The Yankees’ Scooter Libby

So in the end I guess that didn’t really work out too well:

With one misstep on Tuesday, Phil Hughes, a Yankees rookie pitcher, lost his chance for a no-hitter. On Wednesday, Marty Miller lost his job.

Miller was not the manager. He was not even on the playing roster. He was the first-year strength coach, and he became the Yankees’ latest casualty in a dreary 10-14 start to the season that includes four hamstring injuries to pivotal players.

“It’s time to find something else that works,” General Manager Brian Cashman said in explaining the dismissal. “We’re experiencing too much of this stuff. I can’t tell you it’s directly related to him, but we’ve never dealt with this much of it at the same time, either. So I can’t deny it or ignore that.”

Cashman hired Miller last winter to the newly created, if awkwardly titled, role of director of performance enhancement.

Miller’s charge was to prevent injuries, but instead they multiplied, hobbling a team that has the largest payroll in baseball but, in recent days, has found itself in last place in the American League East.

Over the last two weekends, the Yankees lost five of six games to the Boston Red Sox, the team’s bitter rival, prompting the team’s principal owner, George Steinbrenner, to consider firing Manager Joe Torre.

Torre received a reprieve Monday when Steinbrenner issued a statement saying he supported him. But after Hughes strained his hamstring while throwing a curveball in the seventh inning of a game in which he had not given up a hit, Steinbrenner agreed with Cashman’s decision to fire Miller, an employee who few, if any, fans would recognize if they bumped into him.

. . .

When Hughes is placed on the disabled list Thursday, he will be the fourth Yankee to have landed there with a hamstring injury since mid-March, joining pitchers Chien-Ming Wang and Mike Mussina and outfielder Hideki Matsui.

Only one other major league team, the Cleveland Indians, has had even two players on the disabled list with hamstring problems since March 1. The injuries are a major reason for the Yankees’ poor start.

“It’s weird,” said center fielder Johnny Damon, who sustained a calf injury on opening day and then opted out of Miller’s program, although he did not go on the disabled list. “Sometimes there are years when it could be a calf injury or another injury that’s cropping up around the league — but not all the players on your team.”