5 Questions: Could This Be the End of Torre's Run?

1. Is this the end of Joe Torre's run as Yankees manager?

Torre has weathered rumors of his imminent demise for much of the past decade but this has been his most trying season. A World Series appearance was expected when the $200 million roster was put together, but too many of the multi-millionaires broke down. He has two years and $13 million left coming his way but there seems to be an understanding that if the Yankees don't find a way to squeeze into the playoffs he will likely be gone.

"If that's so I don't know what I'd do differently," Torre recently told reporters. "I honestly don't know the difference between saving your job and trying to win a game. You don't manage to make it acceptable to other people. Even if you're going to get fired you do the things you think you should do."

Torre has called eight team meetings this year and has also faced a barrage of dramatic statements released by Owner George Steinbrenner that are usually mockingly read on New York sports radio with military music blaring in the background.

Torre probably deserves a lifetime pass with the Yankees for all he has put up with over the years but most of those seasons he had a dependable core of players who knew how to win. This latest collection of superstars has never developed the same cohesion and Torre seems lost as to how to make it come together -- if that's even possible to do.

2. Could Mike Hampton's career be over?

Chances are he will pitch again but it might not be for a long time and it might not be with the Braves. Just when Atlanta was hoping he could make it back for the playoffs, it appears that the pain he has been feeling in his arm is severe elbow damage that might require surgery that could sideline him all of next year.

"I can't see me getting back this year," Hampton told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before he got a second opinion on the Braves' diagnosis that he would need the surgery. "Mentally and physically, I'm just spent."

The second opinion confirmed the first. It's not like the Hampton news is deadly to the Braves' October chances, after all he was just 1-2 with a 13.06 ERA since June and only threw 10 innings. But it confirms that Atlanta will have to start one and maybe two pitchers in the playoffs who have never pitched an inning in the postseason -- Horacio Ramirez, Jorge Sosa or Kyle Davies. Another option, John Thomson, has one-third of a playoff inning.

3. Can the Marlins ride Josh Beckett to the playoffs?

Once again it is the end of the year, which means Josh Beckett is pitching splendidly. And it might just be enough to push Florida past the rest of the teams clumped together in the wild-card race. Beckett is barely more than an average pitcher in the first five months of the year, going 29-29 2ith a 3.80 ERA in that time over his career. After Sept. 1, he becomes Roger Clemens with a 13-7 record and a 2.37 ERA. Remember he pitched that final Game 6 victory in the 2003 World Series in Yankee Stadium.

In the last three years, he has allowed two earned runs or less 13 times in 19 post-Sept. 1 starts.