A few numbers of note
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Aug 19, 2009 
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A few statistics that are curious and/or interesting:
• Alex Rodriguez averaged a home run every 11.15 at-bats from May 8 to July 19. He has averaged a home run every 49.5 at-bats since. He has two home runs in the last month. But as his power goes down, Alex’s batting average is going up. He is hitting .298 in his last 46 games.
• Phil Hughes has thrown only 5.2 innings this month. If he’s going to pitch in the bullpen, shouldn’t they actually use him?
• Per Tyler Kepner, Dave Robertson has the best strikeout ratio in the American League (minimum of 30 innings). He is averaging 13.1 per nine innings.
• The Yankees have spent the last 30 days in first place.
hope A-rod is okay and can continue to keep up the rest of the season and hopefully the playoffs.
I’m sure Phil will be used tonight…
Grr @ Phil’s Uuuusseee.
What’s Dave Robertson’s walks like?
The most important stat is 75-45.
Wow, 30 days in 1st place, I didn’t realize it had been so long!
Would rather Arod hit the other way and drive balls in the gap. He had good at bats last night, working the count and getting on. When he is trying to hit homers he guesses way too often and tries to pull. A nice mix when appropriate. He does need to get rest now though especially with the cushion of a lead.
Hughes is not getting enough innings and should be left in for four outs for some of these games. His pitch counts have been elivated though in the short spurts.
Gaudin big start for him tonight, back to Oakland. Jays have Halladay going. Let’s see if we can’t pick up another game tonight. Amazing where we have gone. If the Yankees head to Boston with an 8 game lead, even a sweep doesn’t get them all that close.
the lack of power maybe due to not being able to draw as much strength from his lower half because of the hip. Hopefully he’ll be back to normal next season. And luckily our lineup is good enough this year to make up for his lack of power.
“Phil Hughes has thrown only 5.2 innings this month. If he’s going to pitch in the bullpen, shouldn’t they actually use him?”
He was warming up last night. Then sat down when Mo got up. (why why why)
Is there a website that keeps track of how many times a pitcher warms up but doesn’t get in the game? That would be interesting.
kate,
Time flies doesn’t it! Actually it drags because people still complain about the Yankees!
Broxton leads all of MLB w/ 13.42 for the K / 9 ratio with Robertson 2nd at 13.25 (per ESPN.com). Soriano is 3rd, Nathan 5th. It’s an impressive stat for Robertson.
per tyler kepner? what, he’s the gatekeeper of k/9 stats around here?
m-
hard to believe there is anything to complain about.
This is such an enjoyable team on so many levels.
Funny, with the Yankees in the lead – record wise, all I hear on the radio and tv is about how salaries need to be capped and that despite there being parity, with a lot of different teams winning the WS over this decade, it needs to be fixed.
Why? It wasn’t the main subject of conversation when the Red Sox won their two championships.
Know who gets the most upset over the salaries? The mediots.
It’s really been 30 days?
upstate kate
August 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Wow, 30 days in 1st place, I didn’t realize it had been so long!
****
Wow, time flies when you are having fun
On a side note, when GTLU started- the Yanks were 2 games out of first. Now we have been in first place for 30 days. Maybe GTLU is what propelled the Yankees to awesomeness
If we head into the Sox series with an 8-game lead, and take, say, 2 of 3, we’d be 10 games up and the Yankees can put playoff tickets up for sale, methinks.
I’m glad Hughes hasn’t pitched a lot this month. He’s getting somewhat of a break. I thought he’d pitched too much before that.
Shouldn’t Kay know who’s starting Friday for the Yankees? He thinks Mitre is starting.
Erica-
I think GTLU has inspired Girardi to be more creative w/ his line ups, in the hopes of being the top dog
On ESPN this AM, the top baseball story was the AL wild card race, I think they don’t expect the Yankees to relinquish the East.
Dang Joe Mauer is freaking amazing. He has an outside shot at .400 this year.
just playing around on fangraphs. Yankees are the only team in the AL with 3 relief pitchers whose K/9 is over 10 (over 30 IP)
upstate kate
August 19th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Erica-
I think GTLU has inspired Girardi to be more creative w/ his line ups, in the hopes of being the top dog
*****
That is the only logical explanation! LOL
“Phil Hughes has thrown only 5.2 innings this month. If he’s going to pitch in the bullpen, shouldn’t they actually use him?”
