To be fair A-Rod isn’t playing terrible and he hasn’t been the biggest culprit for this offensive ineptitude. The thing that concerns me is he started expanding his strike zone in Game 2 a bit and he’s not going to get anything at all to hit with Matsui behind him. This is a bit of hyperbole but at this point I don’t think playing Giambi at 1B Molina behind the plate and DHing Posada should be considered I know this will never happen but i think it makes a bit of sense and Molina was pretty good after he got to the Yanks though granted in a very small sample.

It’s often said that a playoff series doesn’t start until the home team loses. With that in mind, I’m very confident that there will be a Game 5. All the Yankees have to do is to hold serve; I believe that they will.

As for A-Rod, as Tom Cruise’s character said in Risky Business: “Sometimes you just gotta say, ‘What the fuck’ “.

He is currently failing to produce, so what’s the worst thing that can happen? A continuation of the status quo. He might as well free his mind of doubt and let his ability take over, and accept the fact that if he fails, he fails. At least he would have failed with the right approach.

With regard to Torre, I hate that he has stuck with Matsui (he said he is staying with him because he had 103 RBIs, yet he didn’t stick with Tino in the 1996 playoffs and he had 117 RBIs). Which raises an important point: he manages much more mechanistically than he did in his early years here. In a similar vein, he probably won’t start Hughes because he lacks experience, yet he talks about how great Pettitte has been for him since 1996, a time when Pettitte lacked experience too. More specifically, Torre has managed tight since 2004, and I believe that he has inadvertently transmitted that tension to the rest of the team (the worst example was batting A-Rod 8th in last year’s ALDS).

So I agree that using Hughes for two innings in a meaningless spot in Game 1 was extremely misguided

btw, One of the reasons that Viz is burnt out now is that Torre has overused yet another reliever.

Good analysis, esp. A-Rod. I think you’re right.

The Yanks are the streakiest of the four AL teams, which makes them both dangerous and vulnerable. If they unload on Westbrook they could be off and running, but obviously that’s their only alternative now.

I have no problem with the way Torre used the bullpen in Game 2. That’s the right way to try and win a 1 run game on the road.  The fucking bugs.. well, what can you do.  Game 3 is Sunday.

As for ARod, I defend him to the typical haters like it’s my job, but last night when he swung at ball 4 in the 9th inning of a 1 run game, it’s hard to imagine he’s thinking with a clear head up there.  I thought the difference this year might be that he drew a couple of intentional walks, and that might remind him that he’s dangerous out there.. but he has totally expanded his strike zone and his timing is a c* hair off. Ugh.  I think the only chance anything good happens on Sunday is if, for some reason, he gets a standing O in his first AB (designed to sort of get him going.) Doubtful tho.. I guess if ESPN tells you that “it doesn’t matter in New York unless it’s in October” enough times, 55,000 people will eventually believe you.

I’m sorry Larry, I can’t take your excuses just as much as I couldn’t listen to Sterling complain about the bugs for about 20 minutes last night. As much as I love Joba and his stuff, he stunk and blew it. Carmona dealt with them, Perez dealt with them, Rivera dealt with them. You wanna say they peaked? what’s the difference between 50 bugs or 100 bugs? The effect should be just about the same. But Torre should have noticed throughout the last few weeks of the regular season that Joba just was not as sharp when he came out for a second inning. still great, just not as sharp. i think he should have left Pettite to finish the inning and let Joba pitch a clean 8th inning.

If there was ever a time for Yankee fans to show their support for a guy, A-Rod’s first at bat in game 3 is it.  I will be sick to my stomach if he gets booed just walking up to the plate.  After the year he’s had, the least they can do is show him some support and ignore the idiots in the media making this all about one guy.  If the Yankees do lose this series, hopefully he can at least get some big hits because they are not going to be better off without him.

But Torre should have noticed throughout the last few weeks of the regular season that Joba just was not as sharp when he came out for a second inning.

You’re right in that you can’t use the bugs as an excuse, but saying that Joba’s mini implosion could have been foreseen by a trend in his effectiveness when he pitches a 2nd inning in the same outing is not right either.  I think what it boils down to here is that the bugs affected Joba’s performance, and you have to say that he should have just dealt with it (as crazy as that sounds, there were so many bugs it was ridiculous.)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/2001_ALDS2.shtml

We were down and out there, as well.  2 losses at home, facing 2 in Oakland against pitchers with an ERA+ of 125 (Zito) and 121 (Lidle).

