Happy Birthday, Yogi

Happy 85th birthday to Yogi Berra. Still crazy after all these years and still the finest ambassador of Yankee baseball.

With 20% of the season in the books, Brian Cashman has the early lead in the GM of The Year voting - by other GMs. His off season moves have been tremendously helpful, to other teams.

Sending Super prospect Austin Jackson and reliever Phil Coke to Detroit for Curtis Granderson has turned out brilliantly. Jackson is batting .360, leading the league in hits, and has a .408 OBP - for the Tigers. Coke has appeared in 17 games with a 1.69 ERA - for the Tigers. Granderson - batting .225 and currently vacationing with Nick Johnson on the DL.

Speaking of the Fragile One, Nick performed his "Mark Teixeira in April" imitation superbly, hitting .167, before taking his first 2010 trip to the DL, while the off-loaded Johny Damon is batting .295 with a .412 OBP - playing elsewhere. Even the aged Hediki Matsui has a BA 60 points higher than the weak-wristed one - also playing elsewhere.

However, snapping up Javier Vasquez for a paltry $11.5 M overshadows any of the aforementioned moves. Javey is enjoying the same kind of success he had when he last pitched in New York. 5 games, 23 IP, 9.78 ERA, 8 HR allowed, 15 walks.

While its a small consolation that Melkey Cabrerra is struggling with the Braves, Yankee fans are paying top dollar to watch Marcus Thames and Randy Winn do their Dancing Bear routine in left field.

But after all, these are only statistics, used by "numbers guys" for evil, devious purposes.

Looks like the talking-head eulogies for the Red Sox were played a bit to early. The Sox are 2 games over .500 and a manageable 5 games out. Tampa Bay is coming back to planet earth. The Yankees outfield is a bit of a mess. Toronto is winning. Toronto is winning. Even when repeated its hard to believe, but Toronto is winning (still doesn't help). The division is as advertised - a dog fight.