Wedge sticks to his plan
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Oct 08, 2007 
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Admirable move by Eric Wedge, sticking with Paul Byrd to start Game 4 tonight instead of bringing C.C. Sabathia back on three days’ rest.
The numbers suggest that Byrd will have trouble with the Yankees. But bringing Sabathia back would suggest panic and send a bad message to his team.
Plus Wedge knows that the worst-case scenario is having Sabathia on the mound at Jacobs Field on Wednesday with Fausto Carmona in reserve.
Wedge also saved his two set-up guys tonight. If the Yankees are to win this series, they will need their offense to build on Game 3.
Wedge is bluffing. You watch, tomorrow you will hear some sort of “Breaking News Paul Byrd has a stiff neck, sore back, etc”.
No way they start Paul f’n Byrd at Yankee Stadium tomorrow, No way! We bring Wang back on short rest, they bring back CC Sabathia.
Wouldn’t be panick in my mind, matching aces and preventing an elimination game 5 for CLE would be ideal methinks.
If Byrd does indeed start, we need to be up by 5 or more by the time he exits.
Also if Wang can only go 5 or 6 and we have a lead, I think we will probably see Mussina coming out of the pen like he did in game 7 of ’03.
If the Yankees can’t put a load of hurtin’ on Paul Byrd and his mediocre pitches, then they deserve to join the Mets on the golf course.
I believe there is such a thing as a “no panic” panic move – by attempting to show a steely confidence and resolve, they may in fact undermine themselves the way Torre has by sticking with Moose, Clemens and Kevin Brown in previous years.
Now to completely contradict myself – why did we see Mo in the 9th when we could have reserved him for 2 innings tomorrow if needed? No Viz? Farnsworth? Veras?
They will start Bird tomorrow. It would be different if the Tribe was down 2-1 instead of up 2-1.
Agree with Pete on this one. It will be Bird on a relatively short leash.
We all thought Leyland and the Tigers were nuts last season when they started Kenny Rogers against the Yanks and we know how that turned out.
Eric Wedge will rue starting Paul Byrd in Game 4. If he’s smart, he’ll go for the kill with Sabathia and pitch Carmona in Game 5 (ala the D-Backs with Johnson and Schilling in 2001 and Beckett for the Marlins in 2003). The only message Wedge will send to his players is that he’s starting his two best pitchers and giving his team the best chance to advance. As a Yankee fan, I welcome Wedge’s decision, but I won’t believe Byrd is pitching until I see the Kelsey Grammer lookalike take the mound.
I agree. It is a stupid move by Wedge. Why put your whole season in one basket of Sabathia, when you can have it in two baskets of Sabathia AND Carmona??? Makes no sense…
I wonder if TBS will stick to their plan to seemingly give us a close-up shot of Wedge in between every pitch thrown…
NJ :
The Mussina of ’03 and ’07 is not the same. His value would come in eating an inning or two if the Yankees hold a sizeable lead in order to save the bullpen arms needed for a return trip to Cleveland.
i dont know if would bring c.c. in on 3 days rest . even if the yanks win game 4 vs byrd . that leaves c.c. on normal days rest for game 5 at home . this is crucial .
one game at a time for the yanks .
i think moose will back up wang tonight if need be .
i think torre went with joba for 2 innings and mo for one with a 5 run lead is because the yanks are on the brink of elimination . he pulled out all the stops . thats why clemens was on such a short leach . so mo can still close out the ninth and maybe an out or two in the eighth. other than joba its all hands on deck .
If Wedge is going to lose, wouldn’t you rather lose going with your two best?
You can bet the ranch that Joba will pitch tonight for one inning if they need him. Tonight is a must win game too just like last night.
In a perfect world, the Yanks can bomb away on Bird and Wang gives them 6 innings. It might be a stretch for him to throw 7 innings on short rest.
Too funny that you use the word “admirable”…I am sure that the CLE fans will call it “admirable” after Byrd gets the snot kicked out of him, CLE burns out their bullpen and Andy on the road outduels CC and CLE loses 3 straight to the Yankees to get bounced out of the playoffs. That’s probably the chant you’ll hear in CLE after the last out is recorded : ADMIRABLE,,,ADMIRABLE….ADMIRABLE !!! Really Very funny, Pete….you make me laugh !
I said this in the other topic last night, I would not be surprised if CC starts tonight. Wedge would be making a big mistake otherwise.
I’m inclined to disagree with Peter’s post. Wedge has the choice of either CC or Fausto on full rest in game 5. If I’m Wedge, I see little reason to strongly prefer Sabathia for that game. If anything, based on the small sample size of this series, he’d have to prefer Fausto, who dominated the Yanks, rather than CC, who struggled. If CC were far better than Carmona over the course of the season, I’d be inclined to ignore what happens to have gone down in games 1 & 2 in making the decision (because the sample size is so small), but he wasn’t — Carmona will be top-5 in the Cy Young voting too. So the CC/Carmona choice for game 5 seems to me to be a push at best and maybe there’s reason to slightly prefer Carmona.
If he’s content (as he should be) to pencil in Carmona for Game 5, then the question is: CC on 3-days rest or Byrd on full rest in game 4? Because of the Yankee hitters’ plate discipline, they tend to hit pitchers with less than stellar stuff very well, so Byrd seems like a poor choice. There’s reason to expect the Yankee hitter to force him to throw the ball over the plate and for them to handle the pitches (again, he lacks the velocity and the movement to dominate like CC and Fausto).
I don’t believe in this “message sending” approach. The message Wedge should be sending is that, in the playoffs, you pull out all the stops to win. Sending out a Cy Young candidate on 3 dats rest rather than a mediocre journeyman doesn’t suggest panic; it’s just plain logical. Again, this is especially so given thatburning CC in game $ doesn’t mean turning to a chump in Game 5, but to a pitcher who had a fantastic season and dominated the Yankees on Friday night. In short, I find Wedge’s decision mystifying.
Mark, while I agree with you we really dont have any other options if Wang cant go that deep into the game.
With all the use Joba and Mo have gotten in the last two games, the offense is going to have to pick up the bullpen tonight. They can’t press, but they need to be patient with Byrd and hit his very hittable pitches.
Put up another eight spot and Torre can have the cushion to use a Farnsworth or Veras to eat a few innings and give Joba and Mo some much needed rest in advance of Game 5.
We all found out in Games 1 and 2 that it is indeed pitching and defense that wins in October. But tonight the Yankees need to win with a lot of offense. A LOT of offense.