The Futility Infielder

Travel, rain, and the initial stages of wedding planning (definitely not my favorite kind of spreadsheet) have made my week nearly a total a loss from the blogging standpoint. Rest assured that I'll be getting back to the good stuff soon enough. I did get to see the end of Wednesday night's Dodger game, with Steve Finley's walk-off double sending his old mates to defeat. All smiles here.

Thought for the day as I check in on the afternoon Yankees game: going forward into the division race and the postseason, for my money the single most important indicator as to how the Yanks will fare is the performance of Mike Mussina. He's had a horrible season, with his 5.15 ERA a run and a half above his career mark of 3.61, an elbow injury that kept him on the shelf for six weeks, and a whole lot of whining about the Yanks opener in Japan. But if he can get right -- and he looks to be onto his second solid start in a row, albeit another one against the dregs of the AL East -- then the Yanks have four solid-to-good starters no matter what Ol' Knucklehead's status is. Moose, El Duque, Javier Vazquez, Jon Leiber may not have the ring(s) of Clemens, Pettitte, Cone, and Wells, but that quartet will likely have to do.

I'd kill to have Boomer back, though...