Hughes has been an important piece to the pen’s revitalization.
But his actual impact on games is, unfortunately, much, much less than is frequently perceived.
And that’s not on Hughes. The bottom line is that he just doesn’t pitch much at all.
If you don’t get into the game you can’t tangibly impact it to any significant way.
But there’s this die hard belief that the 8th inning is the spectacularly important and excruciatingly difficult to pitch so a disproportionate amount of credit for the revitalization of the pen is given to “stabilizing the set up role, etc.”
The pen is better now primarily because the starters given them length.
The team just doesn’t use that pen all that much right now. That’s the main reason why the pen is so much better.
Otherwise it’s really been the emergence of depth – rather than Hughes alone – that’s bee the major factor in turning around the pen. Aceves, Robertson. Bruney and Coke doing better.
Hughes has pitched brilliantly. But his role is so narrowly defined that there’s just not much of an opportunity for that brilliance to be used.
That 4 game sweep against the sox – Hughes threw 2/3 of an inning.
In 2007 Joba was arguably the teams best pitcher besides Mo on the post season roster. He threw 3 innings that entire series.
The impact of the bull pen on games is enormously over rated. It’s important but not nearly as important as it’s perceived to be.
and also 3 different relievers with a K/BB ratio over 4
Hughes hasn’t pitched a lot because earlier in the month, he had a few outings where he threw 25+ pitches in one inning, so Joe had to give him extra rest. There were also those two games against Boston where he only got 1/3 of an inning before Girardi went to Mo, so that kept his inning totals down, even though he still made his appearences.
is tonight another 10pm game (east coast)?
Erica – always OPPC
August 19th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
upstate kate
August 19th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Wow, 30 days in 1st place, I didn’t realize it had been so long!
****
Wow, time flies when you are having fun
On a side note, when GTLU started- the Yanks were 2 games out of first. Now we have been in first place for 30 days. Maybe GTLU is what propelled the Yankees to awesomeness
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Does that mean first place goes when the game stops? I don’t know – seems pretty risky to me
Hokiehill –
My office Yankee calendar says 10:05 pm EDT start time…yuck
M-
Absolutely loved the Posnanski’s article on Derek. Normally, I do not read him but will put his blog on my short list.
ty
“The impact of the bull pen on games is enormously over rated. It’s important but not nearly as important as it’s perceived to be.”
It’s also less important because of the quality of starting pitching and offense that the Yankees have.
A team like the SF Giant would rely much more on their bullpen than the Yankees do.
The best way to ensure solid bullpen work is by not overexposing it. CB knows his stuff it seems.
The notion that the eighth inning is somehow more important than any of the other innings is a bit preposterous. If your starter is your eighth inning guy three times a week, that’s a pretty good setup right there.
MGUMPHER August 19th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Funny, with the Yankees in the lead – record wise, all I hear on the radio and tv is about how salaries need to be capped and that despite there being parity, with a lot of different teams winning the WS over this decade, it needs to be fixed.
Why? It wasn’t the main subject of conversation when the Red Sox won their two championships.
==========================================================
In the 6 division era there have been 90 division winners. Of these 33 have been teams from the 10 teams in the largest markets (11 were the Yankees) but 24 division winners were from the 10 smallest markets.
Well run small market teams succeed, Cleveland & St Louis have won 13 division titles between them over this period; poorly run large market teams fail, Baltimore & the Mets have won 0 division titles between them over this period.
Rishi-
I hope not. But I am considering maybe doing a special season of GTLU Playoff Edition, after I end the regular season on 8/31.
It depends on my workload and my schedule (and when the games are actually scheduled). I would hate to jinx the playoffs by not doing GTLU
CB, I agree with everything you said; the better and deeper the starting pitching is, the easier it will be for the bullpen to perform and look good.
But it helps a lot too when quality arms take over in the pen and push out weak links like Edwar and Alby and Veras.
“It’s also less important because of the quality of starting pitching and offense that the Yankees have.”
