Use Your Eyes Joe!
Watching yesterday's game was like watching Game 3 of the ALCS Joe Girardi went to "the book" and it cost the Yankees. Yes, Kendry Morales is a better hitter against RHP than LHP, but all Girardi needed to do was look at what his LHP was doing. He walked Abreu, he hit Hunter, he got a lucky out against Matsui, it certainly seemed like it wasn't going to be Marte's day. That's why it made a lot of sense to intentionally walk Morales. For whatever reason, Morales kills the Yankees and putting him on was a safe move. Having Marte be the one to put him on made even more sense because then Robertson could come in and try and throw strikes to Rivera. But for some unknown reason, Girardi changed his mind after ball 1 and the rest as they say is history.
Now, it's important to note the Yankees were losing the game at the time so who knows if they would have mounted a comeback. You can't say that Girardi's call lost them the game, but you have to hope he learns something from this.
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As Yogi said, "it's getting late early" with Javy Vazquez. What you had to hope for as a Yankees' fan was that Vazquez would go out to Oakland and Anaheim and pitch well. Instead he was mediocre against the A's and terrible against the Angels. Yes, Marcus Thames should have caught that ball, but a good pitcher picks up his fielders and Vazquez is not a good pitcher right now.
The bigger problem is this has a good chance of turning into an Ed Whitson situation. For those of you who don't remember Whitson, he was a Yankee pitcher in the mid 80's who was so viciously booed at home that the Yankees started using him only on the road. Vazquez isn't there yet, but if he gets bombed on Saturday things are going to get ugly. Fans are not going to care that Melky has a .440 OPS (yup .440) or that Vizcaino has a plus-4 ERA right now, they are going to want blood. Saturday's game is going to be a big one.
Comments
Girardi has been trigger happy with the bullpen like nobody's business. And the worst part about it is that so many pitchers warm up and/or pitch, he tires out our already weak bullpen.
Posted by: Dylan Murphy | April 26, 2010 01:36 PM |
Could it really be that the AL is so much better than the NL that one of the best pitchers in the NL becomes a poor fifth starter for the Yankees?
This just does not ring true for me. Vazquez has got be be given a chance to work through his problems like any other pitcher. If he trusts his stuff a litte more, perhaps he can regain last year's form.
I am, however, concerned about this bullpen. I thought the Yanks had finally solved this problem. But Marte has regressed and Joba, Robertson, and Aceves have all had some bad outings.
As for hitting, that decision on Matsui is starting to look very foolish.
Posted by: Corey | April 26, 2010 03:32 PM |
Corey,
It's not that the AL is that much better than the NL -- better, yes, but not that much. It just may be that Vazquez is not suited for a place like Boston, Philly, NY. My initial reaction when they traded for Vazquez was "Huh? Why'd we bring him back? It didn't work out well the last time." Additionally, I knew that Guillen had called him out in Chicago (though to be fair Guillen says a lot of stupid things). Then. as I started seeing the "pro" arguments (only the 4th starter, doesn't need to be the Ace, was hiding an injury the last time, had a good season last year) I thought perhaps it made sense to bring him back. Now I am not so sure. I think we need to give him a few more starts before writing him off. It does feel like it's spiraling out of control, though. No way he deserves so much of the blame for 2004, though. Nobody hit well the last 4 games (it wasn't just A-Rod), and the bullpen was toast.
I think the bullpen will settle down. Except Marte. Him I'll never trust. I don't care how good a World Series he had. I never want to see him again. I have no idea what to make of Chamberlain. I am seriously concerned we've already seen the best we'll ever see of him -- by a lot. I think Robertson and probably Aceves will be fine when all is said and done.
I hear you about Matsui -- heck I'd take the 2009 Damon/Matsui over the 2009 Granderson/Johnson any day of the week. But at some point, the Yankees needed to get away from all these older DHs. The problem isn't so much that we replaced Matsui with Johnson, the problem is we had no one home grown to step in for Damon or Matsui. We needed that DH spot. But I'll admit the Johnson signing had me scratching my head at first.
Posted by: Greg | April 27, 2010 04:10 PM |
All good points, Greg.
At the time, I liked the Vazquez move; thought Damon had to go; but could not understand why they could sign Matsui for a 1-2 year deal. He's an all-world clutch hitter and given what he's being paid by the Angels, he would have take a big pay cut.
Fortunately, if these guys don't work out there are plenty of alternatives. There is always going to be a good supply of Designated Hitters and Fourth/Fifth Starters.
Posted by: corey | April 29, 2010 03:55 PM |