In his minor league career, Nunez played 600 games at shortstop, 19 at second, 17 at third and zero in the outfield. Yet, they made him their utility guy at the start of 2011, primarily because he can hit and run a bit while Ramiro Pena can't. I don't think it was a bad choice, but it also required Nunez to do some things he had never done before. There is no shame in the fact that he is failing.

And failing may be too nice a word for it. Look at the way he tried to backhand that ball on his first error last night. That was a terrible play. The throw in the second was probably the "better" error, but both of those plays are routine ones that need to be made. What the Yankees need to do is figure out their long term goal for Nunez. Is it as a possible replacement for Jeter or A-Rod? Is it a move to the outfield? Perhaps a super-utility guy? I suspect the latter, so why not send him to the minors for a couple of weeks and let him work through his troubles? He could start every day at a different position and get some experience. The Yankees have Nix on the roster to soak up the utility AB's and Chavez could be back later today. Trying to teach him multiple positions in the majors isn't working.

One last thought. CC Sabathia had a lower ERA throwing to Russel Martin last year than he did to Francisco Cervelli. (Both were outstanding) So, why does he need Chris Stewart as his personal catcher this year? And if Martin is the defensive whiz the Yankees think he is, what is going on?

The point, obviously, is that closing ballgames is not an easy job. It's even harder when you have to come in and protect a one-run lead. Robertson looked shaky last night and he looked bad tonight. Some fans will bury him, but if you are one of the guys (like me) screaming for the Yankees to develop their own pitching, this is the harsh reality of that request. Sure, Robertson may never amount to a big league closer, but he has shown more than enough in his big league career to keep the job right now. Girardi gave a great example in his postgame comparing closers to NFL kickers. As he said, "the great ones bounce back." Robertson deserves the chance to prove he can be a great one.

Playing golf is what baseball players do, I get that, but when public perception is already that you are a beer drinking slob, how can you be so careless in your decision making? Again, it is a sense of entitlement that he must feel, as though he can do no wrong and isn't to blame for anything bad.

Bobby Valentine is quoted in the piece as saying, "I'm trying to sort out my feelings" about this issue. Sort them out he will as this is not going to go away.

More fallout to come I'm sure.

I was away last week and much happened. The Red Sox still stink, Kevin Youkilis got hurt...again, and Will Middlebrooks was called up, amongst other things. The Middlebrooks call-up was the best as he is off to a boffo start and anytime a rookie comes up and makes a splash, it is an exciting thing. Exciting is what the Red Sox need after all.

Regarding the still stinking part, the Red Sox haven't just stunk for 5 weeks in 2012, they stunk for 4 weeks in September/October 2011. Their record since September 2011 is 19-37. That is last place bad. It kind of reminds me of the time leading up to Morgan Magic, when John MacNamara had lost his team and watching the Red Sox was a chore. Walpole Joe came in and the Red Sox rattled off one of the best runs in baseball history (or at least Red Sox history).

I'm not sure who or what will be this season's Morgan Magic, but Middlebrooks Magic has a ring to it.

But Pettitte proclaimed himself ready and something makes me think the Yankees felt pressured into this. I hope I am wrong and I also hope that getting Pettitte back in the bigs will "start his juices" and up his performance. I wouldn't have made this call if it was my choice.

What I do wonder is what will happen roster-wise over the next few days? Brett Gardner should be back Thursday and Eric Chavez may join him. Then Pettitte will need to be activated and put on the 40-man roster. the obvious calls are Gardner gets activated, Wise gets sent down. Chavez gets activated and Nix gets sent down. Pettitte gets activated, Rivera moved to the 60-day DL and Eppley gets sent down. But, it wouldn't shock me to see the Yankees keep Nix and send Nunez down to get more outfield time. Or jettison Rapada, a guy who has walked 5 in 8 innings and keep Eppley. Maybe they send Phelps down to keep him stretched out? We shall see.

Simply awesome news as this is clearly not the way anyone wanted to see Rivera leave the game.

1- Give the job to David Robertson. Robertson has been lights out and he appears to have ice water in his veins so it would be a good fit. In a way they would be passing the torch to a guy who resembles Rivera pre 1997.

2- Give the job to Rafael Soriano. Soriano has closed before and done it in the AL East, so he could certainly do it. Furthermore, letting him close now would allow him to rack up some saves and increase the chances that he opts out of his contract after this season.

3- Move Phil Hughes to the bullpen with the idea of making him the closer in the near future. Probably not going to happen, nor am I saying it should- yet. But, if Hughes continues to be a two-pitch pitcher, it's hard to see how he stays in the rotation. He's been in the bullpen before so it isn't the craziest idea. But, I think the Yankees won't make this move unless Hughes bombs in his next few starts. After all, Rivera was once a mediocre starter.

