YANKEE NOTES
Is it possible that the Yankees’ problems at the plate are the result of the players using a high-tech video system that has led to paralysis by over-analysis? When the most expensive lineup ever assembled is hitting .217 and losing, everyone searches for clues.
Watch the Yankees come off the field after the top of a half-inning and see them exit through the groundskeepers’ entrance east of the dugout. Where are Derek Jeter, Enrique Wilson, Jason Giambi and others going? To the video room to check out their last at-bat. Considering how badly most of the hitters are going, they are looking at negatives.
Hoping to get his slumping lineup going Sunday, Joe Torre cancelled batting practice. It didn’t work, since the Red Sox shut out the Yankees 2-0. So is Torre thinking about putting the video-room off limits during the game?
“Unfortunately, we have all this technology. Sometimes it’s not what they think they are going to see. But they are so used to it by now,” said Torre, who isn’t going to close the video room. “It’s not something I did, but again they didn’t have all this stuff. I am not sure I wouldn’t get caught up. It’s so different now. The technology is dynamite and it does help when you have to play a team and you see a pitcher work hitters certain ways.”
* Jon Lieber, who hasn’t pitched in a big-league game since August 2002 due to Tommy John surgery, arrived in New York yesterday from Tampa, where he has been rehabbing a right groin injury.
“He will be activated whenever Joe and Mel give him the ball,” GM Brian Cashman said of the right-hander, who could start Friday night or Saturday depending on what the Yankees want to do with Javier Vazquez, who pitched Sunday on three-days rest.
Lieber made three minor-league starts and reported no discomfort with the leg after going seven innings Sunday for Tampa (Single-A).
* Jose Contreras admits his problems start in his head.
“When it’s my turn to pitch, there are too many things in my head,” the struggling right-hander said yesterday after a bullpen session. “I have to relax. I didn’t think the season would start this way. As hard as I worked in spring training, I didn’t think this would be the way the season would start.”
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Probable pitchers for Yanks and A’s:
Tonight: Mike Mussina (1-4, 6.67 ERA) vs. Tim Hudson (2-1, 3.86)
Tomorrow: Jose Contreras (0-2, 10.64) vs. Mark Mulder (2-1, 2.33)
Thursday: Kevin Brown (3-0, 2.12) vs. Barry Zito (2-2, 6.26)