Excuse me if you’ve heard this one before, but George Steinbrenner is out of his bird. Bob Klapisch has a piece at ESPN today about the madness of King George. This is not new territory here, and we are bound to see much more of this kind of article during the coming season. Klapisch praises the calming influence of Joe Torre and Brian Cashman (can you imagine the headlines if and when Steinbrenner fires Torre?). Cashman’s buddy, Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane, doesn’t hate George either:

“What you have to remember is the Yankees don’t spend more than they make. There’s obviously a method to their madness. The real evil is spending what you can’t afford,” Beane said. “As much as the Yankees spend, they still only have a 25-man roster, so that creates opportunities for us. We can trade for a guy like Chris Hammond and have the Yankees pay a significant amount of his salary.

“It’s like a shark feeding on a swordfish carcass. You have to choose from the chunks of flesh that fall off.”

There will be a lot of fleshy third basemen available soon.