When Mike Mussina calls you out...

Nutless Yankee hurler Mike Mussina grabbed some headlines this week when he called out Carl Pavano for not "showing enough guts" in his effort to retake the hill for the pinstripes, saying Pavano has a long way to go before he regains the confidence of his teammates.

On the one hand, I suppose its about time Pavano got called out; he has put up a 4.77 ERA and a 4-6 record over 100 innings the past two seasons while collecting a tidy $17 million dollars. On the other hand, Mussina is notorious for not wanting to grab front-page headlines or shoulder the burden of being a number one starter. Guess he's hoping Pavano will regain his old form and become the staff ace, as otherwise it looks like Mussina will be the top dog of a suddenly vulnerable staff featuring Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, and Kei Igawa. Signing Clemens would drop the Yankees staff into a neat order, with Clemens penciled in at #1 and the rest of the pitchers falling into place after that; how telling is it that Clemens would probably be a #3 in Boston?