Also, sorry for the sloppily written post. Too much going through my head and into the keyboard during that one!

One thing that people seem to forget about the old Pedro argument is that Pedro’s performace would always be matched by good starting pitching on the Yankees’ end. The way they would beat him is scratch and claw for a few runs while their end of the starting pitching held their end of the bargain, he’d get it to Mo, and that would be it. Sure, they started pummeling him towards the end, but I don’t think that was until after the Grady Little “incident”.

Also, a lot of the games that the Yankees have lost (I don’t have the numbers because I’m illiterate at this stuff) they have held the lead in. The pitching has just not held it. That is the concern going into October. Other than some games where you just about pull your hair out due to stranded runners, I feel good about the offense.

In my opinion the key is keeping Proctor, Villone, and Mo fresh enough to make the games into 6-inning affairs, so to speak. Farnsworth is going to be a crap shoot, rested or not. And if that doesn’t work out, I think the key is going to be somebody surprising us, whether it be Bruney or someone like that.

I guess as far as Villone goes, I don’t expect him to be a hammer, but maybe a guy who can take the ball in the 5th or 6th if the starter folds and play the Mendoza role by keeping it close.

I’m too busy and lazy to look it up right now, but I believe we knocked Halladay around once this year. We also got to Schilling at least twice. Roughed up Kazmir a bit. And we pretty much own Barry Zito (though I personally don’t consider him a good pitcher).

Steve, that seems almost impossible to measure. It’s like a chicken-egg argument. The pitcher could have his stuff in the early innings but the Yanks might really be on point during that time as well. The pitcher adjusts, trying to throw more strikes to counter the Yanks’ ability to draw walks, and, in turn, he loses his stuff by the third inning. Don;t the Yanks have Zito’s number this year. You could argue he hasn’t pitched with his best stuff against them, but it seems like too much of a coincidence that he tends to have good stuff against other teams and not the Yanks. Didn’t the Yanks score 4 runs off of Johan “Best Pitcher in Baseball” Santana earlier this season? I guess he didn’t have his best stuff because when he does, no one scores anything against him. But that seems unfair to the Yanks then.

oops, i just checked b/c i thought something was strange about andy phillips hitting a near opposite field homer off of him…Johan was struggling b/c of the wbc

Steve,

the game against the twins in which Mariano got cheated on a pitch to luis castillo, then struck rondell white and someone else out with 2nd and 3rd and 0 out…& then got screwed anyway b/c of a turf hit that robbie couldnt keep in front of him for only one run….we had Johan beaten that day and i think missed a runner on 3rd less than 2 out opportunity against him and also andy phillips either missed an opposite field shot or hunter robbed him.

I would say it’s on a given day thing – like, when Schilling is on, do the Yankees fold up and die, or, do they still manage to get three or four runs?

Certain teams, again, it just seems, find a way to beat the great pitcher when he has his good stuff – like the Yankees used to do with Pedro.

Has this Yankees team beat many great pitchers this year when they had their good stuff? I don’t remember any.

How is “good pitching” defined, anyway? Is it strictly on this year’s numbers? On his career? On how he’s pitched over the last few years? The pitcher’s stuff? His potential? What sort of groove he’s been in? How he’s done against them in the past?

Outside of looking at this year’s ERA, “good pitching” is pretty subjective.

Rich – here’s the deal.

There are studies out there that prove that good hitting beats good pitching as much as good pitching beats good hitting.

Now, I can’t tell you that they Yankees beat good pitching as much as the next team, but, it doesn’t seem like they do.

Every decent team beats bad pitching and has difficulty against good pitching. I don’t know why you seem to think it’s unique to the Yankees.