WasWatching.com

You could call it lazy reporting. Maybe you'd even call it outright lying. How can a reporter write that the Yankees "never found a reason" for Pavano's shoulder problems? Dr. James Andrews diagnosed Pavano as having rotator cuff tendinitis. Saying that Pavano had nothing wrong with him is saying that Andrews -- who is highly respected and the go-to guy for sports injuries -- is a liar. That he "covered" for Pavano with a false diagnosis. And that's plainly ridiculous.

It's not necessarily lazy reporting...it's another indication that most of the NY media is in Torre's back pocket. The rumors of Pavano having an "unknown" ailment and the whispers about him not having the "stomach" to pitch in New York obviously came from Torre and Stottlemyre. In fact, if you recall, Stottlemyre did something that I've never heard of an allegedly good pitching coach do -- sell-out his own pitcher in a post-game interview. There was a game at the Stadium in which Pavano did a "Javier Vasquez," i.e. give up a two-strike home run on a bad slider. Stottlemyre told reporters he had no idea why Pavano would throw that particular pitch when he did. Trouble was, the pitch was thrown right after Stottlemyre had come out to the mound for a conference. I assume he told Pavano to throw that pitch. Of course, he didn't tell him to hang it but...isn't a pitching coach supposed to know his own staff well enough not to tell them to throw their third best pitch in a pitcher's count? This is all in line with Stottlemyre's oft-repeated dictum: make them put it in play, don't try to strike batters out. He famously told that to Gooden and Darling in the late '80s. Gentlemen, your witness...

Or he could have told him to throw an entirely different pitch, and Pavano arrogantly chose not to follow his pitching coach's advice. So, rightfully pissed off and realizing that Pavano was not one to take the suggestions directly from him, he went through the media. Fans of the Boss are familiar with that strategy, right? Just a possibility...

"What we've got here... is failure to communicate"

So was that Vasquez's excuse for throwing those same sliders on 0-2 counts? And was that also Weaver's prerogative to eschew his naturally hard-sinking fastball which he threw 85% of the time in Detroit and throw countless meatball sliders in his late, lamented sojourn with the Yankees? Come on, the pattern is unmistakable. And if all of these pitchers are ignoring his orders, what's that say about their lack of trust in Mel? Sean Henn has been quoted as saying that "they" told him to throw more off-speed pitches late in the count. That's why he'd zip to a pitcher's count only to get bopped on a spin-less breaking ball over the heart of the plate. when he went back to Columbus, "they" didn't tell him to do that. They told him to go right at the batter.