That’s true. But that’s a fundamental part of the pen. It’s value largely depends on context.
If you have good starting pitching and a high output offense then it’s value is going to shrink because of the context.
And that’s partly why the constant harping on who is going to pitch the 8th is so misguided.
Earlier in the year we heard over and over that if the team doesn’t trade for a Huston Street type they were done.
But that was never the case. The team was built to win around starting pitching. The future depended on the rotation not the pen.
Erica –
Just kidding, but I’m sure your regulars would appreciate a “Post Season Edition” if you were willing to support one…
Is Joba slated to pitch next Wednesday’s game against the Rangers at the Stadium?
I’m traveling from San Diego to visit friends and family next week and I might be going to the game if my buddy can get tickets.
I’m just hoping it’s not Chad Gaudin for my first game at the new stadium!
Patrick August 19th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Dang Joe Mauer is freaking amazing. He has an outside shot at .400 this year.
=============================================================
By my calculations he has to hit about .445 for the rest of the year to end up at .400
The rest for Hughes is a good thing. We are going to need him in October/November.
We just have to brace ourselves as Yankee fans for all the inevitable hand wringing over the Yankees salary and what we spent on free agents this winter.
That will be the story of the day for any non-Yankee loving media type till the season and post season is over.
What I find interesting is I was around a few die hard Red Sox fans recently who are downright angry at Henry and ownership for raising prices every year and decreasing payroll and crying poverty.
The Red Sox are earning more money now than ever and they are not putting it back into the club.
The fans up there will revolt eventually and Boston will go out and spend big dollars. The only good thing about that is the free agent market is pretty bad the next couple of years so they are going to have to trade to get better.
Still, I don’t know how it feels to be a fan of another team when your owners pocket money they could spend to be better and the Yankees owners go for broke.
I’m always surprised there is not more outrage at owners who don’t spend over the one’s who do.
“But it helps a lot too when quality arms take over in the pen and push out weak links like Edwar and Alby and Veras.”
nick,
I completely agree and in no way am I trying to say it’s only the starters.
Edwar, Alby and Veras are poor to terrible. They were not viable solutions.
But the team has a lot of pitching depth throughout the organization and they were going to figure something out.
And in CC and AJ they have two guys who give them a huge number of innings. Pettite has now joined that mix.
It’s not going to matter much for this season, but they probably now have too much talent in the bull pen compared to the rotation given the 5th starter spot question.
But it is a formidable bull pen. There’s no question. Hughes has become one of the elite set up men in baseball.
He just happens to pitch on a team that doesn’t need a set up guy all that often to succeed.
“If you don’t get into the game you can’t tangibly impact it to any significant way.”
which is precisely why igawa is in scranton
8th inning relievers get a lot of attention not so much because the 8th is so important but because few teams have anyone decent to pitch that inning. Most teams are lucky if they have one reliable arm in the pen to be their closer.
Phil has simply not gotten enough innings this year. I don’t know how many he can get in Winter Ball, but he’s really being somewhat wasted as the 8th inning. I know Cash understands that they have to balance the needs of the club this year with the needs of Phil and the club next year, but they aren’t paying enough attention to next year. There is a day off tomorrow….use Phil yesterday in the 9th. I know that the Yanks were up by 5, but he needs to pitch…
So would one correctly infer that the marginal advantage of having a quality pitcher like Hughes as the team’s 5th starter next year would be far greater than that of keeping him as the setup man?
(you don’t mind BP fastballs down the middle, do you?)
Phil will only be used tonight if the Yankees are ahead, that’s Joe’s MO with him. That will only happen if the Yanks pound the ball tonight because Gaudin very likely will get pounded himself.
Robertson has had his ups and downs the last 2 years in the majors but I am really glad the Yankees stuck with him this year and gradually gave him more responsibility in the bullpen. His fits of wildness are very frustrating and why, I assume, a lot of the breathless fans on this board still don’t trust him, but you can’t fake those strikeout numbers. And his sample size is large enough now and he has improved in the dreaded “high-leverage situation” to earn his bump up in the pecking order.
How is it possible that all 9 hitters in the Angels line-up are hitting over .300? And I thought our lineup was good, that’s just crazy.
