Of coure I will be pegged a biased Yankee fan but the Yankee pitching is not the 'real/true' problem. The problem is simply health and the use of the pitchers by Sir Torre. We all laughed the other day how they promote Hughes then with a tired pen keep him on a strict pitch count and then trailing 4-0 with AJ dealing decide to use every good arm in our pen to keep it respectable...uhhmm I know Satyr from a different continent saw the stupidity in that. The talent level as I said all along is one of the best in the majors( top to bottom when healthy we have a Top 10 staff). Some will agree , some will disagree whatever the case is in ones opinion we are the best lineup and in the top half of pitching staffs in the game. The problem is health or staying healthy. Now naturally cause of numerous factors like age and injury history this problem may not go away. I think this Yankees team mindset has become to lets worry about OCT in OCT...one of the reasons the JOE must go. They just dont bring it everyday IMO.. part of that is the fact every player makes so much money....Sorry but MONEY kills drive there is no doubt in mind about that...Isnt funny the guy who picked them UP was the soul who lost his job.....
You cant expect much when Wang your ace is not healthy enough to start the season. Then we you dont have a ST to be his peak self when he comes back. This is what I mean by realistic expectations. This is a game that is played bt real peoplewho need to be in shape to perform. Mussina and Pettitte both got hurt late in ST. Again same scenario what can you expect of these guys when they have a handful of ST innings under there belt?? Then Pavano finally gets healthy and goes down after two starts. You have the mishandling of the Igawa and Chase Wright situations IMO. There was absolutely no reason to promote Hughes , bump Karstens into Igawa's spot and today it worked it out. Igawa was great...read my comments on him early on in ST I said he would throw a very nice 91, 92 MPH and has a good fastball...not the BS reports u read about him being only in the high 80's....give the kid a chance he has had ups and downs . Does anyone realize this kid stopped a reporter who was sort of comparing him and Dice-K...The kid humbly said Dice-K and I are not in the same class that is an unfair comparision!! I love that!! Maybe the Yanks overpaid for him and maybe that creates unrealistic expectations but as I said with command he is one of the best backend(4or 5) SP in the majors...
The problem continues to be Torre's decision making is awful. I wont say I think highly of Karstens but be realistic what can we excpect from a kid trying to get healthy??? Sure he looked great this ST and late last year as a spot starter. Does anyone know how often he has been injured in his career?? I say that cause you just dont magically bounce back from injuries. You have to know how to get back in form. So the point is why is he starting @ Fenway then today?? Lets cross our fingers and hope he pitches well when he hasnt had the work to do so?? Clear stupidity..You have Ron Villone down in AAA...throw him out there and see what happens...Boston is weak vs LHP so maybe you get 5 quality innings..
Now the Hughes situation is a joke so fae he has shown he has good stuff but not the command to be a consistent winner at the ML level......leave him in AAA please!! Our pen is worn and you hoping he gets 5 innings in...explain this logic...
Pettitte has been real solid till that meltdown vs BOSTON(after his initil start , remember he didnt pitch teh final 2 weeks of ST). My only worry about him so far has been his ability to get two strikes but failure to put batters away easily once he does. So my main concern now is getting Moose straight. We then have a trio of quality SP...is Boston Top 3 better...YES but they have to face a tougher lineup when they face us a much tougher lineup...
Being here in NY its like everything else in the world. People quick to open there mouth and comment or form opinions based on numbers. Yet they cant make heads or tails out of stats...it seems lost that NY SP started behind schedule thats reality...there first turn (ie there 1st 5 games) werent very good. Some how its forgotten though that after GAME #5 they reeled off 8 straight games were they held the opposition to 5 runs or less...(really mainly 3 runs or less)That stretch had quality starts from all there SP and better is the 3 times someone did manage 5 runs were somewhat extraordinary situations....like the 1-1 Twins game that Torre ruined by bringing in Farnsworth who got smoked for 4 runs in the b8. It was obvious that Kyle was struggling before that bad decision clearly9and better yet then aftyer 2 poor outinsg he forgot him when desperate for arms), the 5-4 loss in Oakland in 11 innings in which the Yankees stranded runner after runner and gave away a 4-1 lead, the last was 5-4 loss in OAK which Mo blew a save on the Scutaro HR. Those teams really didnt even ern there 5 runs plus remember the shaky NYY defense early. There isnt really much outside of command issues wrong with MO. He was fine b4 the Scutaro HR which occurred with 2 outs. The braintrust decided after that game that he wouldnt pitch for 5 days......anyone who has pitched knows thats a recipe for disaster especially in April when you still working your way into shape...he had a scoreless ST and then 4 scoreless appearances maybe his dead arm period came late..?? It happens...So he blows the Oak game on Sun the Bos game on FRi...again he gets an inning in TB and the a week after the Bos game he gets some work vs them again and is embarrassing but how many games does Mo appear in where there is no emotion??....this is baseball 101 folks...today we have managers who cant see that there closer needs a day off afetr a bad appearance and we have the ones who dont know how quickly to run that guy back out there again...and again the 1st blown save @ Fenway he fucked up the whole situation again...remember Mo came in to clean up the mess in the 8th inning...
