It was good to see Joe Torre shake things up before the Yankees' 12-3 victory in Milwaukee last night. The Yankees are his problem. Joe Torre is one of the finest people in sports, but this season's skids (and last season's collapse against the Red Sox) are primarily attributable to Torre alone.

In an interview this week, Andy Pettitte said that the Yankees will be back because they have so much talent. But with sports teams, it's not just the amount of talent; it's the nature of the talent and how personalities interplay. Joe Torre had a great model from 1996-2000, with a number of budding stars and a healthy dose of unglamorous team contributors. Now it's different. Bernie is in decline; Giambi seems washed up; Kevin Brown is as sturdy as a toothpick. The manager needs to come up with a different motivational formula for this new landscape. That's obviously something Torre didn't do last October, and despite a great winning streak this season, he hasn't done it this year either. Boston's 17-1 drubbing two weeks ago took too much wind out of the sails, setting the Yankees into another hopeless tailspin. It's Torre's job to prevent this from happening.

Cancelling batting practice and sitting down 4 regulars is a good start. Shake things up. Torre should talk to Pat Riley, who always got much more out of his players than expected just from the level of talent. Riley made Patrick Ewing and John Starks competitive against Michael Jordan and the Bulls. I get the sense Torre wouldn't be quite as effective. But the 2005 Yankees are not the 1998 Yankees, and Torre needs to come up with a new recipe for success.