Lost in all of this is a move which didn't get a lot of notice at the time, but could become important later this season- the signing of David Aardsma. Aardsma saved 69 games from 2009-10, but he's essentially been injured since then. When the Yankees signed him in February Cashman said he was a month behind Joba in his comeback (before Joba's ankle injury) so he could be ready to pitch in July. Hopefully, the Yankees don't have a big hole in their bullpen come July, but if they do, Aardsma could be a solid addition.

If the choice were mine, I give the job to Robertson. The Yankees were going to need to develop a new closer one of these days, why not go with the home-grown guy?

To me, the lack of sound in the clip makes it even worse. You see Rivera crumpled along the fence. You see A-Rod grimace and look concerned before yelling to Girardi. You see Harkey trying to get someone's attention by whistling. You see Girardi sprint out to the outfield. It's the original "Nosferatu" playing out in front of you. (Look it up)

Let's dispense with the obvious complaint, Rivera has shagged flies for twenty years without getting hurt. In fact, if you had ever witnessed him doing it you would have thought he was an outfielder, he was that smooth. Hindsight is 20/20, but you can't wrap these guys in bubble wrap and expect them to emerge unscathed. Don't blame Rivera or the Yankees for what happened tonight, it was a freak accident.

Now we have to face the very scary reality of what happened. At worst, it is probably a torn ACL and Rivera is out for the year. (or career?) At best, his knee is twisted and he is headed to the 15-day DL. No matter what the verdict, it seems certain that the Yankees are about to lose the one thing that made them better than every other team in baseball for these past 16 years. For all those years we have had the luxury of knowing the 9th inning was in good hands. There are plenty of names who could step up in his place, but there is only one Rivera.

But the thing is, the guy in front of me wasn't wrong. Nunez had looked good and as the title of this post suggests, it wasn't a very easy night in the outfield. There was a pretty strong wind blowing from right to left that took the ball on some strange flight paths. You may have heard the buzz of the crowd on TV on some routine flyballs because it was very hard to pick up where the ball was headed right off the bat.

Now, an outfielder should have made that play, but remember Nunez is not an oufielder! He is a guy who never played the position in the minors and has a grand total of 36 innings playing it in the bigs. If the Yankees keep running him out there, he is going to make mistakes like this. That doens't mean the Yankees should give up on him out there, I am becoming more and more convinced that outfield is his ultimate destination, but they are going to have to put up with his growing pains. If they don't want to give him on the job training in the majors, perhaps they send him to Scranton for two weeks after Gardner comes back and let him play in the outfield every day? Otherwise, I hope fans give him a little more latitude than they did last night.

One other note from last night. While it wasn't what I would call a good start by Phil Hughes, I think it was a much better one. He challenged guys and I saw the scoreboard show a fastball speed of 95mph a few times. He didn't seem afraid of trying to put guys away. It's a small step forward, but a step nonetheless.

Beyond that, I think the Yankees are playing a risky game tonight with only two guys on the bench. Because Nick Swisher has a hamstring pull that isn't serious enough for the DL and Brett Gardner looks like he will be ready to be reactivated May 3rd the Yankees are going to play shorthanded against the Orioles. We can probably add the current state of the 40-man roster as another reason. Other than Ramiro Pena, the Yankees don't have anyone on the 40-man who can play the outfield in the bigs. Almonte and Mesa are both in the lower minors and Pena has a grand total of 11 games in the outfield in his career. When you add in the fact that his bat is a minus, you can understand why the Yankees aren't rushing out to promote him to the majors.

But, Pena could certainly play the infield and the Yankees would have been smart to promote him tonight. If a position player gets hurt tonight, the Yankees have only Stewart and Jones on the bench. That's a foolish way to enter a series and while I understand the reasons, I don't agree with them.

The first question is certainly logical, but it also ignores some realities. Garcia hasn't thrown hard in years, he is 35 and this could be the end of the road. I can't see him coming back in 2013, so his time with the Yankees is limited.

On the other hand, if the Yankees asked who could pitch worse, they would probably come up with the answer of almost nobody. That could lead to some interesting moves. For example, the Yankees could put David Phelps in Garcia's spot. Or they might turn to D.J. Mitchell, who pitched well at AAA last year and is looking good so far this year. Obviously, the bar isn't set very high right now. Five innings a start would be an improvement over what Garcia is giving them. I think the Yankees could find that pretty easily if they looked elsewhere.

What I suspect they will actually do is use the schedule to their advantage and keep waiting for Andy Pettitte. With an day off on May 7th, the Yankees could pitch Garcia May 3rd and then skip his spot in the rotation until May 12th. That would let Andy make two more starts in the minors and then pitch sometime that weekend of May 11th. I hope I am wrong because this clearly isn't working and the Yankees should just pull the plug now.

Sunday Morning Update Yankees PR (their official feed) tweeted this morning that D.J. Mitchell has been recalled from Scranton. No word on a corresponding move, but it wouldn't shock me if Freddy is headed to the DL.

