RIP Brett Gardner's Right Elbow

At this point, they might as well just amputate.

"Brett Gardner started a hitting program today. He has not swung a bat since his elbow surgery, but he has been taking fly balls for about two weeks and could be activated any day now."

Well that's the end of Brett Gardner's days as a 4-appendaged human being.  I thought I had already made this perfectly clear, but the Yankees really just don't seem to get it.  Call ahead and pencil the guy in for surgery this time next week.

Paging Dr. Van Nostrand!

Derek Jeter And The AL MVP

(To quote WWE-era Kurt Angle, Jeter could win the Silver Slugger and MVP with a bruised freakin' ankle.  Courtesy of the AP)

At this point it's getting hard to find a positive adjective that hasn't already been used to describe Derek Jeter's 2012 season.  What he's done this year has been simply remarkable, and almost unthinkably good given how bad he looked this time 2 years ago.  While the rest of the team's veteran hitters around him have regressed, and guys still in their primes did the same, Jeter has been very consistent and very productive at an age when he rightfully shouldn't be, and has flat out carried the offense for stretches.  With the regular season winding down, Jeter in the context of the AL MVP race has become an increasingly popular topic of conversation.  I'm positive he won't win the award, and he shouldn't, but it's definitely worth wondering and asking where Jeter will wind up in the final voting.

What To Expect From Andy, Again

(He's already been struck down.  Does he come back more powerful than we could possibly imagine tonight?)

We've already had to do this once this season, and that was pretty damn unexpected, so just paint me completely shocked that it's the year 2012 and I'm writing my SECOND Andy Pettitte comeback post of the year.  After telling retirement to pound sand in the spring, and showing he had plenty left in the tank in 58.2 innings over 9 starts, Andy was sidelined in late June thanks to a line drive off the bat of Casey Kotchman that fractured his ankle.  He's worked diligently to make it back to the mound before the end of the regular season, and despite my skepticism that work will be complete tonight when Andy makes his return start against Toronto.  So what should we expect this time?