WasWatching.com

Dude, at least be fair. No, that wasn't "it." There were more quotes in the article you linked.

“The injury itself on my back just really messed my whole body up,” Pavano said. “It worked from my back and it went into my shoulder, my elbow, my legs. It kind of just took over my whole body.”

“I don’t think I’ve worked any harder this offseason than I have in the past. I’ve definitely worked smarter and attacked issues that Brett was able to capitalize on and make stronger,” he said. “It was a lot of flexibility stuff. A lot of the motion in my back was lost over the years and I regained a lot of that, and a lot of the strength that was lost over the years and obviously shoulder strength.”

Fischer [the trainer] said Pavano had restricted movement in his lower back, hips and both ankles, and that the pitcher needed massage therapy.

“It involved identifying specific joints that weren’t moving the way they were supposed to be move,” Fischer said in a telephone interview. “He had a lot of — I call them nagging injuries. He had learned to compensate one after another, and it kind of steamrolled on him a bit. I said, ‘Let’s start again and let’s get all these joints moving correctly.’"

Hey, I was just having some fun.

Trust me, I'll be fair. I'll even throw a party when he makes his 30th start this season.

Baby steps, Steve, baby steps.

Celebrate 30 days after the start of spring training if he is not in traction or otherwise under medical care.

Celebrate once he throws 30 pitches off a Yankee mound during the regular season, which would be about 1 inning of work for Jaret Wright.

The Yankees have a potentially tough decision to make. They have to decide what constitutes Carl "earning his money." Because Carl has two people breathing down his neck: Hughes and Clemens. Here's the thing, though: what stat line is good enough to keep Carl around? Say the All-Star Break is approaching and Carl has remained healthy, but he's just merely been okay -- 110 IP, ERA around 4.5. Is that enough to move him so Clemens, who wants to come back to the Yankees, can return? Is that enough to bring up Hughes?

What Carl has to hope for is that Igawa is as mediocre as everyone seems to think he is. If that's the case, then Igawa can just be stuck in the 'pen. But if he's not, Carl could be potentially traded -- and even if he's just decent, with only one year remaining on his contract, and only getting 11 million, I think most NL teams that needed a pitcher would take him on.

Oh, one thing I forgot from the article. It says (about the place Pavano worked out in):

"Randy Johnson, Kerry Wood, Eric Gagne and Kevin Millar work out there, too."

Wow, worked out great for THOSE guys, huh? Wood hasn't been healthy in years (and must be on his tenth surgery), and Gagne basically missed the entire year and had to have a second TJ surgery. Randy is coming off back surgery.

I guess you can do all the strength conditioning you want, but pitching isn't natural and if you're body can't take it, it can't take it.

Although I think Steve is a bit unfair to A-Rod, Pavano is another story. I'll give him a chance to earn my trust, but it isn't there now.

Great post, Steve.