HENN LAYS EGG! But who can we blame?

"Is a 6.10 ERA gud?"

This is my first entry on the Holy Cow! Yankees Blog and I regret that it had to come on such a horrible night/morning for the Yankees. After avoiding being swept by the Angels the Yankees came in to Detroit needing this series in the worst way. By the time the game (delayed four hours by rain) was underway the Red Sox had already won twice and the Mariners were on their way to another victory...

Clemens obviously wasn't sharp, but the Yankees were able to score 6 runs... A-Rod hit his 43rd homer of the season. The bullpen tossed 5 shutout innings of relief, Mariano Rivera pitched. This sounds like it should have a good ending right? WRONG! It was horrendous. Sean Henn blew another huge game for the Yankees by giving up a 3-run walk off homer to Carlos Guillen. One of the worst losses of the season in my opinion. It's easy to ride Henn because of the two heart breakers he has lost over the last week, but who is really to blame?

Some fans have chattered about Torre not using relievers for more than one inning, and I agree Chamberlain could have gone another inning, perhaps Ramirez too, but you really can't kill him on this one. Farnsworth is a one inning pitcher, Vizcaino has complained of a tired arm recently, and with Rivera's little hiccup recently you don't want to stretch him more than you need to. At some point in long games you are forced to use your worst relief pitchers.

Obviously Sean Henn is not major league material. Moving him to the pen seemed like a good idea before the season, but it hasn't worked. Going into the game Henn had a WHIP of 1.58, horrible. How he's managed to pitch 31 innings for this team is beyond me. I'm sure this topic will come up more in the future as it has all season, but where the FUCK is Chris Britton?

What was the point of trading Wright for Britton if he's going to rot in the minor leagues all season? I'm not saying the Yankees should have kept Mr. Wright, but what the hell? The guy was a good pitcher out of the O's bullpen (is that really possible?) last season and he has pitched well on every level so far this season. While I applaud the front office for many moves it has made this season, it's really a joke that Britton hasn't become a staple in the bullpen.

Instead the Yankees decided to call up Brian Bruney who to my knowledge didn't even warm up during this game. Regardless he had a 6.00 ERA since being sent down to AAA. Prior to that he still had a relatively good ERA (3.40), but since June Bruney walked 16 batters and struck out only 8. That's beyond alarming, I think we all know why the Diamondbacks let him go now.

Anyway that's more than enough to chew on for one entry... Since the Yankees started to make this nice little run that they have I claimed that this stretch of games at the end of August would be the defining point of the season. Right now it only looks so-so. Are the Yankees the team that started off the season horrendously? Are they the team that dominated in July/Early August? Or are they somewhere in between? I'd like to think they're a championship caliber team this season, but these next three games and the upcoming series with the Red Sox will really speak volumes about what kind of team this is. Let's not forget there is a potentially huge series coming up in early September against the Mariners as well.

One last thing:
The worst umpired game I have ever seen, Posada getting tossed was bullshit, but the game ended so bad I didn't feel like writing more about it.

*It felt good to make my first entry here... This certainly isn't the first Yankees blog out there and it won't be the last. We don't have any "inside" sources, just solid and well formed baseball opinions. Hopefully there will be some unique content (funny images coming soon) that will keep you coming back.