Baseball Prospectus: In looking at a database of MLB executives, your name isn't in there for 2003. There were reports that you had a falling-out with George Steinbrenner--are they accurate? What led to you leaving your position, and what did you do during that time before you came back?

Baseball Prospectus: When the Yankees first hired you 18 years ago after your coaching career at Old Dominion, what were the organization's goals? Have they been achieved?

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Deep into the offseason, long after the winter meetings but still weeks before pitchers and catchers report, the Hall of Fame debate suddenly gave fans a jolt of interest. On Tuesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced its voting for the Baseball Hall of Fame's Class of 2006. The entire class consisted of just one player, Bruce Sutter.

"Finally!" yelled Sutter supporters. A late-inning force in the 1970s and '80s, Sutter was a star for the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals, helping to define a new role for the ace reliever. From 1977 to 1985, Sutter averaged more than 30 saves a season. He won a Cy Young Award, was a perennial contender for the Rolaids Award given to the game's best relief pitcher, and provided late-inning assurance to his teams for about a decade. As if that weren't enough, Sutter also helped pioneer the split-fingered fastball, turning the vanishing pitch into a deadly weapon that would change the face of pitching in the 1980s.

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Ned Colletti Q&A

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Kim Ng Q&A

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Jon Daniels Q&A

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But while the Chicago White Sox face the same question marks about their lack of left-handed pop, the Boston Red Sox have question marks in their starting rotation, their bullpen, and multiple spots in their order not occupied by David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. With neither team an odds-on bet to advance, the statement I made five days ago stands: "Sox fans could be in for a wild scenario: Their chance at the first World Series in 88 years could rest in the right hand of Jose Contreras." The only difference is now you can make that statement about both Sox.

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That the Sox got well during the month against the league's weaker sisters, including the Tigers and Royals, misses the point; the Indians did the same for much of the month, then in the last few days the Indians, Red Sox and Yankees have all struggled at times against similarly weak competition.

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Astros CF Willy Taveras 2B Chris Burke 3B Morgan Ensberg 1B Lance Berkman RF Jason Lane LF Luke Scott SS Adam Everett C Raul Chavez P Wandy Rodriguez It's been a career year for Morgan Ensberg, and Lance Berkman has bounced back after a slow start to the season because of an ACL injury. Other than that, this is exactly the kind of lineup that narrows your margin for error substantially every time out. With Craig Biggio and his Father Time-defying season on the bench, you're looking at a lineup riddled with holes. Jason Lane hit 20 homers and slugged a shade under .500, but he's sitting on a .306 OBP. He and Willy Taveras have been decent considering their youth and low salaries, but both are no more than one win better than replacement level. Meanwhile Luke Scott, Chris Burke and Raul Chavez are all putting up numbers that are worse than your basic Triple-A lifer or waiver-wire fodder would be expected to produce.

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When we last left the Indians seven weeks ago, for instance, the team looked like a fringe playoff contender, buoyed by a solid core of offensive talent, above-average starting pitching, and players such as Aaron Boone and Casey Blake who by dint of sheer regression to the mean figured to add to the team's second-half success. Yet that day's column focused more on the demise of Randy Johnson as a top-flight pitcher than on a possible Cleveland playoff run.

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OK, the Royals weren't so hot before Saturday's game, losing 19 straight games. But after getting within sniffing distance of the AL record for consecutive losses, they blew it. As BP's resident Royals fanatic Rany Jazayerli lamented, they can't even lose right.

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