IT’S A MADD MADD WORLD. . .

Whether they know it or not, the Oakland A’s s and San Diego Padres are on pace for some historical offensive ensive futility marks. After 51 games, the A’s were batting .210, which would eclipse the 1910 Chicago White Sox’s ’s alltime worst .211. According to the Elias Bureau, the he Athletics’ .210 was the lowest team batting average at that juncture since the Texas Rangers’ .204 in 1972. As s for the injury-depleted Padres, they had but 26 homers in their first 52 games, and if they continue this power outage, they have an outside shot of beating the 1979 79 Houston Astros’ dubious record of 49 homers in a 162-game schedule. So much for Yankees’ minor-league pitching coordinator Nardi Contreras’ policy

of keeping keepin starters on strict pitch counts to preserve their arms a — even if it’s at the expense of teaching them comma command and pitching out of tight spots.

Manny Banuelos, the Yankees’ top prospect who was supposed to be getting close to ready for the big leagues, is instead on the disabled di list at Triple A with a sore elbow. Meanwhile, their t other top pitching prospect, Dellin Bettances, has an ERA of 5.30 with more walks than strikeouts and still hasn’t h developed any command. And so the long wait goes on o for the Yankees to draft, develop and deliver their first b bona fide top-of-the-rotation starter since Andy Pettitte, who wh coincidentally is the starter they have again turned to this th year in their time of need.