Pregame notes: Adjusting on the fly
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Notes on Sep 26, 2010 
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In the early innings of yesterday’s game, Dustin Moseley was in the Yankees clubhouse, not an unusual place for the next day’s starting pitcher to be. He had no idea the Yankees coaching staff was looking for him, and he was initially caught a little off guard when they found him and told him to get his cleats on and get to the bullpen. If necessary, the Yankees were going to use him in long relief.
“I’m a realist. I see what’s going on,” Moseley said. “We just have to win some ball games. For the move they made, being a realist, I understand that. You’ve got to go with your guy. We’ve got to win and Phil’s been starting all year long and doing a great job.”
The decision was made yesterday, and Hughes was told last night. He’d thrown his regular bullpen and done his normal flat ground work. He was prepared to make today’s start, just didn’t know he was actually going to make it until a little less than 24 hours ago.
“We wouldn’t have prepared him for this if we didn’t think it was a possibility that he would pitch,” Joe Girardi said. “Usually if we give guys time off, we give them (full) time off.”
Girardi said there were two factors in today’s decision: One was the state of the bullpen, and the other was the state of the wild card.
“We’ve used pretty much every long guy that we’ve had in the last three or four days,” Girardi said. “I couldn’t envision Hughesy being the long guy and Dustin starting… We’ve been going at it hard here, and sometimes it’s hard when your starters don’t give you any distance. All of a sudden you’re using your bullpen a little bit different that day (and) when you do it four days in a row, things can get a little bit messed up.”
A win tonight — against the team that’s chasing them in the wild card — would cut the Yankees magic number to one with six games to play.
“That’s one of the factors that we look at, sure,” Girardi said. “My job is to make decisions with the information that I have. People are going to look at it the way they want to. We’ve been trying to win games, trying to win our division and trying to win home field advantage. We haven’t stopped doing that.”
• Girardi wouldn’t say whether this will be Hughes final appearance of the regular season. “We will see,” was his answer to the question. “My job is to manage his innings and we’ve been doing that all year long,” Girardi said. “It’s something we talk about on a fairly regular basis. I just felt that where we were today, today was the right day to start him.”
• For now, the Yankees rotation in Toronto will be A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte. That does not seem to lineup Sabathia for a Game 1 start in the division series.
• I sit next to Mark Feinsand for nearly every home game. I’m positive CC Sabathia told Mark that he was starting on Friday, not Tuesday. Girardi, however, said he never told Sabathia that the rotation was going to change. “We told him he was on rotation as long as we need to keep it,” Girardi said.
• That said, don’t be surprised if the rotation changes again in the next 48 hours, especially if the Yankees clinch. “Then we’ll look at it and see what’s best for us,” Girardi said. “But the point is that we have to get in first. We have to win ball games and play better.”
• Yankees relievers who have not been used at least one of the past two days: Mariano Rivera, Dave Robertson, Javier Vazquez and Andrew Brackman. Robertson and Brackman have each been up in the bullpen.
• Just a guess, but the Yankees seem to be saving Vazquez to start if/when they’re ready to realign the rotation for the playoffs.
RED SOX
Marco Scutaro 2B
J.D. Drew RF
Victor Martinez C
David Ortiz DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
Jed Lowrie SS
Ryan Kalish CF
Bill Hall LF
Lars Anderson 1B
Associated Press photos of Hughes and Chad Gaudin
I smell desperation in the air…
It is futile.
Nevertheless, let’s hope at least Phil Hughes wouldn’t give up a ton of long balls tonight (though I think he will anyway).
Amen, Joe. Still trying to win games. Not everyone thought otherwise.
Go, Phil. Go, Yankees.
I would pay good money and bet that Betsy will post within the next five minutes and then outpost everyone by a 5 to 1 margin. I know Nick likes to take action…anyone?
Lining up the starters into October
Joe Giradi said after last night’s game that he was not ready to announce the date of Andy Pettitte’s next start. He also would not confirm that CC Sabathia’s next start will be on Friday.
“Nothing is etched in stone,” he said. “We are through this weekend and we will continue to adjust as we feel necessary.”
Based on what we know, and what we think we know, here’s the rest of the Yankees regular season rotation. The names in bold have either been announced or basically announced. The names in italics are guesses.
Today – Ivan Nova
Sunday – Dustin Moseley
Monday – A.J. Burnett
Tuesday – Javier Vazquez/Chad Gaudin
Wednesday – Phil Hughes
Thursday – Off day
Friday – CC Sabathia
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it’s nice to find out 2 days later that listing CC as skipping Tuesday and pitching Friday was based on second hand information from another reporter speaking with CC. It made little sense at the time but, along with skipping Hughes tonight, just seemed like really poor management. I guess everything stated about the Yankees from the media has to be taken with a grain of salt nowadays.
Betsy
September 26th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
I’m not assuming a win tonight by any means. Forget the pitching – the offense is still stuck in 5th gear. I’m not assuming a loss, either – just wait and see type of thing.
