Andy.

So, with all that, here’s what the roster looks like:

SP - Wang, Ponson, Johnson, Moose, Wright (resting) (5)
RP - Villone, Myers, Bruney, Dotel, Beam, Proctor, Farnsworth, Mo (8)

INF - A-Rod, Jeter, Cano, Giambi, Wilson, Green (6)
OF - Cabrera, Damon, Abreu, Bernie (4)
C - Fasano, Posada (2)

BL - Lidle
DL - Phillips, Cairo, Matsui, Sheffield, Rasner, Pavano

Now for today’s game, Villone has pitched 5.1 innings this week, throwing over 95 pitches in that span, and has appeared in the last three Yankee games, so that shortens the ‘pen for today at least a little.

Dotel has appeared in back-to-back games since coming off the DL, so he’s probably out tonight as well. ProFarnMo™ got the day off yesterday, so they ought to be rested. Myers threw 31 pitches in 2.1 innings yesterday - only his third appearance since his disastrous three-run, three-hit, zero out performance against Tampa on July 29.

Expect Myers to only pitch if its close and The Crown Prince of WPA™ is striding to the plate.

Beam last threw on Tuesday, so he’s rested. His last appearance with the big club was also in that July 29 debacle, coughing up a couple runs of his own.

Bruney threw well yesterday, but like Dotel he’s coming off an injury, so it’ll be interesting to see how Joe plays this.

All in all, its not hard to argue with Joe’s logic, as much as I hate 13-man pitching staffs. These games are going to be long, high scoring and, well, ugly. Best to have more than enough reinforcements in the bullpen just in case. I would have liked to see a Jeff Karstens or other Columbus starter come up than Beam, just to stretch things on in the night cap once Pontoon gets bombed, but oh well, maybe we’ll get lucky.

In the words of Danny Glover - I’m too old for this sh*t.