I love alliteration.

Anyway. Onward:

It's been a tough road for Dandy Andy this winter. The HGH scandal was bad enough, not to mention the riff it likely caused between him and BFF Rocket (I highly doubt they're out hitting the links these days... I imagine the convo would be a bit strained: "so... how bout that McNamee..."). Just after dealing with that hoopla both privately and publicly, he had to head straight Spring Training and back into the fans' eyes. He was welcomed back with open arms and hearty applause, which I'm sure was a HUGE relief to the dear man, but he couldn't relax for long, as he's now had to miss two starts due to various strains. He was scratched from a start back on May 12th because of some elbow pain, and he wasn't able to pitch today due to some back spasms (sidenote: every time I hear that phrase, I picture a person's vertebrae literally spasming, like jumping through the skin. It's a fun visual).

Luckily, it's not sounding too serious; he's already said that he feels better. Whether he's feeling like his self again is great and all, but it worries me that he's having these problems at all, regardless of how serious they actually are.

Now that Joba's been confirmed as a bullpen boy, the Yanks' starting rotation has essentially been confirmed, with Pettitte following the Wangster as the number two starter and Moose, Hughsie, and I-Ken rounding out the five. If everyone could just stay healthy and Moose could decide that his good days would outnumber the bad this year, that crew has the potential to rank as one of the top five rotations in the league. The good news is that Joba could always make a few starts if someone does go down injured, but then the bullpen would have to rely on the likes of Farnsworthless to keep the games together in the late innings, and no one wants that.

No, they better keep Joba in the bullpen regardless just to keep Farny out of my site. After all, we've got Kei Igawa to take over for whoever gets injured first!!!!