GLove,
We also have Yankee fans who cry that Hal is “cheap” and doesn’t spend more money.
Everytime I read those kind of posts on blogs, I often wonder how these fans would feel if they were fans of other teams in MLB.
Teams that pocket approx 50+ million dollars annually in local TV/Radio revenues and money from the MLB General Pool, cry poormouth, and won’t look to do anything substantially to improve their teams.
How would you like to be fans of the Blue Jays this season? That’s just one example. There are more.
The Steinbrenner Family has made a lot of money owning the Yankees.
They took a 10 million dollar investment in 1973 and turned it into a franchise worth over a billion dollars.
Their “start up” regional television network is worth over 3 BILLION dollars.
They also pour hundreds of millions of dollars annually back into the team in an attempt to put a championship product on the field. There aren’t 20 owners in professional sports who do it the way the Yankees do it in that regard.
We are very fortunate to be fans of a team that is run the way it is by ownership.
I’m just logging in and need to comment on the last few posts:
CC is giving back to his school and community- a great athlete and role model(not always the case)
Oakland probably ordered a few thousand of the Giambi bobbleheads and they need to do something with them(check on Ebay for some great deals!!)
Jeter just continues to amaze at the plate- he still plays a
pretty good shortstop as well
Hughes will probably pitch tonight and he will be rested for this weekend series against the Bloody Red Sox.
Nick,
I am a Brian Bruney believer for next year (or something like that…)
And fastballs down the middle are old hat – Kyle Farnsworth all way.
It’s a new dawn in the pen next year. One to which Phil Hughes only acquaintance will be warming up before his starts.
Next years rotation could be phenomenal.
“The fans up there will revolt eventually and Boston will go out and spend big dollars. The only good thing about that is the free agent market is pretty bad the next couple of years so they are going to have to trade to get better.”
I just pray Mauer and Pujols stay on their respective teams. The Sox may just be saving money to break the bank on one or both of those two. And with Tex, Montero, and Romine, the Yankees might not be able to outbid them.
Besty the Sun is shining the Yanks are in first and Gaudin will be fine.
Half full, half full…..
Mo (NY)
Did the Yankees really run out of money? They gave the money that Lyons wanted to Deluca and Talerico on the last day. It seems that they had the money and valued other players more. Doesn’t that suggest that they just saw something that turned them off, possibly health wise with Lyons?
Jim Callis (2:43 PM)
I was told by multiple sources that unlike the basically open checkbook they had in the past, the Yankees had a strict budget this year and once they reached it, they could sign guys like Lyons and Meade.
Jeter and A-Rod both have a .394 OBP but their batting average is 73 points different.
Mike Francessa might be stubborn and arrogant, but kudos to him for calling Manuel’s dislike for Ryan Church and Ramon Castro.
CB, was AJ this much of a horse in his career before? We expected innings from CC, but AJ has been huge as far as that’s concerned. Oddly, at the outset of the season, I thought AJ would be the key to the staff. I thought if he was just good, the Yankees would be very good, but if he was very good/outstanding, the Yankees would be an exceptional team. With Wang out, his quality innings have been extremely important. As good as CC is, no man can carry a staff by himself. They’ve formed a nice 1-2 punch.
Jim Callis was told garbage, hopefully, as I hope the Yankees insiders lied through their teeth to his Red Sox-fawning face. Perhaps he is too busy staring deep into J. Reddick’s eyes to see the fact that the Yankees spent a ton of money on the draft this year, and gave someone in a way late round a $500,000 bonus when slot calls for like $50,000 or something. But yeah, I’m sure Callis “was told” the 100% clear truth.
betsy,
AJ was never a horse before – last year was probably the first year he ever really carried a big load for a team.
But this year he’s been great for them in terms of giving them length.
That game he threw against the A’s was really something for how efficient he was outside of that one inning.
He should throw that 2 seamer more. It’s a filthy pitch and gets him quicker outs.
He’s not being wasted in the 8th inning. In fact, he’s one of the big reasons for the turnaround.
Folks forget how his work in the bullpen has helped re-shape it, improve it, and put guys in roles where they can best succeed.
Some periods of time, you aren’t going to be used a lot. That’s life in the bullpen. Especially when you have 3 guys in Andy, CC and AJ who can give you innings.
