Its Going to Be a (Terrence) Long Series

Terence Long sucks. There is no other way to put it. Long is a bad defensive player who cannot hit for average, power, patience, or even steal a base. Being batless and gloveless, there is a reason that Long found himself jobless this offseason.

He is worse than Bubba Crosby. Worse than Bernie Williams. Worse than Melky Cabrera. He is plan D, but unfortunately, he turned 30 last February (interestingly, on February 29th), so he's officially in Torre's favor.

He will get starting time over better options than him. It will not surprise me to see him regularly circling fly balls in left field over Melky once Sheffield returns.

That all said, the Yankees are certainly stockpiling reinforcements at the AAA level. In addition to Long, the Yankees have former major leaguers Carlos Pena, Erubiel Durazo, Richard Hidalgo and Ramiro Mendoza. The Yankee bench, a sorespot all year, could potentially look like:

(Lineup Damon/Jeter/Sheffield/Arod/Giambi/Posada/DH/Cano/Melky)

Erubiel Durazo (DH)
Bernie Williams (DH/OF)
Carlos Pena 1b
Kelly Stinnet
Bubba Crosby/Terence Long/Richard Hidalgo

And a bullpen of:

Mo
Farnsworth
Dotel
Proctor
Myers
Villone
Mendoza

Of course, this would require the Yankees to make some tough decisions (dumping Phillips, Small and Erickson). Darrel Rasner could also make a good starter.

Still, that would be a decent 4 man bench and Durazo would add a lot to the lineup.