Yankees’ rotation entering panic room stage?

By: Bob Klapisch, KRT
Posted In: Sports

The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)

(KRT)

NEW YORK – There was no mistaking the booing that smothered Jose Contreras as he walked off the mound Friday night _ another example of the maddening gulf between Contreras’ talent and his inability to cope with the Red Sox. If Contreras isn’t pitching himself out of the organization, he’s headed for bullpen exile, at least until the Yankees find their run-scoring muscles.

Question is, when do the Bombers declare their lineup in a state of emergency? It’s one thing for Contreras to hear it from the fans, getting knocked out in the fourth inning of a 11-2 loss to Boston. But when Alex Rodriguez starts getting booed, too, it means the Bombers are staring at a worst-case scenario.

This is a $182 million lineup that’s somehow second-to-last in the American League with a .229 average, 10th in runs, and batting just .215 after the seventh inning. The Yankees were built with one opponent in mind _ the Red Sox. But so far, they’ve been out-pitched, out-hit, and even out-hustled by their AL East rivals. This is disturbing news for GM Brian Cashman, since he has few, if any, roster options.

Of course, there’ll be the reflex urge to trade Contreras, since restoring the right-hander’s self-confidence may no longer be a realistic goal. Only Contreras is still owed $26 million through 2006, which will make it impossible to move him.

The more likely alternative is to give Contreras’ spot to Jon Lieber, who is close to joining the Yankees. But real problems reside up and down the batting order, not in the starting rotation. One American League scout said this week, “I’m amazed how many bad at-bats (the Yankees) have” and specifically cited A-Rod for his inexplicable helplessness with sliders off the plate.

If the hitting instructor were anyone but Don Mattingly, there’d be rumblings from Tampa. But George Steinbrenner can’t lay a finger on Mattingly, nor can he touch Joe Torre and his freshly-minted three-year contract extension. And that’s the dilemma that confronts the entire front office _ how to rearrange the intractable parts?

With the exception of Enrique Wilson, there’s no starter the Yankees can or would trade. Steinbrenner is locked into an array of impossibly expensive, long-term deals, which, on paper, made the 2004 Yankees the strongest club of the Torre-era, if not in the last 50 years.

With the AL’s reigning Most Valuable Player and home run champion (Rodriguez) batting third, the 2000 MVP (Jason Giambi) batting fourth, and Gary Sheffield, who drove in 137 runs last year, batting fifth, just how are the Yankees under .500?

Even the Red Sox are finding it hard to believe. Kevin Millar said before the game, “With the kind of lineup they have, they’ll hit. That’s an All-Star lineup, so you better have a plan against them. They have no holes.”

The Sox are all this careful when assessing the Yankees. No one on their team wants to provoke the Bombers into a run-scoring orgy, at least not until Boston leaves town Sunday night. Until then, better to let the Bombers get devoured by the talk-radio callers and the tabloids.

Actually, it’s unrealistic to think the Yankees will slump all year, or even all month. But their sub-.500 start suggests the Bombers aren’t the AL East lock they imagined and projections of a 100-win season may have been too optimistic. The Yankees may be more realistically headed to a 94-to-97-win summer, which would ensure a hot, hot race with the Sox.

And that’s why these games mean so much to the Yankees, even in April. They’re allowing the Red Sox to see behind the curtain and realize the collection of All-Stars and MVPs guarantees nothing. In fact, there were several instances Friday night when the Yankees looked nothing like the AL champs and more like a team that, just three weeks into the season, already looks exhausted.

In the fourth inning, Derek Lowe was staring at what should’ve been a pitcher’s nightmare _ A-Rod, Giambi, and Sheffield. Instead of exploding on the Sox’ right-hander, however, the Yankees never got the ball out of the infield, and their only base runner, Sheffield, reached on a walk.

Rodriguez’s at-bat was the most significant because it marked the first time he was booed by a Yankee crowd. After bouncing back to the box, Rodriguez barely made it to the bag before the booing cascaded down from the upper deck, gaining momentum and volume until it covered A-Rod like a hard rain.

There was a return bout in the sixth inning, when Rodriguez went down meekly once again _ this time, bouncing to short. The crowd didn’t hesitate, booing A-Rod even more harshly. The game’s best all-around player had been stripped of his immunity in the Bronx. Now, Rodriguez was a culprit, just like everyone else.

Of course, it’s still early, and the sample of bad at-bats is still small. But Blue Jays’ GM J.P. Ricciardi has seen enough to decide the Yankees are in real trouble.

“I think the Red Sox are the best team in baseball,” Ricciardi told the New York Post. “I think the Red Sox are a better team (than the Yankees). I said it in spring training, and I still believe it.”

In other words, how long before we hear from you-know-who?