Either way, I think the Yanks should be looking to upgrade their starting pitching at the trade deadline rather than looking for a stopgap veteran corner outfielder. They need someone solid but unspectacular who can soak up innings in a big way (or else the pen’s going to be blown out by August). In the offseason I thought they should’ve made a push for Millwood. No chance now.

MO pitched three innings but threw 25 or so pitches. Where’s the problem? It would have been dumb to lift MO after they took the lead with so few pitches having been thrown.

As for Erickson, yeah it is always Joe’s fault. But Joe never gets any credit from backbiting Yankee fans.

So much winning, so much whining.

Proctor has pitched more innings than any other reliever in baseball. The other night, Torre let Mo pitch three innings. Farnsworth had pitched three of the last four days.

Villone has a sub-2 ERA. When we talk about him not trusting people, we’re talking about him. Let this guy give Proctor a night off. And Torre always uses his three main guys in games that are somewhat close; even if it’s a five-run lead, he uses Proctor or Farnsworth (which he did in Detroit).

Most people think that it’s Torre’s fault Erickson is on this team. If that’s the case, then it’s Torre’s problem that he’s so bad he can’t be trusted.

The true test is when the bullpen shakes out. Someone is going to have to go once Dotel arrives. Erickson should be cut, and the bullpen should look like this: Mo, Farnsworth, Dotel, Proctor, Villone, Myers, Beam/Smith. Every single one of those guys can get outs (Myers can get lefties out). And yes, I’m advocating cutting Small, too.

What is this constant BS about Torre only trusting a few guys in the pen? What other teams are you watching that managers trust so many? This is pure anti-Torre garbage. You really think that the Yankee bullpen is so deep what with poor pitching depth throughout MLB?

Proctor sure looked good in his second inning. Was that Joe’s plan? LOL

I do miss the Mel bashing…..

Villone pitched yesterday and Thursday, and I think he threw a lot of pitches last night. That being said, he was probably still available.

Smith, I assume, wasn’t yet at the ballpark.

Today was Wang’s throw day, and they puposely didn’t allow him to throw in case he needed to pitch in the game. I’m ok with him being used.

I didn’t really like Proctor going 2 innings tonight, but Torre far from “made me sick” in his decisions.

I imagine that Proctor is not available tomorrow, but Farnsworth is. Any chance Small goes 7 innings? Any chance we score 15 runs so it almost doesn’t matter?

And on a completely selfish note, I am happy that the Yankees won, Johnson pitched well, and that Johnson did not get the W. I hate the idea that he might have had an 8th win while Mussina, who has pitched significantly better than him, only has 7.

With both Farns and Mo not available, Torre didn’t have much choice once Unit was over a hundred pitches and walked Roberts. We’ll have to assume Villone was out, too. So that leaves Proctor, Erickson (who had pitched the night before), Myers (who’s a one-hitter guy), and Smith (who was just called up).

It was a risk to bring in Myers to turn around Roberts, but it ended up working out. I can’t really get down on Torre for his use of the bullpen today. (Even though Torre brought in a lefty last year to turn Roberts around in the bottom of the night and on the first pitch he hit a walk-off home run.)

The Yankees have two problems, bullpen-wise. 1) Torre once again, maddeningly, only trusts a few guys. They are Mo, Proctor, Farns (he doesn’t really trust him, but he’s the setup man and will be used as such), and Myers to get out lefties. For some strange reason he doesn’t want to let Villone pitch. I think even Torre is figuring out Erickson is a hack who should be DFA. And you know Smith doesn’t have his trust yet (just as Rasner was prematurely jerked out of his only game). 2) And this is more important: the Yankees starters have to go further into the game. Everyone not named Mussina is really dragging down the bullpen. Johnson on occasion goes deep, but Wright, Wang and Small are basically five-inning guys. If they don’t start going deeper (and Wang and Wright certainly have the skills) this ‘pen is going to be exhausted in a month. I think Dotel will help out, but he won’t be the answer. Torre can’t use him too much because he’s coming back from an injury. What could help this team is bringing up T.J. Beam, who can pitch multiple innings and would rid the team of Scott Erickson’s stink. But I really don’t think it’s going to happen.

Maybe Torre will figure out Smith and Villone can pitch in close games and Proctor and Farns’ arms will get a rest.

You’re right about Villone not pitching the day before yesterday but he threw 33 pitches Friday (I’ll guess he was toast Saturday).

Smith wasn’t at the park by game time.

I could see starting the 10th with Wang but using Myers at that time made Roberts bat RH for one at bat (career-wise he’s a better LH batter) just to lessen any wear on Wang.

I don’t know where Erickson was in all this. Maybe he would have pitched if Wang gave up a run.

Until the starters get into the 7th more often it’s going to be ugly for the bullpen usage. But every team has this problem.

One (nice) problem is the team hasn’t been blown out much but that means mediocre relievers are going to see action in close games. Especially without a scheduled day off until the 12th.

I’m all for winning so I won’t complain too much but I am curious to know why Proctor was expected to get the final 5 outs when the same expectation would not be imposed upon a far better closer in Mariano Rivera. Was there no way Torre could’ve gone with a combo of Proctor, Villone, Smith, and Myers to piece together the final 5 outs? I know Villone pitched the night before (1 1/3 IP) but he hadn’t pitched in the few days before that so he should’ve been available. Also, why bring Myers in to face a righty to lead off the 10th? And if Torre’s going to go with Wang, why not just start the inning off with him since there were 4 righties in a row for the 10th inning (Roberts, Mora, Tejada, Hernandez)?

I am glad we won, I’m loving the rookies out there, it was nice to see Damon have a great game, I loved RJ’s performance, but Torre made me sick today.