The Lucky Lefty
Posted by Steve L. on December 1st, 2009 · Comments (5)
Playing around with Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Season Finder, I asked it to show me LHP who have pitched at least 10 games in a season for the Steinbrenner Yankees and who, to put it simply, really stunk in that season in question. Here are the results of that query:
It’s pretty interesting to see Graeme Lloyd in 1996 and Damaso Marte in 2009 on this list – considering what big parts they played for the Yankees in the World Series those years.
I mean really…Damaso Marte. Who thought, based on the way he pitched this season, that he would have been so “key” for the Yankees in their quest for a ring this post-season? And, if they did think it, what were they sniffing?
This list doesn’t even include the epic failures known as Felix Heredia, Sean Henn, Alex Graman, Alan Embree, Wayne Franklin, Stanton V.2, Donovan Osborne, Gabe White, Brad Halsey, C.J. Nitkowski, Jesse Orosco, Randy Keisler etc.
My point: the Yanks should stop getting guys just because they are south paws.
Perhaps there is another lesson here: beware of small sample sizes. Marte pitched very little in 09, and at the start of the year he was injured. His career track record suggested that, if healthy, he would be an effective relief pitcher. Once he rounded into shape (including more use in the post-season), that is exactly what he demonstrated.
IMO Girardi probably *really* wanted to take Bruney instead of Marte, but Bruney made that decision easy for him during the last few weeks of the season…
Marte’s performance this postseason definitely shot me back to Lloyd in ’96. It was nerve-wracking to live through for sure, but one of those little things about the whole championship run that makes you smile when you look back on it…
Scout wrote:
Bingo.