1. In today’s Post, I wrote a column that details just how bad Mike Mussina has been recently against the Red Sox. It asks the larger question, though, whether it is the Red Sox or this is Mussina now: Too little left in his arm and too untrustworthy against just about anybody, not just Boston. I think this is like a truth that you try to hide from yourself – like knowing a child is on drugs or a spose is being unfaithful. You keep trying to convince yourself that what you know to be true is untrue. But, come on, we kind of know now that Mussina isn’t going to make it through this season in the Yankee rotation, possibly not with the Yankees at all. He is trying to reinvent himself on the go here as a strictly finesse pitcher with no real strikeout ability. And it is borderline impossible to do that against AL lineups in 2008. Mussina, at his best, is going to be a pitcher who is constantly on edge. He has seven strikeouts in four starts. The ball is going to be in play against him with an ordinary defense behind him. On his finest day, he is going to be able to navigate six innings. Which means he is a guy who is going to use a lot of bullpen even on his finest days. And on his worst days – like Thursday against Boston – he is going to exhaust the pen.

Mussina has had a wonderful career, a borderline Hall-of-Fame career, but the truth is if the Yanks had somebody they trusted sitting down at Triple-A, his Yankee tenure would already be on double-probation. The Yanks don’t have that pitcher. They have Darrell Rasner and Kei Igawa. The failure of Igawa to be the No. 4-5 type that Brian Cashman and his staff believed they were purchasing for $46 million is really hurting the organization right now. The Yanks are building themselves, they believe, as a pitching organization. But the young pitchers who are ready are in the majors. The major league-ready depth in the minors is not there, right now, at least for the rotation it isn’t.

If it were, Mussina would be ever so much closer to his Montoursville, Pa. home and the contemplation of what comes next in his life.

2. Early this season, Melky Cabrera is right there with any of his more senior teammates as far as consistent quality at-bats. He is hitting with more confidence and competence than ever. The Yankees have just one homer in 85 at-bats this season against lefty pitching, and that is by Cabrera off John Bale. His other two homers are off Toronto’s Roy Halladay and Boston’s Jonathan Papelbon, arguably the best starter and closer in the AL. Internally, the Yanks have always believed that Cabrera’s offense was going to keep growing and that he was going to be an above-average producer at the position to go along with a fine defender. The early showing this year is a .319 average with as many walks (six) as strikeouts and a .511 slugging percentage. It is a small sample, but Cabrera has gotten off in an impressive way.

3. I am including below my column from the early editions of Friday’s newspapers because I thought some readers might be interested in the roundabout way that Chad Moeller came to the Yankees and also just how desperate the club had been to sign up a veteran. I hope you enjoy:

Chad Moeller is a Yankee because Joe Torre is a Dodger and because the Mets wanted nothing to do with Johnny Estrada and because Nationals manager Manny Acta is a dear friend.

Moeller could be the snapshot next to the dictionary definition for journeyman catcher. When that is your genus you find your luggage is always at the ready and your career is at the mercy of others.

“You collect a lot of team bags,” said Moeller, whose have catcher’s mitt will travel itinerary has taken him to five organizations since the end of the 2006 season alone.

His latest temp job, amazingly, is starting catcher of the New York Yankees, a $200 million entity that suddenly had a gigantic hole behind the plate. The Yanks had believed they were stronger in this area than any time since current manager, Joe Girardi, was both backup and mentor to Jorge Posada in 1999.

But two weeks into this season both Posada and Jose Molina were injured and the Yanks were facing a crisis. Except Moeller arrived to stop the bleeding. He actually did more than that. The Yanks won his first three starts. He was brought here because of his defensive acumen. But he also provided four hits in 10 at-bats plus three walks. He was seeing 4.92 pitches per plate appearances, despite being the batter opposing pitchers should be going right at.

It is a surprise. But Moeller’s life in baseball is now about one surprise after another, “and I understand it,” Moeller said. “I never know what is around each corner. But I am cool with it.”

After being made a free agent by the Brewers following the 2006 campaign, Moeller was signed by the Reds. Cincinnati sold him to the Dodgers last August. Moeller knew the Dodger coaching staff wanted him back, but the coaching staff was under reconstruction with Torre hired as manager. He preferred going back there, but was being pressured by the Nationals, who wanted to sign him quickly to a non-roster deal.

“I wanted to get my name on something,” Moeller explained. And he was fine with the landscape. Brian Schneider was the starter and Washington planned on sending Jesus Flores, stolen from the Mets as a Rule 5 pick the prior year, back to the minors for seasoning. So the backup job was open. Schneider was dealt to the Mets and Paul LoDuca was signed as his replacement. That was an even swap in Moeller’s mind, so everything was still fine. But then the Mets traded for Estrada mainly to rid themselves of Guillermo Mota’s contract. Estrada was released and the Nats signed him in early January.

“I knew right then that I would not be a Washington National,” Moeller said.

Moeller calls Acta “one of my closest friends,” having bonded with Acta during three years of Dominican winter ball. That bond moved Acta to release Moeller on March 10, early enough for him to hook on elsewhere. “I signed (with the Yanks) about five minutes later,” said Moeller, who drove across the state to Tampa and played the next day.

The Yankee desperation was understandable. They had contacted a dozen veteran receivers, including Moeller, in the offseason with an eye on stashing someone at Triple-A for insurance.

But the signing of Molina to a two-year deal to backup Posada scared the species away – the journeyman catcher wants to see some chance of being the backup. And with Molina present, that opportunity was not there. The Yanks were so desperate they even asked Wil Nieves back.

In mid-March, desperate team met desperate player because Moeller wanted some assurance of work and here were the Yanks offering $20,000 a month to be the Triple-A starter. The Yanks liked a heady, steady catch-and-throw guy working with their better pitching prospects. But those plans were altered quickly. The Yanks needed help in the majors.

Moeller knows it is temporary, recognizes his pinstripe lease lasts until Posada and Molina heal. And then the journey for the journeyman will continue.

“I embrace it and enjoy it,” Moeller said. “Why? Because it is more than I could have imagined. This is my ninth season in the big leagues. I don’t care what it looks like.”