Of course Eppley pitched three innings yesterday so he could be sent down as well.

Later Sunday Morning LoHud reporting that Garcia is headed to the bullpen! It sounds like, though not confirmed, that Phelps will start (for now) and Eppley will head to Scranton. Mitchell was due to start today, so he is protection if the Yankees need a long guy.

I am sure this will send people into a tizzy about how stupid it was to trade for Pineda in the first place and how you never trade a hitter for a pitcher. Let's tackle that last part first.

Yes, I totally agree you never trade a hitter for a pitcher unless you don't have a place to play the hitter. Until proven otherwise, Montero is not a big league catcher. Maybe he turns into one, but until he does don't rush to judgement because the Yankees did not have a place to play Montero if they didn't think he can catch on a regular basis. Some will argue that they could have made him an everyday DH, but that spot is taken by a player rotation and will become A-Rod's permanent spot in the next few years. Montero's value wasn't going to go higher this season, in fact you could argue it is lower right now, so they had to act when they did.

So that brings us back to how stupid it was to trade for Pineda. I have a hard time believing that the people who think that today thought that back in January. Back then, most intelligent baseball people thought the Yankees were getting a future ace. He represented a very talented young player who was under team control for the next five years and had a very solid season of pitching at the big league level under his belt. And please, don't tell me you think the Mariners knew he was hurt or the Yankees doctors missed something. Pitchers get hurt, it's the nature of the business.

It would be interesting to hear the complaints today if Montero was still a Yankee. Since he is hitting .254/.270/.373, I imagine we would hear cries of overrated and bust attached to him. We'll never know for sure. But, we need to wait a few years before we can truly declare a winner or a loser in this trade. Noesi has an ERA over 9 while Campos has a 1.23 ERA in 22 innings at A ball. In five years maybe we refer to this as the Montero for Campos trade, who knows?

What we do know is that for 2012 the Yankees made a gamble and lost. Personally, I don't think it will be the lack of Montero's bat that keeps them from winning this year, rather it will be a lack of pitching. That's what the Pineda trade was supposed to address in the first place.

I know there is a segment of the fanbase that is upset about not playing tonight. There seems to be some sort of foolish idea that the Yankees could have finished the Red Sox with a sweep tonight. Sorry, but teams don't pack it in with 145 games left in the season. The Red Sox may be a mess now, but they have more than enough time to recover. Plus, the Yankees could use the break.

The rainout allows them to get out of Boston at 8pm (I read that is when their flight is departing) instead of after the conclusion of tonight's game (probably 2am or so by the time they get to the airport) Furthermore, it gives them a break to to rest their bullpen and prepare for a rough week of 3 @Texas and then 3 vs. Detroit. Sure they will have to reschedule the game, but their two remaining trips to Boston are preceded by an off day.

Amazingly, we won't see Boston again until the first week of July. I would bet anything that the Yankees encounter a very different team when that series commences. Count out Boston at your own risk.

In the car, on the way to dinner, I didn't check the score, but when I walked into the restaurant I saw the game on the TV and couldn't believe 9-0 had turned into 9-8. After a quick talk with the maitre'd, a table with an angle looking at the TV was secured and thus I got to watch the action from that point. I couldn't hear what they were saying on TV, but I can only imagine. What a comeback and what excellent timing on my part. (In a separate bit of luck, I didn't see a minute of the Rangers 2-0 loss)

Not to put a downer on things, but Freddy Garcia looked like he couldn't get me out with his stuff today. You have to wonder how long the Yankees will stick with him? While his $4 million contract isn't a ton of money for the Yankees and they have certainly blown a lot more on other pitchers, I suspect they will try and squeeze as much value as they can out of him. That leads me to believe he will be pulled when/if Andy Pettitte is ready to pitch in the bigs. It sounds like Pettitte is going to make three more starts in the minors which would mean Garcia gets three more big league starts, a luxury the Yankees may not be able to afford. Tonight was like drawing an inside flush, the smart gambler doesn't bank on those odds coming around very often. If Garcia gets lit up in his next start, I don't think the Yankees will have any choice but to make a move. Back later today after the finale.

*Longtime fans will recognize the title of this post as a tribute to Phil Rizzuto who used "WW" in his scorecard to signify a play he "wasn't watching".

And a quick glance around the Yankees' roster shows that their pitching depth has been depleted. Manny Banuelos is on the DL in the minors with a back issue. Dellin Betances seems to be channeling Andrew Brackman and has walked 11 guys in 13 innings while striking out 13. His ERA is an unsightly 10.38. Adam Warren has a 5.17 ERA. Only D.J. Mitchell has pitched well, compiling a 2.12 ERA in 3 starts with 15 K's in 17 innings.

It's early and some of these guys will turn things around, but the Yankees' decision to sign Andy Pettitte is looking like a very smart move.