FanHouse AlbertoGonzalez

Anyone know if Jerry Seinfeld's planning another sitcom? If he isn't someone should probably let Hank Steinbrenner know because the Yankee boss continues to act like he's auditioning to replace his father lock stock and barrel.

He offered his thoughts on the 19-21 Bombers after last night's 2-1 loss to the Rays and, if you closed your eyes and threw some Flock of Seagulls on the hi-fi, it was like the 1980's all over again.

"The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of playing. These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for themselves to earn that money.

This is going to get turned around. If it's not turned around this year, then it will be turned around next year, by force if we have too."

There's that patience he talked about this winter for you. He's got a right to expect more from the team but, as his father beat into the ground, this has not proven to be an effective managerial style.

The offense is bad, yes, but, regardless of the payroll, any offense that relies on Alberto Gonzalez and Jose Molina is going to be bad. Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy didn't get the job done but the other starters have been okay as has the bullpen. Bottom line, they're four and a half games out of first with a lot of season to play. I think Hank's gotta have some perspective.

Derek Jeter's defense has always been a controversial topic, and the mere suggestion that he's less than perfect in the field is usually results in getting called all sorts of nasty names by Yankee loyalists. That said, I'm rubber, you're glue -- let's do this.

Joel Sherman ponders in his blog for the New York Post how long it'll be before the Yankees bite the bullet and move Jeter off shortstop, and whether that decision should affect their free agent plans this winter:

But watching Alberto Gonzalez play shortstop while Jeter nursed a strained quad recently was eye-opening for just how much more range he had at shortstop and how much truer his arm was than Jeter's. No one knows if Gonzalez will ever hit and his chance of ever being the offensive player Jeter has been is about zero percent. But I am at least wondering if the best Yankee team of the near future has Gonzalez at shortstop and Jeter at first. [...]

[F]or everyone who is putting free-agent-to-be Mark Teixeira on the Yankee roster for the 2009 season, I keep asking this: Where are you parking Jeter, Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez as they age deep into their thirties on their current contracts and likely lose their abilities to play where they are playing now?

Of course, there are more places to stash than first base: with Johnny Damon's contract up this year and Bobby Abreu's up in 2009, the Yankees could probably find a spot in the outfield. Posada seems limited to first base and DH once he finally comes out from behind the plate, so it'd make sense to keep first open for him in a couple of years.

Once again the season hasn't started all that swimmingly for the Yankees. They'd lost three of their last five, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada are ailing and the offense has all the punch of unflavored ice cream. There's no reason to push the panic button just yet, especially with a trip to Boston coming up this weekend, but the Yankees are acting like they're starting to feel a bit tight in the collar.

The Yankees needed to clear a roster spot for shortstop (and presumably not former attorney general) Alberto Gonzalez before last night's game so they passed along word that infielder Morgan Ensberg would be headed to the 15-day disabled list. That was a bit of a surprise, according to beat man Peter Abraham, since Ensberg never seemed to injure himself. They also announced Ian Kennedy would be scratched from his start because of injury.

Perhaps the new shortstop is, in fact, the former attorney general because it turned out not one word of it was true. Shelley Duncan was sent down to AAA while Ensberg remained on the active roster and Kennedy, while he didn't start, entered the game in relief. The only injury he appeared to be suffering from was mediocre fastballitis, which is more of a chronic ailment. It should keep you from starting professional baseball games but it didn't just crop up Wednesday afternoon.