Let’s go Yankees!

The Cleveland pitchers are good but they’re not that good.  Eight hits in 20 innings is a disgrace for the team with the most potent offense in the game.  Naturally the media is focusing on Arod without whom Detroit would be in the playoffs and ignoring the fact that this team is hitting .122.

I understand all teams offense drops off against premium pitchers but I get the feeling that the Yankee’s drop off is greater then the norm and they underperform their expectations against the better pitchers.

i think the plague of bugs makes it official….we are cursed

Did the other pitchers get sprayed down with bug spray like Joba did?  I saw video of Joba getting sprayed down.  It seems like the bug spray would be worse than the bugs themselves.  That stuff is greasy.

Different team j, different team.

The real goat here is Posada. At the plate, behind the plate. He’ll turn 37 next August.

Posada wants a big contract, three/four years and probably $12.5+ million per year. He had a great year, offensively, in his walk year. Tough call, who replaces him. But it will be a bad signing, whoever overpays (if someone overpays). He’s on the road to being a DH.

bebop, Steve Lombardi did a piece about the Yankees travails vs. better pitchers over at WasWatching.

I agree, Don, that it’s a different team. But this is a good team all around - offensively, defensively and pitching with, yes, some glaring weaknesses like bullpen depth - that should be expected to get the job done against Westbrook and Byrd, 2 league average pitchers. I don’t know that you can say you can pin this on any 1 guy when the team is scattering a couple of hits across 9 innings.

More specifically, Torre has managed tight since 2004, and I believe that he has inadvertently transmitted that tension to the rest of the team (the worst example was batting A-Rod 8th in last year’s ALDS).

I’ve said this before, but I don’t think Joe is necessarily managing tight. Everyone loves to jump on A-Rod batting eighth last year, but of course, it was Joe who dropped Giambi to 7th in the line in Game 7 in 2003. Giambi hits two HRs, Joe looks brilliant. Is there a relationship between Giambi dropping in the order and his hitting? Maybe, maybe not, I have no idea. But it’s not like Joe dropping one of his major hitters was unprecedented.

In a larger sense, this is the deal with Joe. He does somethings well, some things ok, and some things poorly. Even with a 100% rested pen, I’d manage that 11th inning the same Torre did, not using Vizcaino there is a cousin of the theory that they shouldn’t use Rivera tied on the road.

Ultimately, this series—like the last couple—is on the players. If they can start performing again, they have a shot, albeit a small one, at winning. If they don’t, we’ll be doing postmortems here tomorrow night.

Don . I feel Jorge should be resigned because there are no better alternatives.The money as we know isn’t an issue. Two years with an option and smother him in green. RE the Duvel glasses I have 3 of the tulip ones and one that resembles a pilsener glass that someone got in Belguim. I had 4 of the tulip ones until the first inning thursday when that little bastard Thurman , Meachamed one off the coffee table.

if they cant beat westbrook and byrd we dont deserve a game 5. Pitchers like them are the reason the yanks won 90+ this year

Time to bring in Lucky the Squirrel. (That’s a cue for eelz or Jonathan to put a picture up!)

Yeah, every hitter is sucking but A-Rod is having sort of crazy mental problem. I’m not buying that at all. It would be one thing if the lineup was hitting besides A-Rod…. But they aren’t. Focusing on A-Rod is stupid, stupid, stupid. We lost the first game because the pitching was bad, we lost yesterday because Jacobs Field is a hellhole.

If Cleveland keeps on bunting themselves out of innings, we could win three straight against them.

Oh, and if there’s a goat on the offense, it HAS to be Matsui. Your DH needs to do SOMETHING.

What’s more shameful?  To be benched because of ineffectiveness, or to fail on the field because you’re ineffective?

Matsui is friggin pathetic. Joe cant even consider playing him in game 3.Maybe it’s time for the old lineup outta the hat. Da bronx ain’t burnin yet but there be combustibles near open flames galore.

And with Matsui not a threat pitchers have a carte blanche to only try and make the nastiest pitches to Arod and if he walks he walks.  Torre’s decision to play or not play Matsui should be based on merit not Torre’s reluctance to embarass Matsui.

