In one word-no! In three words-forget about it! The most important attribute the Yankees need from their catcher is the ability to handle the pitching staff. They need a coach on the field, a captain to steer the ship.

Montero is neither of these. At the plate, he is stumbling, as well. In 164 games with the Mariners, he is batting .252 with 18 home runs. The home run total is misleading, since it has come over two seasons. The physical wear and tear of the catching position make it unlikely that he could maintain that pace over a  single-season, even if he were able to stay healthy.

Of the three catchers the Yankees have turned to this season, only Austin Romine has a lower batting average than .252. Francisco Cervelli is batting .269. Chris Stewart is hitting .265. Romine is at .129. But he has batted only 31 times. While he may never cause pitchers to tremble in their socks, give him a chance to play consistently and you will really find out what he can do.

Montero’s chances of  hitting well in the majors will only come if he improves at handling the curve ball. He owned the fourth- lowest slugging percentage against the curve in the majors during the last two seasons at .119. This is more than 200 points below the MLB average.

An improvement against the curve may only happen if he switches positions, allowing him to shed the responsibilities of catching and concentrate on his stroke. First base is an option. Many catchers have made this transition to extend their careers, Montero needs to make it to have one. Of course, designated hitter is a viable option.

All of this removes Montero as an option for the Yankees. Instead, they should look forward to the return of Michael Pineda and the value he can offer to the pitching staff. If Pineda can return to his 2011 form, when he was an All-Star and finished fifth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, the Yankees will certainly have a rotation that can carry them in the postseason.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

This is not Cervelli’s first concussion – he has had 3 during his time in MLB and several more when he played in Venezuela – so the Yankees are not taking these symptoms lightly. Cervelli has been sent back to New York to meet once more with a neurologist, and hopefully we will have more definitive news by tomorrow. However, regardless of what the doctor says it is highly likely that this latest setback will prevent Cervelli from making the postseason roster. If there is one thing professional sports has taught us over the past few years it is that athletes should never be rushed back from a concussion before they are ready.

So what does this mean for the catching situation on the postseason roster? Russel Martin is a lock, and so is Jesus Montero. If there was any doubt about Posada making the roster that doubt should now be gone. After all, Posada has hit .286/.375/.571 in September and has a plethora of playoff experience, so in my opinion he would have made the roster even before the loss of Cervelli. I don’t see Romine making the roster – he has shown some great skill behind the plate with the Yankees but his bat is lagging behind. And besides, he is very young and spent the majority of his season in Double-A so his play since his debut on September 11 would have had to be elite for him to even be considered for the postseason.

The bad 1: A-Rod will be out 3-4 days as his left thumb is still bothering him. The sprained thumb has been giving him problems for a few weeks and hopefully some rest will get him right for the playoffs. The thumb is not on his throwing hand but it is clearly affecting his swing. It doesn’t seem like a big deal and could be much worse, I suppose.

The bad 2: Frankie Cervelli was a late scratch for the second day in a row due to concussion-like symptoms. He suffered the concussion in a play at the plate in Baltimore on Thursday and is going for more tests today. This is not good as we’ve seen Justin Morneau miss over half a season with a concussion, those shits aren’t to be taken lightly. If he’s shelved for a long time then we might get to see what Jesus can do behind the plate, hopefully it won’t come to that though.

The good bad: Swish Dog’s MRI revealed mild tendinitis in his elbow. He’s listed as day-to-day and the team said he could be back as early as Monday. The reason this is good bad news is that it appeared to be much more severe with words such as “sharp pain” involved; I really thought he was going to suffer the same fate as Xavier Nady. I’m glad it’s just a lot of inflammation and nothing more serious.

Hopefully a few days off will get A-Rod and Swish Dog back to normal and ready for October. We can only hope for Cervelli.

Tex led the offense with a 3-for-5 showing. He hit a pair of dingers, drove in four runs and scored three times. He homered from both sides of the plate for the 11th time in his career, which ties him with Chili Davis and Eddie Murray for the most all-time; The Mick did it 10 times. It was his second two-homer game in the last 11 days and in his last 10 games he’s hitting .290 (9-for-31) with five home runs, 15 RBI, eight runs and two doubles.

He’s tied for the major league lead (Grandy and Bautista) with 21 taters and now has nine straight years with at least 20 homers and has 296 career long balls, the quickest to that “mark” by a switch hitter in the history of MLB. Tex is now 7-for-15 with three homers lifetime against Derek Holland.

Grandy and he have combined for 42 homers, better than four teams (Padres, A’s, Twins and Astros).

The entire Yankee infield homered in the win, with Ramiro Pena, Eddie Nunez and Cano all going yard. Cano also stole a base to record his first career game with a homer and a stolen bag and establish a new career high with steals at six. He finished with three RBI. It was Pena’s second career homer, with the other coming on 9/28/09 against the Royals. Nunez went 2-for-4 and stole a pair of bases on what was his 24th birthday (it’s also Pettitte’s 39th birthday). Those two finished with a pair of RBI each.

You know the offense is clicking when Frankie Cervelli drives in a run and steals a base. Grandy and Andruw Jones drove in a run apiece as well.

A-Rod scored once and stole a base. In doing so he tied Ted Williams for 16th on the all-time runs scored list with No. 1,799 and matched his stolen base total from last season (four). Not Williams’ total, he’s frozen.

It was just an offensive onslaught. The pitching, not so much. SuperNova (6-4) was far from super as he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on seven hits with two punchouts and three walks. He really didn’t deserve the win, but what can you do? His ERA is 4.46 and you have to figure that if they had a healthy rotation he would be out of the picture.

Luis Ayala threw 1 1/3 innings of two-hit, one-walk ball with a strikeout before Cory Wade (see below after the jump) and Jeff Marquez threw an inning each with the latter giving up one hit.

It was rather surprising that they hit like they did because Girardi used a highly unorthodox lineup for the game. Swish led off because of his OBP against lefties and because Girardi wanted Gardy to get a day off. Swish Dog made his 30th career start in the leadoff role and his first since 5/4/08 with the ChiSox. He went 1-for-3 with a pair of walks and scored once.

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