An appropriately kaleidoscopic series of reactions to yesterday’s Yankees win, which managed to be sunny and rainy, foggy and clear all at once:

* The “personal catcher” continues to be exposed as a myth. As comfortable as Randy Johnson might feel with Kelly Stinnett (or with John Flaherty last year), he turned in his best start of the season with Jorge Posada behind the plate. It’s just one game, but either Posada can call a game or he can’t; that ability shouldn’t be transient from start to start. Is the Big Unit’s preference for Stinnett reason enough to keep Posada’s bat out of the lineup for 30 games?

* Gary Sheffield appeared to injure himself on the penultimate play of the game, then shook it off and remained in the game. The Yankees are not well positioned to absorb an injury to an outfielder. No team could deduct a Sheffield from its offense and not feel it, but the Yankees don’t have anyone half as good ready to go.

Melky Carbrera is off to a hot start at Triple-A (.348 AVG/.405 OBA/.500 SLG in 17 games), but it’s hard to take a couple of weeks all that seriously, especially after he burned the Yankees based on a similarly small sample last year (albeit one recorded at Trenton rather than Columbus).The idea of Bernie Williams or Bubba Crosby playing more often than they do now is a bad joke. As well-intentioned as ownership’s decision to bring Williams back was, the Yankees lost the opportunity to get this all-time great Yankee off the stage gracefully. Instead, at some point this season, Williams will publicly have to confront his own obsolescence.

Regardless of Williams’s role – reserve outfielder, starting designated hitter, beloved elder statesman – .244/.267/.286 won’t cut it. No team could accept that level of production from a shortstop, let alone a DH. Yes, Williams is a traditional “slow starter,” but this is about what he’s capable of doing these days.

* Mariano Rivera closed out the 7-1 win. The Yankees’ offense and Joe Torre’s customary April rigidity have conspired to give Rivera a very soft April, with only five appearances in the first 17 games. Rivera is on a pace to throw less than 50 innings. Because of Torre’s insistence on holding Rivera for save situations, which have been few and far between in the early goings, the Yankees have been deprived of Rivera’s services in games in which they were tied or even trailing.

* It didn’t happen in yesterday’s game, but it’s worth noting that Robinson Cano managed to draw a walk (two even!) in Saturday’s win, and all it took was 60 plate appearances and the incredibly wild Danny Cabrera to get him there. When irresistible force meets immovable object, what happens? Now you know – Cano walks to first. Cano will have to keep up his torrid .349 hitting pace to be valuable (he’s not going to contribute on defense). The league average on-base average is .336. Given his lack of walks, Cano’s batting average is going to have to be about equal to the league OBA for him to be average at reaching base.

* Derek Jeter picked up his Gold Glove from Rawlings prior to the game. There is still an unshakable feeling that the trophy should have been handed over by Cadbury instead. Jeter has been an improved shortstop over the last two years, but even that improvement may be due to the presence of Alex Rodriguez. John Dewan’s new book, The Fielding Bible, seems to suggest not only that Jeter mis-positions himself, but that Rodriguez may be altering his own positioning to cover for Jeter’s lack of range. Perhaps Jeter should peel back the foil on that Gold Glove and break off a hunk of chocolate for his third baseman.

* Perhaps it’s just his recent slump talking, but Johnny Damon’s numbers (.278/.351/.426) are about where it was suggested they would be once Fenway Park was removed from his personal calculus. It’s much too early to come to any conclusions, of course. As a defender he has yet to do anything spectacular, but his range, instincts, and routes to fly balls are all vastly reassuring after enduring Williams’s long decline.

* It’s good to see Torre publicly backing off his Miguel Cairo Uber Alles stance of a couple of weeks ago and making a renewed commitment to getting Andy Phillips some playing time. Phillips is not a great player and may not even be a good one, but he should be able to out-produce Cairo without trying too hard. As Torre has correctly surmised, wringing that production out of Phillips means getting him enough plate appearances that he stops over-swinging and striking out, something that wasn’t a problem in the minors when he struck out roughly 100 times per 500 at bats – not a high rate in this era.

The revised position on Cairo/Phillips is one of the reasons Torre is so reassuring. He starts off each season with some thoroughly wrongheaded ideas, but when those decisions don’t play as well in games as they do on paper, he generally takes a second look at the problem and finds his way to the right solution. Unfortunately, those same wrongheaded ideas tend to reassert themselves in the playoffs, but that’s another story.

Mr. Goldman writes the Pinstriped Bible for www.yesnetwork.com and is the author of “Forging Genius,” a biography