DAMN YOU, GARY SHEFFIELD'S THUMB! Looks like Sheff is out with an injured thumb. I told Giambi he was too aggressive a thumb-wrestler! Why wouldn't he listen? Whyyyyyyy???

But: let's look on the bright side. This takes the Yankees down a notch offensively. But scoring runs wasn't going to be their big problem this year. And, assuming Bernie Williams recovers OK from his appendectomy, this may actually improve the team defensively while Sheffield is out. Giambi will DH, Bernie will play right field, Lofton will play center and the glovetastic Travis Lee will play first. That's a better defensive lineup than the Sheff-in-right/Giambi-at-first/Bernie-DH/Lofton-in-center lineup the team was planning on. And a batting order of Lofton-Jeter-Rodriguez-Giambi-Posada-Matsui-Williams-Lee-Wilson is still going to score a great many runs.