Don I can’t seem to find the article you mentioned-is it recent?

In the interest of full disclosure, on balance I like Joe Torre and think he does a good job. Some of his managerial moves in past years worked out and they went further than I expected and some not. But overall, I believe that the manager isnt as much of a factor as fans make it out to be.

I grew up watching ALL of Casey Stengel’s great years from 1949 thru to 1960. He was a shrewd baseball guy and good clubhouse manager (One of his great lines is that the job of the manager is to keep the 50% of the team that hates you away from the 50% that’s undecided). Great line. Anyway, before and after that period he was never much of a success as manager because he had bad teams.

The Yankees simply havent done it offensively. Joe Torre might not be invited back if they lose in this round but on the basis of these 2 games, the players are the ones that didnt deliver.

And if we are looking at specific players in key spots, its Posada and Jeter in game 1 and Posada behind the plate last night. They are great players but they havent come thru and no one else did either, but Melky.

I do think that this will go five games and then anything can happen and I’ll be in there with my heart rooting with all I got.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Posada has really let me down in this series.  He’s been MIA at the plate both games.

If we’;re talking about moving on from Joe Torre, I don’t think it’s because you can specifically blame him for this loss or that loss (despite what the guys at NoMaas say), but it’s just that for some reason, this team has now gone completely cold in the playoffs, and of perhaps just as much importance, prolonged streaks during the regular series to their almost certain detriment.  It would probably be just more of a ‘moving on’ type thing to go to Girardi, but my problem with that would be what impact it would have on the roster. I could see Rivera and Posada walking if Joe’s not asked back.  I like the idea of both of those guys returning, but deciding to end this Yankees era and move on is certainly a decision that has merit. 

Seems like we had these same conversation when they were 21-29.. and like what happened over the rest of the regular season, winning solves all these problems.

regular series=regular season

I’ve said this before, but I don’t think Joe is necessarily managing tight. Everyone loves to jump on A-Rod batting eighth last year, but of course, it was Joe who dropped Giambi to 7th in the line in Game 7 in 2003. Giambi hits two HRs, Joe looks brilliant. Is there a relationship between Giambi dropping in the order and his hitting? Maybe, maybe not, I have no idea. But it’s not like Joe dropping one of his major hitters was unprecedented.

In a larger sense, this is the deal with Joe. He does somethings well, some things ok, and some things poorly. Even with a 100% rested pen, I’d manage that 11th inning the same Torre did, not using Vizcaino there is a cousin of the theory that they shouldn’t use Rivera tied on the road.

I think the comparison between A-Rod and Giambi is inapt. Giambi was affected by a knee injury in 2003; A-Rod, as far as I know, was healthy during the 2006 playoffs.

Why did Torre single out A-Rod? Torre didn’t only bat A-Rod 8th in Game 4 of the 2006 ALDS, he batted him 6th in Games 1 and 2 while batting Sheffield 4th, even though he missed most of the season with a wrist injury, and despite having less than stellar stats in the playoffs as a Yankee. Sheffield himself said that Torre’s decision to bat A-Rod 8th sent a message of panic to the team.

The point is that Vizcaino hasn’t been right physically for over a month, yet Torre continued to use him in September with significant leads. So sure, if Vizaino was healthy, using him in the 11th was a no brainer. But he’s apparently not healthy, so using him there was hardly an inspired choice, although as Larry pointed out, by using Hughes in a meaningless situation in Game 1, he truncated his available options.

Torre demonstrated more spontaneity in his managerial decisions during the early part of the run. What better example is there of his latter day mechanistic approach than using an already overworked Gordon in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS with a NINE run lead?

Torre has always been good with off the field issues, but on the field, his bungled strategic decisions have put this team on a slippery slope to yet another first round out.

If that happens, it’s long past time to replace him.

The Yankees haven’t lost 3 games in a row since August 16th.  If they do on Sunday against Westbrook, sweet crap.  They’ll become the Atlanta Braves of this decade.

8 hits in 20 innings is completely wrong.  They’ve face good pitching but not this good.

bebop, the article was fairly recent, in September I’d say.

Yeah, no reason to play Matsui, but especially against Sabbathia, that was dumb. Mike Francessa said ysterday, as Rich did today, that Torre managed different in 1996 and needs to return to that. Torre benched Tino, he needs to bench Matsui.

