Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 14, 2004
Bronx Cheer

The Yankees have to be somewhat worried about their pitching. In their last 14 games, the Yankees have allowed 22 runs to Cleveland, 14 runs to Baltimore and Monday night they allowed the KC Royals to score 17. They are 9-5 in that stretch, but if they're being hammered by the Royals, what are the playoff contenders going to do with that staff in the post season?


Posted by David Pinto at 01:17 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

"That staff," David, that you refer to from last night was comprised of Brad Halsey, Tanyon Sturtze, CJ Nitkowski, and Bret Prinz (not to mention The Run Fairy). None of them will reach the mound during the postseason.

Posted by: Dan at September 14, 2004 10:17 AM

El Duque and pray for a deluge.

Posted by: Robert at September 14, 2004 10:48 AM

Umm, Dan? If none of those pitchers will get to the mound in the postseason, who will? None of the starters can be counted on for more than five innings, and Gordon and Quantrill are both showing serious wear and tear. Rivera is a horse, but he can't pitch four innings a night.

Posted by: Katherine at September 14, 2004 10:58 AM

Umm, Katherine? I don't know what front 4 you've been watching, but besides Vasquez' last few starts, every one of the top 4 has gone at least 6. Have you seen the number of quality starts that we've gotten from Moose/Lieber/Vazquez recently? And do I even need to mention El Duque? This staff can go, and has gone, seven innings regularly. The last 3 weeks proves that.

Please don't tell me you buy into the media hype of what a terrible rotation the Yanks have. While it's easy to focus on the exceptions, that's what they've been: exceptions.

(gordon has also not shown "serious wear and tear." he had a bad stretch for a few games, but has recovered nicely. quantrill, on the other hand, can thank torre for his amputation this fall.)

Posted by: Dan at September 14, 2004 12:07 PM

Dan --

Could you tell me against whom those quality starts have come? You can't possibly tell me that you feel good about Mike Mussina's corpse pitching in the postseason.

Posted by: Josh at September 14, 2004 12:47 PM

To Dan:

It seems unfair to gang up on a Yankee fan who is so clearly unused to defending a terrible staff. But here it goes. BP, hardly unthinking Red Sox partisans (see Joe Sheehan's evisceration of the Nomar trade), makes it pretty clear that this Yankee rotation is awful by historical Yankee standards:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=3458

El Duque and Pray for Rain? As a Sox fan, I'd take that, especially since Hernandez is older than my grandpappy and was throwing 82 mph fastball as little as 6 months ago.

Dan, if you could be honest with yourself, let alone with us, wouldn't you feel better with the Red Sox's front 3 than yours right now?

Posted by: Josh F. at September 14, 2004 01:55 PM

First of all, I am being honest with myself, and you.

Second of all, I read the BP article already, and feel its more apt to point out that this rotation's ERA compares with those of the 1996 and 2000 teams. Which goes against my statement that I'm not that worried about this rotation, but supports a separate argument that I always get in: the Yankees starting pitching did not win them their championships.

back to the actual argument here: yes, I'd feel more comfortable with the Sox starting three (regardless of who you count as your #3 at this point), because I only have total faith in our top 2 (duque and moose). This, however, is not my point, nor was it my point when I made my original comment. I'm not saying that the Yankees rotation is better than the Sox (although, in a short series where depth of staff does not matter as much, I think our rotation, especially if Brown can come back, compares favorably to any other AL postseason-bound team).

My point is that this rotation is not the albatross that some (the posters here, the entire NY press) make it out to be.

Your comment that you don't care about El Duque because he was throwing 82 six months ago is probably the least relevant thing I've ever read. How about his sub-3 ERA in the last six months since HE FINISHED REHAB, which is when you are taking your information from.

By your logic, Johan Santana doesn't look like he's going to have a very good year, and Nomar's going to carry the Sox through September.

Posted by: Dan at September 14, 2004 02:52 PM

"El Duque and Pray for Rain? As a Sox fan, I'd take that, especially since Hernandez is older than my grandpappy and was throwing 82 mph fastball as little as 6 months ago."

He was throwing around 90 as little as three days ago.

Posted by: Larry Mahnken at September 14, 2004 05:18 PM