New York, NY (WFAN)  -- Random thoughts after Week 1:

• Really good sign: The Yankees are 3-2 in games in which they score 3 runs or less. Last year they were 6-36.


• Not so good sign: The Yankees are on pace for 459 runs. I’m pretty sure that’s going to change.


• While the offense may not excite you right now you can’t treat this like a fantasy team and start campaigning for the Yanks to cut this guy or that guy. The Yankees will hit. The important thing is the pitching. Wang and Hughes have looked good; Pettitte and Mussina weren’t awful. Kennedy needs to be better.


• This whole thing with Joba and the fist pump is driving me nuts. Didn’t anyone notice he did the same thing all the time last year and no one said anything? And the Yankees don’t seem to be shying away from it either. The conservative, classy Yankees...have put Joba and his pumping fist on the cover of their game program and all over the promos on YES.
  
  I asked Mariano Rivera about it. He didn’t endorse the show of emotion, but didn’t condemn it either. He told me he didn’t have a big problem with it but it’s just not something he would ever feel comfortable doing.
  
  I asked Derek Jeter about it. He told me there was a line and Joba had not crossed it. The line is drawn where the pitcher directs his animated stunt toward the hitter (think Dennis Eckersley). With the emotion channeled outward but not towards anyone in particular, Jeter is okay with it.


• Speaking of Joba, I know he’s going to get hit one of these days. It’s just getting harder and harder to believe it. And while Joe Girardi said he didn’t want to define roles in the bullpen, it’s pretty clear where he’s headed after watching him go to Joba in the 7th with the tying runs on base Sunday.


• I haven’t changed my mind on the Joba Is a Starter argument either. I know he’s been lights out and I know Farnsworth and Hawkins coughed it up last Friday. This argument is not about what’s best right now. This is about long term, because in case you haven’t noticed that’s what most of these Yankee moves have been about lately.
  
  I don’t say that he’s not valuable now right where he is. But starting pitching is the foundation of a good team. John Smoltz may have been the best closer the Braves have had in the last 15 years. When given the chance, they moved him back to the rotation. I’ll repeat what scouts have told me over and over: you seek out starting pitchers and make relievers out of what’s left over.


• So does spring training mean anything? Nope. Let’s remember this next spring when I’m telling you how good Robinson Cano looks at the plate.


• Chien-Ming Wang is about as quiet as they come, but knows how to crack a funny. Check this out from Pete Abraham’s blog: http://yankees.lhblogs.com/


• Talked to a scout who watched Kei Igawa pitch for Scranton last week. He said Igawa’s command was never better, especially his change-up. Oh yea, Igawa threw 6 perfect innings. Never thought you’d see “Igawa” and “perfect” in the same sentence did you?


• I like Luis Sojo, I really do. But his candidacy for Manager of the Year (he’s managing the Class A Tampa Yankees) took a hit last week when he forgot to put Mark Melancon on the lineup card he gave to the umpires. When Melancon came in to pitch, the umps didn’t let him. It caused a ripple in the blogosphere, wondering if anything was wrong with the next great thing. Melancon is fine, but Sojo made a boo-boo. A Yankee exec told me that Sojo is an excellent communicator but has some trouble with the detail-oriented stuff.


• Pat Jordan has written some excellent articles on baseball and other sports over the years. His works are now collected in a new book, The Best Sports Writing of Pat Jordan. It’s been edited by Alex Belth, longtime blogger at Bronx Banter http://bronxbanter.baseballtoaster.com/.
  
  There’s a never-before-published article on Bobby Hurley written a few years ago. The article tells us about Hurley’s new love affair with horse racing and how it’s taken the competitive place in his life that basketball used to occupy.
  
  Reading about Hurley, my mind flashed back to 1993. The night of the NBA draft I was producing the overnight show for Steve Somers. I had left a number of messages for people in Detroit. Only two people called back—Bobby Hurley Sr. and Bobby Hurley Jr. For that, they will always be two of my favorite people.
  
  Hurley’s last two years at Duke—can’t say I’ve ever seen a better point guard. I don’t know if he would have made it in the NBA. We’ll never know because of that car accident that almost killed him in December 1993.
  
  Anyway, looking forward to reading the rest of Jordan’s collection.


• Watching Uncle Buck on TV. Reminds me how long it’s been since I heard Young MC. Time to go bust a move.

Thanks for reading. Send comments and questions to yankees@wfan.com.

Sweeny