Not playing Giambi is plain foolish. But Torre has gotten pigheaded, just as Casey did, and that is what got Casey fired.

As I posted yesterday, if Matsui had not broken his wrist in 2006, he’d still be on that stupid consecutive game deal. Sit him Joe, sit him.

I think the comparison between A-Rod and Giambi is inapt. Giambi was affected by a knee injury in 2003; A-Rod, as far as I know, was healthy during the 2006 playoffs.

I don’t recall this being the issue. Giambi was bad and getting worse. Torre stuck with him, batting him 3rd in every game, until he dropped him to 7th in Game 7. Before a HR in Game 6 (and then of course the 2 HR in Game 7) he was hitting .188 with an .538 OPS in the series. Combine that with the fact Giambi led the team in OPS+ that year and you’ve got perhaps the most statistically analagous situation possible.  If you decide to cloud the comparison with metaphysical-ARod-choke-artist-highest-paid-player stuff, then it gets a little hazy. I choose not to.

The point is that Vizcaino hasn’t been right physically for over a month, yet Torre continued to use him in September with significant leads.

This may be cherry picking, but I really don’t think you can point to one player.  2 runs in 12 innings given up by Yankee pitching (which could have very well been 1 run sans bugs) is a recipe for a win, unless of course your offense decides to not show up.  Jeter, Posada, ARod, Matsui are all to blame. Abreu and Cano get a pass because they’re accounting for some what little production exists. 

The frustrating thing is that they are putting together good ABs, only to ground into DPs or strike out with RISP. It’s 2006 all over again.

Torre has always been good with off the field issues, but on the field, his bungled strategic decisions have put this team on a slippery slope to yet another first round out.

Agree Torre does stupid things. But, for example, Phil Hughes unavailability tonight was not the reason they lost. Vizcaino’s season of overwork was not the reason they lost. 1 run in 12 innings is the reason they lost.

J, good points.

I agree that in the eyes of the Steinbrenner family who will make the call, not Cashman, if Joe doesnt come back, it may be a case of moving on for the sake of moving on.

My main point is that the manager just simply isnt as much of a factor in game management situations as second guessers make it out to be. Strategy-strong managers like Valentine, La Russa and Billy Martin dont win any more often than Torre types (see Bob Lemon, Ralph Houk). It’s about the talent you have on the team.

Oakland’s Billy Beane doesnt believe that the manager even matters,  and that offensive strategy should be dictated by stats and Boston thought pretty much the same thing when they hired Francona, what with their reliance on Bill James and such. Oakland as we all know subscribes to a metrics driven approach to selecting talent for pitchers and hitters and until this year it has worked very successfully getting them to the playoffs repeatedly.

I dont plan to try to convince anyone of my point about managers because I cant for those who are convinced otherwise.

As for the potential impact on free agents, I hope that Rivera and A-Rod return whatever the manager of choice is. Posada is up there in age to be giving him a lot of years and money unless they plan to make him a first baseman/dh and move some others during the off season (Giambi?). Posada’s defensive skills never impressed me and from what I’ve seen of Molina, he’s a better defensive player. It’s Posada’s bat that they would be paying for and at the right price they should bring him back.

Good points by Rich . After that debacle in 2004 I was ready to fly Joe to Maui myself and lock him upstairs like Joan Crawford.I won’t kill him for using Viz last night. Krazy Kyle? I think not. We watching knew we were outta bullpen bullets at that point. Moose was the only guy I half wanted to see and that woulda taken a lot of balls. Lads I think we still win this. Byrd and Westbrook have awoken a lotta bats in the past.  Re Scarlett64 on Stengel before my time but I’ve read alot on that era. Lotsa guys disliked him but if you gave management shit in those days your ass was back selling Studabakers,unless you where a Mantle or Ford. DiMaggio and Williams could pout and hold out.Everyone else did what they where told. No agents to call george Wiess and bitch about the manager. Joe has done a nice job dealing with asshole players,Jeff I’m an allstar Nelson, Roul i can play every day Mondesi, and of course Kenny and Gary.  Thats it for my lukewarm defense of Joe.

