Davidoff strangely mentioned Toronto in that article a few times. Yeah, they had better pitching than the Yanks hands down BUT their offense was even worse than the Yanks. Feared pitchers? Toronto had them ,but no feared pitchers. New York had no scary pitchers BUT scary hitters who became old and underperformed all at the same time. To correct last year, the Yanks have to adjust what went wrong first: the offense. But instead, they are going after CC, AJ, and Lowe.

As for Burnett, I heard Ricciardi on Evan Roberts this weekend and he intimated what I’ve been saying: that he is very comfortable in Toronto and you don’t know how AJ will pitch in NYC(I think he is soft and will crack). I wouldn’t be surprised if JP gave him the same money at 4 years, he would go back to the Bluebirds. If the Yanks go for a 5th year, they are insane. AJ will break down in the 2nd year of the contract if not the first, so be it.

Besides, Farnsworth had a 100mph fastball, and it didn’t do him much good..

The Phil Hughes consistent 94+ MPH is the Yetti of baseball my friends…
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Haha. I don’t know if I believe it myself, but I know how you (and many others) feel about Hughes velocity. And I always hate hearing what “a scout” (or two or three) say. The eyes or radar guns of such a small sample size is ridiculous.

~~Talked to three scouts who watched games in Arizona who all said Phil Hughes was throwing 94, 95 with ease. ~~

LOL. How many times have we heard that in the past? And, how many times do we end up seeing him throw 89-90-91?

The Phil Hughes consistent 94+ MPH is the Yetti of baseball my friends…

Right. We need him to last more than 5 innings.

it dont matter how fast he throws it if he walks 5 batters a game

Also, since there is no “Cooler Talk” today, and this is actually quite pertinent to this thread, I’ll borrow from LoHud:

— Talked to three scouts who watched games in Arizona who all said Phil Hughes was throwing 94, 95 with ease. Now we need to see that in spring training.

If this is true (which I’m sure Steve and others doubt), this would indeed make Phil Hughes “more intimidating.” Is this a new Phil Hughes?

What the Yankees missed most of all in 2008, you sense from talking to people around the team, is that intimidation factor one gets only from possessing a strong, deep starting rotation.
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Please. This is the same as saying you need great clubhouse chemistry. Everyone likes each other when they are winning. Teams fear facing a pitcher if he is doing well. People aren’t scared of Pedro Martinez anymore. Why? Because he isn’t good anymore; not because he lost some ‘intimidation factor.’

Would CC be intimidating? Even if he had a 5.50 era? Would IPK be intimidating if he had a 2.30 era after a few games? Do Phil Hughes glasses automatically make him not intimidating?

I believe this is why firejoemorgan was created. RIP.

The Yankees may not have had any feared pitchers in ’08 but it wasn’t as if they were just losing to the Burnetts and Lesters of the world. They couldn’t beat teams like the Royals and Pirates, who hardly had scary staffs.

There’s a FEAR metric, now?

What about a CURSED metric?

Give me a break.