It was going to be a problem if Contreras couldn’t pitch against the Sox, but you have to wonder, just looking at the numbers, and considering what they got back, if they gave up on him too soon. The perception was “oh, thank God, he’s gone — they got someone to take him.”
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I wasn’t happy to see him go, but I understood why he was dealt. Wasn’t too thrilled with getting Loaiza back; why swap one project with another? I was a bit suprised that they didn’t pay more attention to Loaiza (even though he didn’t show much) after the season, I would rather have had him than Wright (IIRC their similarity scores were quite similar at the time).

“Hey now, this is a family forum. And isn’t it a little early?”
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Why did I not see that coming?

It’s interesting to go back and look at Contreras’ gamelog while he was with the Yanks. Once they let him start in ’03, he was dominant. Outside of one bad start against the Sox (who killed him when he was with the Yankees) he was terrific. The next year, he was really inconsistent. Occasionally good — rarely great — and often terrible.

Looking at the numbers, it does look like Contreras “melted down” when things went bad. If he got hit hard early, he totally imploded.

I think his two back-to-back games against the Mets sum up his ’04 season: in the first, he threw six scoreless innings and struck out ten (and I remember he only left because his finger cramped) and in the second he got bombed for seven runs (three home runs) in five innings.

It was going to be a problem if Contreras couldn’t pitch against the Sox, but you have to wonder, just looking at the numbers, and considering what they got back, if they gave up on him too soon. The perception was “oh, thank God, he’s gone — they got someone to take him.” But in reality, if someone in this organization could actually help a pitcher with his mechanics — where was that other Contreras, Nardi, when we needed him? — he might have had that monster ’05 for us, and saved us the sight of the scrubs who made appearances here that year.

Yeah, I agree Raf. But ARod has shown us that some players do let it get in there heads. Who knows if that’s what happened with those other guys.

I also recall the big issue with Contreras being that he was without his family, and once he was reunited, he started pitching much better.

I wasn’t clear about Contreras’ stats; they were for his time in NY. Apologies for the misconfusion. But you are right about the run he put together. Matter of fact, it was mentioned that going into last night that he was working on a scoreless inning streak (15, IIRC)

As for the “difficulty of playing for/in NY,” it’s a myth, probably perpetuated by the media. You either have game or you don’t. If you can play you can play anywhere. The opposite is also true. For instance, take a look at Jeff Weaver. He stunk as a Yank, an Angel, a Cardinal, and currently as a Mariner. I haven’t heard anything about his failures due to the “pressures” of pitching in SoCal, or the Pacific Northwest.

“Wang made me happy today.”

Hey now, this is a family forum. And isn’t it a little early?

“Contreras had one good year splitting between the rotation & the pen, and one bad 1/2 year as a starter”

I seem to recall a stretch for Contreras that spanned the end of 05 (from August or so) to the beginning of 06 where he was the best pitcher in baseball (ERA, Wins, WHIP, average innings/start). I don’t have the stats in front of me, but it’s still frustrating.

“IIRC, Rogers, Contreras, Vazquez, Weaver all pitched better @ home than on the road”

Way to miss the point. Stage = playing for the New York Yankees. Stage <> (necessarily) playing for the Yankees in Yankee Stadium. Thought that was obvious.

Wang made me happy today. Farnsworth still made me nervous–especially with the walks. Mo made me a bit nervous too, but once I saw the shards of flying bat, I knew it’ll all be fine soon.

I have an intense, almost unreasonable, disliking of Kenny Rogers. And then that whole pine tar thing just makes me all kinds of angry.

Perhaps it just proves one thing for these pitchers we love to beat – we sometimes underestimate the pressure of playing on our stage.
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IIRC, Rogers, Contreras, Vazquez, Weaver all pitched better @ home than on the road

Weaver just happened to get hot at the right time; he stunk while with the Cardinals. Even though he was tagged with the loss in 03, he had pitched well the inning prior. The inability of Boone & Flaherty to plate a runner was just as bad.

Contreras had one good year splitting between the rotation & the pen, and one bad 1/2 year as a starter.

Rogers’ first year in NY was in line with his career, his second wasn’t.