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Betsy, what do you base that statement on the offense on? The Yankees have scored 53 runs in their last 10 games including 8 runs or more in 4 of those games and 18 home runs.
Hughes will help put the champagne on ice tonight…. my prediction 5-3 Yanks Hughes 5.2 Ip 1 er and the pick to click on offense is a 4th inning 3 run bomb from Hip Hip Jorge…
To all the haters, jump on us now cause if we get in we aint leavin til the parties over in early November.
Do I really need to go into the Yankees leaving reams of baserunners on?
Anyway, it’s still a wait and see for me.
Joe must have read all the blogs and pulled Moseley in favor of Hughes.
Holding a comfortable lead, it would be good to see Andrew Brackman as the 1st pitcher used when Phil Hughes has done his night’s work. After the 6th inning, please.
I would be shocked if that happened. The Yankees basically think this is a must win, so if Phil goes that deep, we will be seeing the usual suspects (hopefully)
a little panic
You can go into that if you Betsy your statement would still be incorrect. It’s ok, sometimes to just say you were wrong, I am often, we all are.
The reality is that pitching wins games and that is where this team has fallen short as of late allowing 99 hits and 57 runs in their last ten games. 6 runs and ten hits a game is not going to get it done.
Did YES or WCBS mention that Moseley was in the bullpen last night? I think that would have raised suspicions as early as yesterday.
“Do I really need to go into the Yankees leaving reams of baserunners on?”
I don’t know where I read the info, but I’ve recently read some stuff that shows the Yankees are actually one of the better teams for NOT leaving baserunners on. They are league average with 2-outs, but 5th or better in all other situations.
On another note, has anybody seen what Kerry Wood’s ERA+ is with the Yankees? 1184!
Just so you don’t think that’s a typo and I put too many ones, it is 1184!
Regarding the switch to Hughes. I don’t think that panic and logic are mutually exclusive. It’s entirely logical that they panic at this point.
“Do I really need to go into the Yankees leaving reams of baserunners on?”
Yes you do. Actually I will save you the trouble, here’s the stats for runs scored with runners on base. Yankees are first in the league.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/t.....order/true
Against a team like BOS, no lead is comfortable.
A Guys need to be used tonight
The playoffs are still no sure thing, but I feel better knowing they are trying with their best SPs. Before today’s rotation changes it felt like they were assuming they were in already. At least now it seems they are going with their best until they clinch a spot. Which is what they should have done all along. Hopefully it isn’t too little too late.
The Yankees will win tonight.
“I guess everything stated about the Yankees from the media has to be taken with a grain of salt nowadays.”
Not really… if we had not lost the first 2 games here, Chad’s schedule would have been accurate.
Unless you think CC was lying to the media when he said he was starting Friday. More likely, they told him it would be based on when they clinched.
The Yanks changed the schedule – it wasn’t erroneously reported. Hughes was not scheduled to start today.
I just returned from a busy day, and I couldn’t be more pleased that Hughes is pitching.
I admit I have been a doubter about lots this week. The moves to play the entire regular line up a not rest our players and having Phil pitch make it appear that sanity has returned to the team.
Go Yankees!!! Go Phil!!!
Funny stuff from the ‘So Called Manager’ this afternoon:
“We need to win games,” Joe Girardi said.
“We’re still trying to win our division. We’re still trying to get into the playoffs. We’re still trying to get home field advantage and we’re going to go with Hughsie,” the manager added.
=======================
You got to be kidding, really ?
Girardi should be nominated for ‘Idiot of the Year’ ! Why doesn’t he wait a few more games, ‘REST UP’ those ‘regulars’ some more and then worry about the end result. He should have been ‘on the horse’ about winning two weeks ago.
Has anyone started a collection to buy his one way train ticket to Chicago ? Please let me know where to send my contribution.
ZMAN September 26th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
“I guess everything stated about the Yankees from the media has to be taken with a grain of salt nowadays.”
Not really… if we had not lost the first 2 games here, Chad’s schedule would have been accurate.
Unless you think CC was lying to the media when he said he was starting Friday. More likely, they told him it would be based on when they clinched.
The Yanks changed the schedule – it wasn’t erroneously reported. Hughes was not scheduled to start today.
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it would seem to me a reporter would want to do some research about significant changes to the starting rotation before putting it in print. Reporting CC was pitching Friday even though he was supposed to pitch on Tuesday without finding out the underlying reason or conditions isn’t being responsible.
Vineyard,
You are assuming that the Bears want him after the way he has managed this month.
LET’S
GO
YANKEES
As good as Montero might be, how could you resist a Halladay-CC pairing?
“Girardi should be nominated for ‘Idiot of the Year’” – He doesn’t stand a chance in winning with half the posters on this blog in the the running.
Bret,
How did the picnic go? I hope you didn’t talk about trading Gardner. Definitely a mood killer.