I’d like to see:

Damon
Jeter
Abreu
ARod
Giambi
Posada
Cano
Cabrera
Mientkiewicz

No panic, just moving Matsui because he’s hurt. And then just get it done.

i sense nothing but fear on this blog over the last week and it is ridiculous. You cowardly yankee fans need to put your balls on the line and declare victory because nobody will stop us.

bebop, I checked for that article in September and August, did not find it. I guess Steve wrote it before then. Tempus fugit.

Jeter IS King in a Pasqua shirt?  He is correct about game one post’s . WE are after all The Empire. I read stuff that eve that made me sick.

Hey Don. Do you like Westmalle,Chimay or Orval? I have those glasses too.

Chimay is nice, never had Orval. Always have some Chimay blue aging in my basement. Saisson DuPont is nice as are the upstate New York products of Ommegang.

Knob Creek is a nice bourbon.

I went to Ommegang a couple of years ago,nice trip. Also Hall of Fame 20 minutes away. I went to Victory Brewing in Pa. in august . They brew the best domestic tripel ever, Golden Monkey. Check the website, place is great. about 30miles west of Philly.  Woodford Reserve is my bourbon. Knob is quite good,

Wonder if Arod would rather have Manny batting after him then Matsui?  BTW Leyritz is a real idiot discussing on the radio how Torre could consider benching Arod if he has a bad game tomorrow.  He then qualifies his statement by saying he meant if Torre had someone of similar ability to also play 3b.  If Torre had another Arod one of them would be the team’s 1b or rf.  Leyritz has even less to say then either Serling or Waldman.

Leyritz has always been a moron but I bet he would have your back in a bar fight. EELZ,Frog,Fgas,IE where are yas lads? Brighten up this place whydontcha.

I love Leyritz but not on the radio.

IE has been real quiet lately. I bet he’s hooked up with some hot shy Cuban lass ond is at this very moment massaging her feet while explaining what a despot Battista was. Then telling her where her Tio Fernando can get some engine upgrades for his 59 Dodge.

Wifey callin.Something about invisible friends and no game. Later. Good luck IE.  They love United Fruit tales.

of course a-rod could easily carry this team to victory in the series.

i sincerely hope he does not get booed. that is unless everyone gets booed. that i could grudgingly understand. but i can imagine fans at the stadium being pricky enough to drive him away from this team for good… and a-rod getting over his demons against us in a big spot down the road. i could not handle that. it’s a little story-book, but hey, it could happen.

speaking of which in a dream i had last night a game was delayed at the stadium- probably due to a plague of some sort- the yankees had to continue the game in a dimly lit subway tunnel. a-rod was at “the plate” in a critical situation with a crowd of eager rat-like fans watching him, some rooting him, some booing passionately. he took four or five strikes from i think derek lowe. personally, i was doing my best to make alex feel loved. a man holding two tiny babies insulted him somehow, i didn’t hear what he said exactly, but man it really ticked a-rod off, who started barking what the fuck did you just say to me???? cynthia rodriguez also spewed profanity. i tried to quell the tension a little, going “whoa whoa whoa” and asking the man cradling the babies what he’d said. he yapped at me and said he didn’t know what he’d said, and screw you bitch. i jumped from the platform onto the subway tracks where the game was being played, looked a-rod in the eye and said “hey man, you couldn’t get any lower than this.” he smiled at me, hit the ball hard on the ground, and apparently won the game (i don’t really understand the logistics of R.E.M. Subway Baseball). i actually dreamt this. some other freaky shit happened involving my sox-loving boss dressed as dane cook. i’d like to think of this as a prophecy but i have no idea what it could mean. maybe a-rod’s going to be a hero. maybe a-rod simply hates babies.

sorry i missed ya thurm- i was typing and telling my friend a story about going to the urologist simultaneously. it took awhile.

I’ll be embarassed if Yankees fans boo Arod no matter how he does after all without Arod we wouldn’t have the chance to get pissed at Wang in game 1 and the offense in both games

It is definitely not just A-Rod that is struggling. No one is hitting.

Bebop, I will be embarrassed, too. It’s pathetic that some fans of this team are so fickle - A-Rod is arguably the most important player on the team. The team wouldn’t have even had this shot in the post-season if not for all the games that A-Rod single-handedly won for them. I love Jeter and Posada as much as the next guy/gal, but come on, they haven’t done anything this year either.