Don’t get caught up in innings and see that as the be all, end all for developing pitchers.
Confidence is a huge factor in player development.
You can’t place a price on what going to the bullpen has done for Hughes’ confidence.
Look at his body language when he comes into games. He’s in complete attack mode all the time.
Contrast that with Joba for example. You can see Joba’s confidence wane when he is in trouble on the mound and he turns into a nibbler.
When Joba is successful, he is in attack mode and he has that swagger. Like Hughes has today.
If Hughes takes that attitude into the rotation in 2010, he will become a dominant starting pitcher.
Confidence plays a big role in the success of players. For Hughes, I believe going to the bullpen is a career transforming move and it will make him a much better starter in 2010.
Michael Kay is talking about the clubhouse atmosphere – how everyone gets along with everyone…….We all know how good CC, AJ and Swish have been in the clubhouse, but he made a point to talk about Alex and how this is the most comfortable he’s ever seen Alex. He’s just one of the guys……SJ has been basically telling us this all along, but it’s still nice to hear from someone who covers them on a daily basis.
“Jeter and A-Rod both have a .394 OBP but their batting average is 73 points different.”
That’s because pitchers don’t fear Jeter
As for next years rotation… why don’t the yanks take a shot at Ben sheets… offer him a 2 year deal… a la John Lieber(sp) in 03-04.
Now hopefully he wont have to become the teams #2 starter… but if Andy decides to hang it up.. there is a hole in the #4 spot.. Now if Andy comes back… no problems.. we have a sick rotation to start the season…
But lets focus on this year… like b-cash always says… “we haven’t won anything yet”…
Phil in the 8th stabilized a bullpen that was pretty much spinning out of control.
He allowed guys like Robertsen and Bruney to find themselves and also gave Coke a breather which he needed.
He’s not being wasted in that role at all and at the end of the season his insertion into that role is going to be one of the big reasons why things turned around.
If it’s true that Cone suggested to Girardi to not demote Phil and make him a reliever then a big assist goes to Coney for possibly making G.I. Joe see another alternative.
I think baseball teams are starting to realize that rigidly adhering to roles can hurt your team. Put your best arms on the big league team and go to war with that.
I agree that Hughes has been terrific in the pen.
But that’s now where and when his transformation started in terms of aggressiveness and swagger.
Hughes was phenomenal for several starts before he even moved into the pen.
He got blitzed in that baltimore start and completely turned it around after that.
That 8 inning gem he threw down in Arlington was one of the single most impressive starts any yankee pitcher has made this year given the line up he was facing and the ball park he was throwing in.
Hughes has been magnificent in the pen. He’s in the conversation for being the top set up guy in the game right now. And he’s gained a ton of experience and confidence by staying in the bigs.
But he was already showing those signs of success in the rotation.
Jim Callis is full of crap. Full disclosure. He has written a lot of nonsense about my nephew and that has ticked me off.
Especially since the kid is hitting .350 and is the most productive hitter of the 2009 Draft Class to date.
Yet, he continues to write the kid isn’t a good hitter because “some scouts have told him so”.
BA did a bit of a mea culpa last week. Yet, Callis can’t seem to handle the fact a kid went 4th in the draft that he didn’t see coming.
As far as the Yankees are concerned, only 6 other teams have spent more money on signing their draft picks this year.
When you spend almost 10 million dollars to sign your draft choices, one shouldn’t talk too much about having a “budget”.
If there is one, they broke it given the amount of money they spent this year.
IIRC, they spent more money on draft picks and LA free agents than any other year in the history of the franchise.
Lyons? Simply put, they liked other draft choices more than Lyons. That’s why they made the money committments they made to them.
I would like to see more push for Jeter to be the AL MVP. Tex has been great but I think far and away Jeter deserves it….
My 2 cents
“I think baseball teams are starting to realize that rigidly adhering to roles can hurt your team. Put your best arms on the big league team and go to war with that.”
I don’t see that at all.
Hughes is in one of the most narrowly and most rigidly defined roles in all of baseball right now.
If he was used for multiple innings at a time then I could see your point. But he’s not.