He was sound today...someone will say what if AROD didnt make the barehanded play...well what if the broken bat ball doesnt sneak over Cano's head to start the inning...you cant play what if selectively...no one hit the ball hard off him today that was a nice plus...
The pitching slide happened in the last game vs CLE...why did he pull Rasner in the 5th inning with 80 pitches???? Rasner was stinky in his debut but again another guy late in ST who was detered by a minor injury. Anyway he bounces back @ Oak and vs Cle why pull him so early?? The pen had already been used alot and that day Vizcaino was awful..Now Viz had been great up to that game. Was it me or did anyone not notice that he was on long rest 4/14 to 4/19 and threw 33 pitches...it doesnt excuse pitching poorly but chances are you are not gonna be sharp if you are in routine then dont see action for 5 days...of course since thatgame he has worn out Viz..he pitched him the 19,20 ,22,23,24...how do you do that in April?? Now Viz is clearly in a funk...
I havent been satisfied with Proctors pitching either...but still Viz ,Proctor and Farnsworth(our worst reliever).....there arent many better trios from the RH side...the key is that Proctor last year was one of the best setup guys in the game and the 4th guy can be just as good as him in Bruney...tack on Mo and add Myers and Henn from the LH side and I am sorry but thats one of the best pens in the game.......there are issues to be worked out but talent wise its there....Sir Torre needs to learn after 12 years how to handle a pitching staff...we definetly have the best pen in the East but Papelbon is clearly the best closer...though Bos has the same depth as NY I just wonder more about what some of those guys upside are...Piniero at least has a good arm could be 2006 Proctor , Timlin(BAA 305 LYR) and aging with severe loss of velocity , Romero since his breakout 2002 he has one fairly solid season , one medicore and two poor seasons plus another slow start..., Snyder isnt much besides tall, Tavarez and Donnelly are declining maybe a fresh start helps Brendon though...outside of Pap its the LH Jap pitcher I like.......
Bottomline is NYY needs to get healthy and get innings under there belt. We lost 7 games but 4 to Boston which started Schilling , Beckett and DiceK twice plus a game to Tor which started Burnett...TB stole a game but they ran out Kazmir as well.....its a game of momuntem after such a tough series @ Bos they need a day off...So we basicallyhave injuries to our a staff a mishandled pen and HUGE edges in SP for BOS.....if that wasnt the case I would be worried... We lost 6 games facing the premier SP in the game and we had lead in all but one of them...
Shit happens.....no need to panic but again there hasnt been many reasons to bet NY lately....after the Cle sweep I think many thought differently....we were 8-6...I think what I am trying to say is that the yankees are NOT a well oiled machine and havent been for slong time. There is simply no reason to expect them to play well when the cards are stacked against them simply cause its say NY on there jerseys.....they are one of the easiest teams to follow cause they play in stretches..they started 2-3 but during that sound pitching run really they had a chance to be 9-0 not 6-3...two losses to OAK that they should have won and the Twins sweep game they let get away....
All this nonsense means that I felt Wang was ahead of schedule and threw well @ TB. He tired and then the pen failed him...after today everyone on NY has confidence.......I expect another Yankee win on Sunday......the Sox lineup actually hant hit much....look at the road games 11-2 UNDER away...think just two away games with more then 5 runs...lookis like NYY /UND 11 on Sunday.....
It will always be interesting to see how NY pans out and I do not think we need Roger Clemens. Though the Carl Pavano mystery would be great to understand...gimme a healthy dose of Wang , Moose and Pettitte plus Igawa like today and I am happy fan.....but the day Torre 'retires' will be the one when we start maximizing our potential...is it me or do you gusy think Torre and the yanks look and feel so corporate they are better suited for SUITS then uniforms??? The game has passed Sir Torre by IMO....
Sort of reminds me in some ways how people wrote off Posada after 2005...told ya that boy can still rake.....expectations just got to high and he had some tough luck..
Anyway AGREE or DISAGREE I hope you enjoyed this rant...NYYproblems are HEALTH, EXPECTATIONS AND TORRE calling the shots.....Seriously starting Pettitte , Karstens and Wright vs Schilling , DiceK and Beckett who expected the Yanks to win more then a game IF they lost the opener it was HIGHLY probable they would get swept especially since we took 5 @ Fenway late last season...
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