MVN: Most Valuable Network

That is the real question this morning.

Yes

Moose has been bad, even dreadful. If he wasn't 38 with 247 wins, 2,648 Ks and with a whole bunch of expected Hall of Fame votes coming in with his name on them, his last 3 performances are the types that get younger pitchers sent down to figure things out. In his last 3 starts, he has 19 runs in 9 2/3 innings. He's given up 25 hits, walked 5 and struck out 3.

Another telling stat is that Mussina is 0-7 following Yankee losses. After a loss or two, you want a starter to step up and say "ok, I'm not letting this get out of hand, I'm ending this right here and now. Then you want him to go out and scratch and claw to keep his team in the game and do what it takes to end that slide. Pettitte is a stopper. Clemens was once and can be a stopper. Wang can be a stopper. Mussina is no longer such. Moose is no longer the guy that Torre would turn to in the pivotal game 3 of a series and he (apparently) can no longer put his team on his back and gut out a performance when they need one.

This leads to a follow-up question which he so subtly asked last week: "Who would we replace him with?"

Ian Kennedy is not going to happen. It's too late in a year and too deep into a playoff push to throw a rookie with a big future directly into the fire. We all want to see him, but it's not happening. Kei Igawa... eh... More on him later. Matt DeSalvo has pitched well as of late down in the minors, but is 1-3 and sports a 6.18 ERA in 7 ML appearances. Tyler Clippard fell apart after being demoted and I haven't heard much from him in quite some time. I doubt he's lighting it up down tehre.

Steven White is another option. I know absolutely nothing about him. Apparently he was the Yankees best pitching prospect several years ago. If anyone remembers the state of the Yankee farm system several years ago, you realize that's not saying much.

No

Mussina, while no Greg Maddux, is still a guileful pitcher and can be very effective when he's hitting his marks. Ben from River Ave Blues wrote a very good piece on Mussina for those of us who, with his recent ineffectiveness, have forgotten what a great pitcher he's been. And for those who dislike him because they think he's a snobbish jerk should read this piece by Peter Abraham. Frankly, he sounds like me. I don't have time for stupid questions either.

Before his last 3 mind-numbing starts, he'd won his previous 4 (albeit, 2 were against KC and 1 in Chicago). He'd pitched 25 1/3 innings, given up 8 runs on 29 hits and 2 walks and struck out 19. When David Wells and Greg Maddux are still out there getting outs and fielding their position, I still believe that Mussina has got 2-3 years left as a servicable back of the rotation starter.

So what then?

Should Moose lose his job? Unless the alternative is Ian Kennedy, then I say no. Sort of. With the Devil Rays coming to town, whom Mussina is 0-1 with a 7.59 in 10 2/3 innings (2 starts) and has allowed 9 runs on 18 hits (remember that friday-night shalacking they gave him?), I think it would be a good idea to skip his next start in favor of someone like DeSalvo, Wright, Igaga or Wight. But Moose is here and he's here for another year as well. He needs to make some adjustments and compensate for the fact that he is not a plus-90 thrower anymore. Unfortunately, Guidry may not be very well suited to helping Mussina with this. He was a completely different pitcher than Mussina is. Someone like Stottlemyer is who Moose needs to work with right now.

On to Sean Henn. Henn has gone 6 1/3 innings in his last 3 appearances as the Yankee lefty/long man. He's given up 15 runs on 15 hits and an incredible 8 walks. He's also earned two big losses. Since his promotion, Henn has looked every bit the AAAA pitcher.

Would it really be a bad idea to use Kei Igawa as the long man and lefty specialist? Ignore the money aspect, that's useless to debate. It's gone. They need to focus on what is best for the team. Igawa has been an unmitigated disaster as a Yankee starter but his most successful outing was a spot start against the Red Sox where he pitched 6 shutout innings and only giving up 2 hits. His walks are bad and he's prone to the long ball but I think it's worth a shot. Nothing else has worked thus far.

One other thing. Edwar Ramirez does not have a major league fastball. He has an all-world changeup, but nothing to set it up with. He's not going to be a good reliever until he can stop hitters from sitting on the changeup and fouling off his other pitches. When he got two quick strikes on Garret Anderson with the changeup the other day, I can't imagine I was the only one who was thinking that he's going to be sitting on that third changeup like you wouldn't believe. We all know what happened next; he hit one that hasn't landed yet. Edwar is a nice ancillary guy to have in your pen for a different look. But until he muscles up and gets himself a fastball (eat a damn hamburger, man), that's all he's going to be.

There's no point even addressing Chris Britton at this time. If he's not up by now, they've got to know something that we don't.