He’s thrown 5 innings in one month. There is no way around that.
In the biggest season of the year he threw 2/3 of an inning in 4 games.
The yankee starters are giving them length and that has, fortunately, diminished the value of a dedicated 8th inning set up guy.
David Cone was the person who suggested to Girardi that he put Hughes in the bullpen.
He told Girardi that Hughes is one of the best 12 arms they have and you don’t keep a kid with that arm in Scranton “getting his innings in”.
Cone felt that Hughes could give the team a huge boost in the pen and also help his own development as a pitcher.
In Cone’s opinion, working out of the pen forces you to empty the tank, concentrate on throwing strikes (especially strike one), and for a young pitcher, not doing these things often hinder their development.
Girardi concurred and both he and Cone convinced Cash this was the way to go.
The rest as they say, is history.
I don’t think they can even consider putting Hughes in the rotation next season unless they bring Damon back.
That’s what I thought, CB. Of course, he was injured so much of the time that he couldn’t possibly give his teams significant innings. He’s had nary a pimple, an ache or a pain this year. Whatever routine he learned from Doc, it’s working. Yankee fans are still scared to assume good health from AJ and always (from what I can tell on other boards) think he’s one pitch away from another TJ operation. It seems to me like he actually has a very healthy, strong arm……..but it’s only obvious now because he’s actually pitching and not throwing. I admit I questioned his lower K amount this year, but I’m not sure why. It’s better for AJ’s arm if he doesn’t strike as many people out…..
Ross Ohlendorf: 11 wins for the Pirates. A.J. Burnett: 10 wins for the Yankees. Love A.J., but just saying…
I saw an article the other day that ranked the amount of money spent on draft picks in the top 10 rounds for each team.
Of course the Nationals and Mariners were at the top of the list because of monstrous deals to Strasburg and Ackley, but the Red Sox and Yankees were middle of the pack, which is pretty good considering they had some of the worst picks.
The interesting thing was that the Mets were dead last on the list. No team spent fewer dollars on their top 10 draft picks than they did. If I were a Mets fan, I’d be pretty aggravated. You’re talking about the team with the highest revenue in the NL, as well as a desperate need to replenish their farm system. The Mets are the only big market team in baseball who rarely pay overslot, and the results clearly show it.
SJ, thanks for reminding me of that. You’ve made those points before and I should have kept that in mind….. There was an article on CNNSI.com a few weeks ago where Cashman is quoted as basically saying what you just said. They realize that Phil’s innings are not where they’d ideally like him to be, but that you can’t put a price on the confidence he’s gained. This was also an important year for Phil in another way – he’s stayed healthy and his stuff returned. He’s a good kid who works very hard – I’m really happy for him because I can’t imagine how frustrated he must have been, losing two years to injury and suffering a lack of confidence (and having to read what a bust you were for failing to be Cy Young right out of the gate).
Those stats are not made equal so quoting them makes little sense.
I’m glad Ross is doing well in Pittsburgh. He’s a great guy and deserves his success.
However, if he pitched in the AL East, its doubtful he has 11 wins.
Conversely, if AJ pitched for the Pirates, he would probably have more wins.
There isn’t anybody in baseball who would take Ross Ohlendorf over AJ Burnett if they have a choice between the two.
>Ross Ohlendorf: 11 wins for the Pirates.
>A.J. Burnett: 10 wins for the Yankees.
>Love A.J., but just saying…
You’re not serious.
Ross Ohlendorf isn’t pitching the kind of games that AJ has pitched this year. Ohlendorf is not going toe-to-toe with Josh Beckett in a game that was a must-win for Boston and putting up zeroes, nor is he a threat to throw a no-hitter every 5 days when he takes the hill. Yes it would be nice to have Ohlendorf as a #4-5 guy this year, but trading him last year made perfect sense and hindsight is in no way 20/20.
As rich as the Yanks are they do have a budget and try to stick to it. Is Lyons really the guy you think the Yanks should say “This kid is so good we have to throw the budget out the window”? He’s a good young player but come on, you aren’t losing much by not signing him.
RE:Jim the VT Yankeefan about Mauer hitting .400,
Yeah it is unlikely Mauer will reach .400 but there is an outside shot. He has hit .485 for the month of August so while it is unlikely he hits .445 the rest of the way, it’s certainly possible.
