I’m trying to figure out why I was so excited for this team. It’s basically the same team as last year–same terrible defense, same feast or famine offense, same manager for better or worse–and an overrated center fielder.

FWIW, here’s how Proctor’s career – in terms of role – has been to date:

1998-2000: RP, for the most part, in the minors
2001-2002: SP in the minors
2003: RP in the minors
2004-2005: RP in the minors and majors

You can throw out 1998 – he only pitched in 3 games.

So, for two years, he was a RP who made some starts as well. Then, he was a SP for 2 years. And, for the last 3 years he’s been a RP.

If you look at the stats when he was a SP:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/P/scott-proctor.shtml

it’s not fair to say he couldn’t cut it as a SP. He did OK at it, in the minors, IMHO.

Raf, here’s the deal, and maybe it will finally penetrate your skull: Brian Cashman determines what these pitchers are, and he says Proctor is a starter. Your title comes from what you do, and Proctor will be a starter in AAA. Which means HE IS A STARTER. You may not think he has the talent to be a starter, but that doesn’t change his designation. He is a starter because he is STARTING BALLGAMES. That’s the bottom line. What Proctor can or cannot do does not matter.

If he can’t hack it as a reliever, what makes you think he can hack it as a starter?

We already have Aaron Small, we already have Tanyon Sturtze. Before that, we had Eric Plunk. And further back, we had Charles Hudson.

It isn’t going to work.

Proctor is a power arm, without much of an offspeed/secondary pitch, and even with his stuff, he doesn’t miss as many bats as he should. He’s 28 years old. He has reliever’s stuff, uses a reliever’s windup. He may start at AAA, but he’s a reliever. If he contributes anything at the ML level, it will be as a reliever.

Raf, it is people like you who make life miserable. Listen up: PROCTOR WILL BE A STARTER THIS YEAR. They have already said he will be a starter with the Clippers in AAA. That’s why he STARTED in the spring. Because he is now a starter. Because he couldn’t cut it as a reliever, but Cashman thinks he has a decent arm, and he had one good start in the bigs, they were turning him back into a starter. Again, this is why he STARTED in the spring and did not work out of the ‘pen. He only made the team because of injuries. When he gets sent back down in a week or two, he will go to AAA and START. Because he is now a starter. I can’t comprehend what you don’t understand about this.

As for Embree: the taxi didn’t drop him off on the mound, but he just flew in THAT MORNING and hadn’t pitched in days and before he could even take a breath, he was in a crucial spot. It was another great move by Torre.

Aaaaaugh! Another year of Torre managing in the past tense. Boy, would I ever like to see Larry Bowa take over….but, that’s another story.

Has Joe failed to notice that Bernie Williams has become ancient? Why start him against a pitcher with 95+ MPH velocity? He was swinging at Harden’s FB after it was in the catcher’s mitt. For that matter, why is Bernie on the roster at all? Seriously, would he have made any other ML roster this year? Funny that no one comments about how quickly he deteriorated after steroid testing was started….

Guess that Joe thought that his new $17 Million pitcher was too valuable to leave out in the rain.

Why doesn’t Giambi, with the best OBP in the AL last year, bat in front of the reigning MVP? Why make Jeter give up an out in the middle innings with the slugging middle of the order to follow? (On second thought, those three straight K’s in the first were pretty pathetic.)

As a parent, my heart goes out to the Proctors. Hopefully, baby Emmy will enjoy a full recovery from recent open-heart surgery. As a Yankee fan, however, I wish that Scott had been at her bedside in Miami last night.

As for Embree, by the time he joined the Yanks, he had been in the league since 1992. He has started games, he has finished games. I would hope that after 11.5 years in the bigs, he would know what he needs to do to prepare for a game. It’s not like the taxi dropped him off on the mound.

JohnnyC already spelled it out, but, Raf, if you were paying attention, you’d see that the Yankees gave up on Proctor being a reliever because he was so bad
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Nice try… The reason Proctor was converted to a reliever was because he couldn’t cut it as a starter. Usually, if you’re not good enough to start, you find yourself in the bullpen.

So he had a nice spring training. BFD. The Yanks have his stats from 2003-05 to go on. They mean a hell of a lot more than a handful of innings in ST.

Does a lot for Proctor’s confidence too, doesn’t it?

JohnnyC already spelled it out, but, Raf, if you were paying attention, you’d see that the Yankees gave up on Proctor being a reliever because he was so bad; the idea was to make him a starter in AAA and hope for the best. He excelled this spring as a starter. Having already pegged him as a guy who couldn’t pitch out of the ‘pen, what’s the point of sticking him back there now? They ADMITTED he couldn’t pitch out of the ‘pen and needed to start (this is why he started games the entire spring). But Torre still used him out of the ‘pen and he blew the game. It made much more sense to put Mendoza on the roster till Small got back and to keep Proctor in AAA so he could start. (And that doesn’t even take into account that Proctor had be traveling around and I’m sure out of his mind with grief at the possibility that his kid might die. Torre never trusts anyone, but then he throws a guy into a game when he’s clearly not ready; he did the same thing on Embree’s first day with the team — the guy had just gotten there and hadn’t even settled in, and he put him right into a game.)