The Wrong Kind Of Cowboy Up?
How bad has the Yankees pitching been over the first five games of this season? To the Complete Baseball Encyclopedia! See the following:
The numbers tell the story. Too many baserunners.
At first, I wondered how much the Yankees defense, or lack thereof, had a hand in this? Via the stats at Baseball Prospectus, we can look at New York’s Defensive Efficiency.
Actually, the Yankees fielding, on the whole, has been about league average – not great, but, not terrible.
This tells me the following: The Yankees pitchers need to pitch better, or, the Yankees defense needs to go from being average to being stellar in order to help out their below average pitchers. If neither happens, the 2007 Yankees will start looking more and more like the 2001-2003 Texas Rangers before you know it.
Sigh. Give me an effin’ break. The Rangers never had an Andy Pettitte or a Wang or a Mussina on their staff. You’ve already given up on these guys? If you don’t want to believe in Pavano and Igawa, that’s fine. But you don’t think Pettitte will pitch better? You don’t think Wang will come back and give the Yankees strong games? He’ll be back in two weeks. I’m sure all the hacks in the New York papers have their “savior” stories already written.
I think Moose, Pettitte and Wang will be fine. And you almost get the feel that Pavano could be the Randy Johnson of 2007 — not especially effective, but stays in the game long enough for the offense to get him a bunch of wins. Pavano might actually get 18 wins again — albeit with a 4.50 ERA.
And I know this is waaaaay off-topic, but Brad Lidge is simply a mental wreck in Houston. The fans want him gone and he is blowing up on a nightly basis. This guy has truly fallen to the lowest depths. The talk now is that he’s heading back to the minors.
No one can figure out why Lidge can’t get anyone out now. He still throws hard as hell, and his numbers from last year were still exceptional (he struck out over 100 men). I wonder if the Yankees have anything they don’t need in their system that they would give up for him. You have to imagine that if you could straighten out his problems and get him to throw his slider for strikes again, he could be a truly dangerous weapon to have.
Anyway, if the Astros are selling low, I hope the Yanks pounce.
Lidge is the new Mark Wohlers. Of course, the Yankees will trade for him.
~~~I think Moose, Pettitte and Wang will be fine.~~~
I hope so too. Then again, they might be lucky to win 35 games between the three of them. We won’t know until we do.
I’m just going to ascribe it older pitchers moving from warm sunny Florida to cold snowy NY.
Jesus. I hate when I write a long comment and it doesn’t go through. Well, I don’t have the energy to write all that shit again, but the bottom line is that even in a year where he was supposed to be so mentally damaged he couldn’t pitch, Lidge struck out 104 in 75 innings. He walked too many, gave up 10 home runs, and his ERA bloated because he had some really bad outings. But anyone who can strike out 104 in 75 innings — even if it’s the NL — still has talent. He’s only 30. He’s not done yet. Lidge, as far as I’m concerned, is a low-risk/high-reward guy, and I’m sure Boston, Cleveland, Tampa, Florida and a bunch of other teams think so, too.
What would be the risk of sending him to SWB to work with Dave Eiland?
If he’s cheap, why not? On this team, he’s pitching the sixth or seventh inning.
If anything, Lidge has been overworked — he’s thrown 324 innings in the last four years out of the ‘pen. That’s actually more than Mo, who is as abused as much as any closer is (even at his age).
Wohlers was overrated — he could strike people out with that fastball, but he was hittable, and he walked people. He had one really good year in 1995, but otherwise he wasn’t great — his ERA was 3.03 in 1996.
If you look at his numbers in the years after he gave up that home run, they aren’t that bad. He just couldn’t strike guys out anymore (which probably had more to do with the surgery he had in ’99 and less to do with a home run he gave up).
~~~Jesus. I hate when I write a long comment and it doesn’t go through. ~~~
FWIW, when I do a long one, just in case, I do right-click, select all, and then, right-click, copy, before I hit POST – just in case TypeKey wants to be cranky.
Check out the H/IP rates for Lidge from 2004 to 2007. The simple matter is, despite his MPH readings and K-rates, batters are hitting him more and more. That makes me think that either his fastball is getting straighter or his secondary pitch has lost its bite. Maybe both? Sounds just like Wohlers to me.
I didn’t think Steve was giving up on anyone, just merely pointing out how bad things have been and stating the obvious that they need to pitch better.
I agree that if the Yanks don’t figure it out, then the potential exists that they will be more like those Ranger teams than a team with a chance to go to the playoffs and win the world series.
It is disgusting to watch the Yanks be down constantly and having to rally to win the games. They need to be better and figure it out or else we are all f’ed.
~~~I didn’t think Steve was giving up on anyone, just merely pointing out how bad things have been and stating the obvious that they need to pitch better.~~~
Exact-a-mundo.
Let’s not overreact too much, didn’t the yankees start 1-3 in 1998? The fact is Mussina and Pettite are older pitchers, and it was 30 degrees in yankee stadium. A healthy Wang is a must of course, and there are questions at the back of the rotation, but this is still a 90 plus win team, for sure. 5 games people–c’mon. And to be positive, the bullpen has looked really good.
That’s fine, but I repeat: it’s week one. No starter has had more than one start. You cannot judge a baseball team early, and you cannot judge a starter on one start. If we’re here in two months and this has continued, then fine — but I’m not going to take one start over the track records of Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina.
With Wohlers, it was that he stopped striking people out. He could no longer get around putting all those men on base by striking his way out of an inning.
Again, I don’t want Lidge pitching in the Bronx right now. But I would certainly take him on as an experiment. I don’t follow the Astros closely enough to know what they need on the offensive side of the ball right now, but you wouldn’t be willing to give up something for Lidge? I would. I’m not saying trade Eric Duncan for him or anything.
Sometimes someone just isn’t good anymore (like Ponson). But sometimes a guy is hurt, overworked, in the wrong place, etc. (like Bruney).
Bruney was back in the minors and now he’s a big part of our bullpen. Lidge is much more accomplished than him.
With his stuff, it’s hard to believe Lidge can’t be exactly what Farnsworth and Bruney are: hard throwers who walk a lot of people and strike out a lot of people. I just don’t buy that he’s mentally out of it and can’t pitch anymore. A lighter workload, a new environment and getting out of that bandbox will do wonders for this guy.
I think the Yanks pitching right now is a factor of not enough Spring training outings. Every pitcher is adjusting to something right now except Rasner. Igawa only had a couple starts to get used to a new ball and to pitching in the AL, Pettite missed some spring training starts so he didnt get to fully work on his stuff. Mussina is still trying to get his velocity up. I think the pitchers will be fine. We probably wont have any Cy Young winners but they should all be able to post a 4-5 ERA on the season
FWIW, if all the conditions were against the Yankees pitchers, explain Myers and Henn.
For the most part I agree with Kyle in that what we’re looking at is a league average pitching staff, which should be plenty considering our offense. Of course, if that’s the case, we’ll also have issues during the playoffs, per usual, without a dominant power pitcher to give us two games in a short series. And, no, I don’t expect Phil Hughes to be our October savior – at least not this year.
Also, I just cannot shake this feeling that Mussina might be cooked, though I’ve been wrong about him before.
Sheesh! Such angst after five (5) games. This is still a 162 game season, no? And lots of ups & downs always accompany a season.
Some need to step away, after just five games? That is amazing.