I have 3 wins for the Pirates.
Ohlendorf has a 4.15 ERA in the NL Central. He can’t hang as a starter in the AL East.
Yup, SJ44, that was my question, and Callis missed the boat on it. The point regarding Lyons was not the budget, because they still had money on the last day to give to Deluca and Talerico. They could have given that money to Lyons and Meade instead and still been under budget. They just like the guys they signed better.
There’s a lot of talk about the job that Sabathia and Burnett have done at the head of the rotation this year, and it’s well deserved.
However, Pettitte is just 6 innings beind Burnett in the same amount of starts. He’s allowed 4 more earned runs than Burnett. Pettitte is 43rd in MLB in innings pitched and 19th in the AL. Not bad for somebody that was supposed to be the 4th or 5th starter. 19th in the league out of 70 AL starters and 43rd out of 160 starting spots in MLB.
“Ross Ohlendorf: 11 wins for the Pirates. A.J. Burnett: 10 wins for the Yankees. Love A.J., but just saying…”
Ross Ohlendorf: 11 wins for the Pirates. Cliff Lee: 10 wins for the Indians and Phillies. Love Cliff, but just saying…nothing.
JRod August 19th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Ohlendorf has a 4.15 ERA in the NL Central. He can’t hang as a starter in the AL East.
—
You’re right, of course, I was just noting another “number of note.”
Well, you have to excuse Callis.
He’s still trying to sell that Josh Reddick is going to be the next star for the Red Sox based on the 4 AB’s, he saw from him when he was first recalled.
Everybody in the media says/writes something they would have to have a “do over” on.
I wonder if the gushing early review of Reddick is one Callis would like to take back.
CB,
I agree with you but I also think that even though Hughes hasn’t been used as much as a weapon of late, his arrival did help stabilize the pen. At that point we were a solid relief pitcher short and we had guys who were scuffling and overused.
Phil helped to spread the innings out in the pen and made his appearances effective ones.
I don’t think he made the starting pitching better. He has no bearing on that.
Andy, CC and AJ have made the team and the pitching and the bullpen sharper by going longer in games.
But when Phil came into the pen Bruney was out and then struggled when he came back and was a whisper from DFA according to some in here.
Phil’s effectiveness in his new role gave Bruney time to work it out.
He also allowed Coke to catch his breath and I think his success helped inspire Robertsen.
I’ve heard a bunch of times how Robertsen looks like a Hughes clone at times out there.
It took a big leap of faith for the front office and the manager to take one of their most viable starting options and use him in the pen like they have. If they rigidly looked at Phil as just a starter this never would have happened and maybe Cash would have traded for a middle reliever instead.
That’s what I meant about learning to not rigidly adhere to roles.
Is it possible throwing Hughes back into the rotation will result in the same problems Jobba is facing? With youth can come short attention spans hence their success in the bullpen.
Tex is the MVP on the Yankees, not Derek.
If Mauer continues his great year, he will win the MVP. Amazing for a catcher to be hitting like he is.
Jeter is the MVP on the Yankees, not Tex.
Wow. Just as easy.
“David Cone was the person who suggested to Girardi that he put Hughes in the bullpen.
He told Girardi that Hughes is one of the best 12 arms they have and you don’t keep a kid with that arm in Scranton “getting his innings in”.
Cone felt that Hughes could give the team a huge boost in the pen and also help his own development as a pitcher.
In Cone’s opinion, working out of the pen forces you to empty the tank, concentrate on throwing strikes (especially strike one), and for a young pitcher, not doing these things often hinder their development.
Girardi concurred and both he and Cone convinced Cash this was the way to go.
The rest as they say, is history.”
I think there was a game with Cone and Al Leiter in the booth right around when Wang was almost ready to return to the bigs. Cone mentioned how all starters used to come up and have to prove themselves in big situations from the pen before they could earn a spot in the rotation. He said that it’s definitely not how most teams look at young pitchers now, but that there is a lot a young guy like Hughes could learn from pitching in the pen. Looks like he was right.
did i start a new trend with making a
when a new post shows up? 