The Plight of Carl Pavano

Carl Pavano's right triceps muscle was so sore yesteday that he couldn't fully straighten out his arm.

There's no question that Carl is working hard to becoming the horse for Joe Torre that Yankees brass thought he would when they penned him to 39.95 milion a year and a half ago.

First the shoulder stiffness, then the lower back stiffness, then the sore butt, and now a bad triceps muscle.

How much of Pavano's plight has been induced by the mounting sentiment among the New York media and Yankees fans that he just doesn't have the heart of a Matsui, Jeter, Mariano, or O'Neill?

Carl would like to stay with the team while his latest arm injury heals, but it appears that Cashman et al. are leaning towards sending him back down to Tampa, the most likely reason being that Florida is a safe retreat away from the glare of the New York papers.

At this point, the Yankees really don't have much choice but to hope that he pulls a Giambi and turns it all around. The problem is that Giambi was one of the most feared hitters in the game before his tailspin in 2004 and 2005. At the height of his young career, Pavano was known to most casual baseball fans as the guy who went out with Tony Danza's daughter from "Who's the Boss," not as a guy who could dominate on a consistent basis.

Let's hope that Pavano does indeed, turn it all around in the next few weeks. With Randy Johnson going through a painful tailspin of his own, the Yankees are in desperate need of a quality arm.

- Joshua
InsideTheYankees.com

P.S. Many thanks to deadspin.com for linking to yesterday's post.