I just flipped through the comments. I can’t believe how many negative and generally ill-informed “fans” there are. Mike Mussina has won 250 games and pitched well last September. How he pitches on March 3 in Kissimmee is meaningless. By your logic, Johan Santana is a bum, too.

But I suspect these are the same people who “knew” the Yankees wouldn’t make the playoffs last June. How did that work out?

Dan Shaughnessy of the Globe calls it the “Fellowship of the Miserable” and he’s exactly right. The talk-radio culture and the internet has spawned this class of fan that hates everybody and everything.

I follow the traffic on my blog closely. It spikes when the Yankees lose or there is some problem with the team. Why is that? Aren’t sports supposed to be fun?

Jeff Karstens threw five pitches on a broken leg for your team last season before he had to be helped off the field. Then he went to Taiwan to throw extra innings to get ready for the season, Then he showed up in Tampa in December to start throwing.

He throws three scoreless innings and the Yankee Panic Society dismisses that to focus on the 40 pitches Mike Mussina threw. Pretty grim. Try and have some fun, it’s spring training and your team looks good.

I’ve been reading through the comments. Funny to see so many people wanting Mike Mussina executed at dawn because he pitched poorly on March 3.

Just so you know:

Mussina is not going to request a trade. Mussina is not going to the bullpen. Mussina is not going to be released.

Barring some sort of injury, he’s going to start against the Blue Jays on April 3 as the No. 3 starter. Whether you or I or anybody else agrees with it, the Yankees are going to give him every chance to be part of their rotation.

As he said today, somebody has to suck up those innings.

For a veteran player, especially a pitcher, spring training results are meaningless. There are no scouting reports. Certain pitches are left in the bag. Pitch sequences that would be used in April are ingnored in March. It’s about getting stronger and staying healthy.

The Yankees play Houston this season. You really think Mussina wants to give them something to go to school on?

Relax and enjoy the fact that your team has energy, youth and a bright future. Focus on how Dan McCutchen struck out Brad Ausmus or how Mark Melancon didn’t let an error bother him in the ninth inning.

Sweating how pitcher performed on March 3 is a waste of emotion.

This is the position the Yankees have put themselves in, praying that an ugly first spring training outing for Mike Mussina is not reason to start worrying about a need for Plan B.

After all, the popular notion that this season is all about the kid pitchers is somewhat misleading. By October it could indeed be the story line, but because the Yankees seem determined to protect Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy with strict innings-restrictions, they are going to need help getting there.

As such the three-run monster home run that Carlos Lee hit off Mussina Monday was enough to set off alarms - March or not - at least among Yankee fans.

Perhaps most significantly, Joe Girardi said he doesn't believe the Mussina from last September, whose fastball was being clocked regularly at 86 mph, is the Mussina who will pitch in 2008.

"I think he'll be 87 to 91 mph," Girardi said. "I think we'll see better velocity because I think his legs are healthier."

That estimate may be wishful thinking. You could probably get better odds in Vegas on Hank Steinbrenner never again second-guessing himself on not dealing for Johan Santana than on Mussina lighting the radar gun at 91 mph this season.