I’m with you on that Melk Man.
m,
The picnic was rained out. They had flash flood warnings in effect and it rained all day. God must be protecting my ex.
As good as Montero might be, how could you resist a Halladay-CC pairing
___
going to get the cc/lee pairing so it will be good.
Vineyard. Send contribution to Brad’s Dental P.O. Bob 6969 Hartford, CT
There was this gangly, pasty dude wearing a Sox hat at the gym.
It took every ounce of restraint I could muster to keep myself from blurting out “Not tonight Ichabod!”
I’m feeling sassy.
Did you get a rain-check? yuk-yuk.
Yank97:
Who cares, he could be the water boy. Where do I send my coin towards his one way ticket ?
WCYF:
Our whipping boy needs it. You are a sick fellow, but I do luv it !
7 game winning streak…….starts……..right……NOW !
m,
She definitely wants to hang out. She mentioned hiking for the fall. I’ll have to come up with something nice or maybe just simple.
The bonus today was I got to eat all the strawberries and peaches for myself!
BIG AL – if you are around I posted to you on the previous thread. The answer is absolutely yes.
““Girardi should be nominated for ‘Idiot of the Year’” – He doesn’t stand a chance in winning with half the posters on this blog in the the running.”
Good luck! A good love story is nice.
I’m feeling a Yankees statement tonight. Big bats, pounding the Sux into the Brong dirt.
m,
Love?
I’d settle for a booty call.
Just kidding.
Thank you!
JackCurryYES
Girardi said he’s a “little bit concerned” with how team will perceive switch to Hughes. But believes starting Hughes is best way to win
“I’m feeling a Yankees statement tonight. Big bats, pounding the Sux into the Brong dirt.”
Agree. I also feel that if this game is somewhat close, Gaudin will be pitching.
Arse beating , Bronx tale !
Booty call? I don’t think sooo. Someone’s in love ! You sounded so excited yesterday. It was so cute.
It got really ugly here yesterday, so I didn’t get the opportunity to
teasetalk to you about it until now.WCYF:
The old kick them to the curb routine ? How about 11-3, Yeah baby !
Fran & trisha -
This is the E-mail I got from Chad about that low life.
Deleted and banned. Thanks for letting me know about it.
-Chad
I sense a definite upturn in the forum atmosphere. Since these are the same Yankees they were yesterday, please remember your optimism no matter what is happening in tonight’s game.
I will say this. The players have to have more of a lift in their step seeing that the Rays and Minny both lost. Despite what some people around here try to sell, these are competitive players who know how to play the game and are out there to win. As Girardi and some of the players have said – it all begins with starting pitching.
The ability to go from low to high is a double-edged sword here. On the one hand, it’s great that so many posters can turn the switch on when given any kind of hope. On the other hand, the same posters can go from ectasy to agony as quickly.
BIG AL – you are special, and I thank you. And I know Fran does too.
Now to get rid of Ruby Tuesday. (I just haven’t had the energy to go to Chad yet…)
trisha -
Do you have MTU’s E-mail? If you do, he has mine. If not I’ll E-mail Chad and ask him to send it to you.
trisha -
At least with Ruby Tuesday, you know what he is, not like some that pretend to be Yankees fans, but are just trolls.
Great post, Tar and bravo for backing it up with facts.
The worrywarts find anything to complain about.
Girardi said he’s a “little bit concerned” with how team will perceive switch to Hughes.
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Joe’s mind is toast.
The team wants to win. Dassit!
Big Al,
Thanks for the support you showed to me today. I really do appreciate it.
And also thanks to Trisha and Chad.
Do we think that starting Hughes was in fact Girardi’s idea? Could it have actually come from Cashman?
JD – Yes!
trisha -
I sent Chad an E-mail requesting he send you my E-mail as soon as he gets time to do so.
Fran -
The least I could do, again, sorry for your loss.
Got to sit down to dinner, then the game. Catch you all later.
Go Yankees!
Thanks again Big Al.
Let’s go Yankees and let’s go Jets.
Ruby horse’s potoot more like it.
Twins lost, Rays lost, Giants lost, Cowboys won. My luck is turning around.
Sox better wear their cups tonight.
I don’t know where this Buccholz rumor started or who started it but he was never supposed to pitch today.
The Red Sox must be limiting his innings.
“I don’t know where this Buccholz rumor started or who started it but he was never supposed to pitch today. ”
The FOX broadcast, apparently.
Come on Yanks, don’t let these chowderhead scrubs beat you in your own house again. Let’s see some fire tonight. Smack Dice-BB up.
One Yankees blowout win to go please. Hoo rah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WowZLe95WDY
great tune… do do do…
“The FOX broadcast, apparently.”
I thought everyone said they listen to FOX games on mute?
What’s the over under on Dice BB 3-2 counts tonight?
What’s the over under on Dice BB 3-2 counts tonight?
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