Typical upwardly mobile Yankee beat writer, Mark Feinsand

Feinsand again shows he's pitching for his next glamorous job, using his position as a Yankee beat writer to propel him. Today he wastes Yankee fans' time with a column on how Mike Piazza might like to be a Yankee, oblivious to the fact no one here wants Piazza.

• Feinsand, Yankee management has already stated this as a courtesy, it should be obvious anyway. If you paid any attention to Piazza's performance the last couple of years on the Mets, you'd know why no one here wants him. The NY Times and some connected to glossy sports publications adore him for some strange reason, so maybe you're trying to get noticed by big-wigs at those places. That's what many Yankee beat writers do--use the job as a platform for other things.

Feinsand does his usual on Yankee radio today making sure he rapidly takes over John and Suzyn's interview. This way, he gets his own predictable anti-Yankee agenda across, today comparing Carl Pavano's injury to one another Yankee pitcher had in 2006--as far as I can ascertain, erroneously.

• First, as Suzyn and John announced, the team is "taking Pavano's word for it" about his 'injury' at this point. It hasn't been characterized as anything yet by a doctor.
• Unlike Pavano, the other pitcher Feinsand worked into his speech had more innings pitched than any other late inning reliever at that time (August 31), including a number of multi-inning appearances. Pavano has only pitched in 1 game. How would Feinsand know to characterize Pavano's injury in the way he did?

This shouldn't be a free-for-all. If someone's going to have his picture in the paper everyday, his name all over the media as an authoritative source, and receive the good graces of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on every Yankee radio broadcast, I expect him to be respectful of the facts.

• UPDATE: 5:10 PM Tuesday 4/17/07 Jon Heyman on ESPN 1050AM in New York with Michael Kay says he thinks Pavano's injury is probably "a fraud." He doesn't believe the guy. This is in response to Michael Kay saying "it's the same thing Rivera had last year." Where did Kay get this information? Possibly Brian Cashman's interview in the previous hour where he said Pavano "thinks it's the same thing Mariano Rivera had last September." This is what I heard him say. So far, I've heard no doctor's diagnosis, just Pavano invoking Rivera and having that publicized to millions by Feinsand, Cashman, and Michael Kay. At least Jon Heyman exhibits signs of having a conscience.

Update #2, 1:37PMET Friday, 4/20/07, Feinsand appears on Charley Steiner's XM show and says again, Pavano "has the same thing Rivera had last September." He also mentions Pavano had an MRI YESTERDAY (4/19) and was diagnosed with a 'mild elbow strain.' If the diagnosis was only made 4/19, how did Feinsand know what it was 5 days ago? Did he examine Pavano? Did the doctor tell Feinsand the diagnosis was the same as Rivera's which has been described endlessly as a 'forearm strain?' Steiner didn't follow up. He wants to keep his job.

• Update #3, approx. 5PM, Friday 4/20/07, Joe Torre on WFAN with Mike and Chris says Pavano's injury is "really a forearm strain rather than an elbow strain." The forearm would be more in line with the Rivera incident, however, Feinsand has said it's an "elbow" thing.

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