Against Westbrook:
Base Clogger- 6 for 14, 2 home runs
Godzilla- 5 for 11
DougieM- 5 for 21

That isn’t a lot of at-bats for anyone but Dougie-M (and that STILL isn’t a lot) Matsui is probably hurt. Which two do you start?

Sleepy… thank you for calling him “base clogger”  - -  you’re awesome

I’d start BC and Mientkicantspellhisname…. Hideki is just not playing at 100%. He’s not “on”. If they make it out of the game 3, then we’ll see about him.

to me the matsui ABs have been the most frustrating to watch. i go clogger.

i can’t wait to see what valverde does after he gets this out.

College apps suck.

how many different essays do you have to write phil

Well it can be worse, we can be the Cubs and be done. Maybe they should fire their manager and get someone fiery like Lou Piniella.

Fortunately we’re still alive, and on a game-by-game basis, very much so. Clemens v Westbrook? I like our chances, although obviously not as confident in Clemens as I used to be, this is why he’s here, isn’t it? Is he ready to step up? (Bring her back for good luck.)

I’d be shocked if Matsui doesn’t play. He’s 5-13 vs Westbrook, you know Joe’s not sitting that. Giambi’s 6-19 with 2 HRs, so I’d hope he’s a lock to finally start. The question is would you, and more importantly would Joe, put Giambi at 1st, Matsui DH, Melky (1-11, 1HR v Westbrook) and Damon (2-10) in the OF, or sit Damon (I think Melky’s arm alone deserves to play, let alone the rest of him), put Matsui back in the OF where he’ll supposedly be more comfortable and go with the Eyechart at 1st (5-24, 1HR).

Assuming Matsui’s knee problem isn’t that serious, based on the matchups I’d go with the latter. Infield defense has been more important to this point, not just because of Wang/Pettitte’s tendencies, but because of the bunts Cleveland loves to do. We all know Giambi can’t throw to save his life, do we really want to potentially put our season on his arm? That didn’t go so well in 2005.

As for Matsui’s bat over Damon’s, the leadoff homer aside, Damon’s just been swinging at everything, at least Matsui worked the count a few times, and based on the matchups I’d go that way.

Hopefully the bats will wake up, and the lead will be so big, even Farnsworth will be able to close it out. Just pitch from the stretch Kyle.

(Plus, I’m going to the game, and I really don’t want my 1st live playoff game to end in disaster.)

Captain Clutch, Giambi is 6-14, with 5 walks (19 plate appearances, 14 at-bats)
And Matsui can’t play OF for the time being with his knee; and this moment, Dougie-M has made only about 1 one play that Giambi couldn’t WITH the groundball pitchers going.

I should also mention that you’re trying to bench our best defensive player at a very important defensive position(Melky) for a guy a position where defense can take a hit… and if you like short samples, Cabrera has been hitting more than Dougie-M

All I know is this: If I don’t see Mike and the Mechanics and/or Rachel Specter on this blog at some point tomorrow, I’m going to be very disappointed.

I wouldn’t bench Melky, I’d bench Damon.

Besides for that, I see your point, and wouldn’t mind either way as long as Giambi finally gets in. As long as he’s in for either Damon, Matsui or the Eyechart, I’ll be satisfied. The only reason I even consider having Matsui in the lineup is because of the prior history, and realistically knowing from past experience Joe’ll weight that heavily.

Cluth, yeah… I think the best case scenario all around will be Giambi at first, Matsui DHing, and Damon in LF. I don’t think there’s much more could be done at offense outside of putting Betemit or Duncan at first, Giambi DHing, and Matsui in LF… of course that won’t happen.

I don’t think benching Melky would be the right move. He kept us in the game last night because of that throw, something Damon and Matsui cannot do.

LoHud has Steinbrenner saying Joe won’t be back if they lose this series. I wonder if that will affect the way he manages - probably not, but who knows. I completely expect to see him try to do a Clemens - Joba - Mo thing today, with Mussina and or possibly Hughes to slide n between Clemens and Joba if necessary, although, in reality, he could stretch Joba and Mo out for 2 each, and Clemens would only need to go 5.

What would be really nice here is if the Yankees bats can just pound Westbrook, make it an 8 or 9 run thing, take all the pressure off Clemens, and then Joe can piece it together and have that 4 inning Joba/Mo combo waiting to bail out Mussina on Monday.