April 23rd @ The Devil Rays

Kei Igawa. The Yankees needed him to provide innings tonight. He gave them four-and-a-third. To quote a line from “The Natural” -

Another brilliant find from our scouting system. Geniuses.

It’s time to start thinking about sending the “Skinny Pussy Iguana” down to Scranton. I would even consider doing it to make room for Worm Killer Wang tomorrow.

April 23, 2007 | Filed Under Game Commentary 04/07

Comments

8 Responses to “April 23rd @ The Devil Rays”

brockdc on April 24th, 2007 12:18 am

Dammit. Either I’m clairvoyant or Joe Torre is the most annoyingly predictable human being on the planet.
baileywalk on April 24th, 2007 1:16 am

I’m done with Torre. I seriously hate this guy. Is he brain-dead or just shockingly stubborn?

Are you telling me Igawa can’t finish the fifth? That Bean can’t finish the sixth? That Myers, with the bullpen exhausted, should only be used as a situational lefty?

I always disliked Torre as a manager but not as a man, but now I dislike him as a man too. Yesterday he laughed during an interview about Chase Wright giving up four homers in a row (a shocking lack of sensitivity, considering Wright’s age and inexperience) and then today his reaction to Bruney — who has given everything he can to this team, pitching almost daily and for multiple innings — made me sick. Bruney has been completely abused, had a sub-1 ERA coming into the game (meaning he was getting the job done), but he gives up a few hits in his SECOND inning of work and Torre gives him the cold shoulder and takes the ball from him like he’s disgusted to know the guy. Unbelievable.

And at what point does Torre wake up about Vizcaino? Are we looking at another Sturtze situation? Where Torre is blind to a player’s performance because of the vaunted “trust”? Vizcaino isn’t that good — take a look at his numbers while in the AL. He throws way too many sliders and his stuff already looks very hittable. He started the season off well, and for Torre that seems to be all that matters.

And at what point does Farnsworth leave the doghouse? He’s there — just use him. It can’t be worse than abusing Bruney, Proctor and Vizcaino more.

Obviously the ‘pen is getting burned because the starters haven’t been good, but Torre contributes to that. Even if they have to take it on the chin on occasion, let these guys pitch.

I’m to the point with Torre that I don’t even want to watch the team anymore. He annoys me that much.

Seeing him laugh at Chase Wright was the final straw. If he’s not gone next year, I don’t think I can handle watching him bungle his way through the season. He’s never accountable, always pushes blame elsewhere, and has to be one of the most arrogant people in the game. Enough of Joe Torre.
Joel on April 24th, 2007 7:53 am

You guys can blame Torre all you want, but the fact is the Yankees can’t pitch. The Igawa signing–for $46 million including the posting–was a joke. After the Yanks signed Igawa, Mike and the Mad Dog asked Orestes Destrade, who knows the Japanese game, whom he would compare Igawa to. Destrade said “Kaz Ishii.”

When Mike and the Mad Dog asked Cashman about $46 million for “Kaz Ishii,” Cashman said something to the effect of “I thought Destrade really liked Igawa,” and then rationalized the deal as not being that expensive because posting money doesn’t count toward the luxury tax.

In comparison, Ted Lilly, who has New York experience and won 15 games in the AL East last year could have been had for $38-40 million to be a competent back end of the rotation guy.

Right now, Joe Torre has to manage a quadruple A pitching staff in an arena baseball division. He didn’t bring in these guys. Cut him some slack.
JJay on April 24th, 2007 8:28 am

This Igawa signing is really starting to bother me.

I think I may have given the Yankees the benefit of the doubt at first. I would have thought they’d be smart enough to scout this guy and to really put some time into making the righ decision. Now, I get the feeling that the Sox won the right to Matsuzaka and the Yankees felt the had to do SOMETHING and went out and got what they THOUGHT was the next best thing.

Please - someone give me Roger’s number. I’LL text him.

And no, I don’t think Clemens is a #1 or anything like that in the AL East. But if he can go 7 innings and allow 4 ER’s… it’s worth it.
JeremyM on April 24th, 2007 10:16 am

The Myers situation was ridiculous. Earlier in the year, he pitched pretty effectively in longer stints, and was pretty effective against right-handers after Guidry told him to keep dropping down against them (small sample size, sure, but still). So he throws two pitches last night and he’s done, when the pen is fried? I don’t know that the game turns out differently, but it couldn’t have hurt.

Boy, I’d sure take Lilly over Igawa right now. What a horrible signing. In fact, I’d take Irabu over him.

Mo looked good, so at least there’s that.
JohnnyC on April 24th, 2007 11:47 am

Bailey, I feel you.
brockdc on April 24th, 2007 1:09 pm

Joel,

I agree that this rotation was ill-conceived. It was seemingly constructed this off-season with the following assumptions:

A. Everyone - including Pavano and Mussina - will remain relatively healthy and effective throughout
B. Wang and Mussina will perform comparably to ‘06
C. Kei Igawa would be a back-of-the-rotation steal
D. If injuries to the rotation occur, their stable of Right Handed Power ArmsTM would come to the rescue.

So that’s on Cashman. Not the Tampa people, not George. Cashman. But that doesn’t mean Torre hasn’t been guilty of his falling into his usual patterns of over-managing the bullpen and mismanaging on-field strategy. It is more glaring than ever because there is less room for managerial error than in years past.
Joel on April 24th, 2007 4:14 pm

So the WasWatching blog team has Joe gone after 18 games. You guys make the Boss look patient. Look, maybe here and there he should have stayed a little longer with a particular pitcher. But come on! The starting pitching has been awful outside of Petitte. This pitching staff would make Joe McCarthy look like a schmuck.