A.J. Burnett set to start Game 4
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Oct 17, 2010 
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The Yankees flew in from Texas last night and have a workout scheduled for 4 this afternoon. I literally just walked into my apartment, so obviously I’m not going to be there. Brian Heyman is on the scene, and he’ll have all the updates from Yankee Stadium.
Best I can tell, the only news to come out of Girardi’s afternoon press conference was that A.J. Burnett will in fact start Game 4.
In the words of Girardi: “We believe in A.J.”
I wouldn’t do it, but they’ve made the decision. I hope Joe has a quick hook with AJ.
Good AJ or bust!
Not a surprising move from Joe. AJ made several big starts last year in the postseason, and you keep CC for the must win versus Hughes for the must win. Pettitte still lined up to pitch a game 7.
Can’t blame Girardi for trying to show confidence in your guys in the postseason.
1 Day, 6 Hours, 51 minutes until Game 3 of the ALCS.
A.J. Burnett’s 12.60 ERA for Game Three
will fit right in with C.C. and Hughes’
from Game One and Game Two .
A.J. Burnett’s 12.60 ERA for Game Four
will fit right in with C.C. and Hughes’
from Game One and Game Two .
MG October 17th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Betsy, with all due respect, you really don’t understand how many of us feel about Hughes’ development. Pitchers need more than one pitch to be #1 or #2 starters, of course. But you have to give him time to develop and perfect those pitches at the major league level. Minor league and spring training observations really mean nothing, it’s a whole new ballgame when a pitcher goes into a major league rotation.
You are taking a snapshot of Phil in 2010 and making the assumption he does not improve; I look at him in 2010, see the results, understand he’s 24 years old and in his 1st year in the rotation, and assume he will improve the same way many other excellent pitchers have over the past 120 years.
MG, I’m not saying he won’t improve, but he didn’t throw his curve or change very much at all this year…..tried to get by mostly on his FB and cutter. To me, it’s all about his outlook. If Phil thinks he can just get by with his FB, then he’s going to struggle. If he honestly thinks that he needs his other pitches (and not just because the Yankees ordered him to mix it up), then I would imagine he’d improve. Although his struggles with the curve concern me a bit, I believe that hard work eventually pays off.
This is the right move. The best chance to win both games 4 and 5 is to roll the dice with AJ against Hunter and then send Sabathia to the hill against Wilson.
Either way, you do have to have a very short leash with AJ. At the first sign of trouble I would have Joba or Robertson ready to come in and stop the bleeding (because there would likely be runners on base and it could be a turning point in the game).
Let one of those 2 put the fire out and then let Mosely or Mitre start the next inning. Hopefully the Yankees will bring their bats that day and give AJ some cushion early.
Betsy, he won 18 games in his first year in the rotation doing the things he feels most comfortable using. You seem to think he’s too stubborn to throw other pitches and I don’t think any fan is capable of drawing that conclusion. The Yankees know what it takes for a starter to succeed and he has two great role models on the rotation-CC didn’t have a change when he had his first great year and now it’s probably his best pitch. You are being way too hard on the the kid.
Good decision. AJ will win. Everyone will be available for Game 7 but it won’t be necessary. Yanks in 5.
In Reality Hughes threw his curve ball slightly more than he threw his cutter. True story.
raymagnetic October 17th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
In Reality Hughes threw his curve ball slightly more than he threw his cutter. True story.
—————–
his curveball just wasn’t there yesterday, it happens and when your fastball doesn’t have the late life a pitcher gets hit. Bad timing for that to happen but that’s baseball…
I should have said that this year he threw his curve more than he threw his cutter.
Game 3 is a huge game for the Yankees but I think it might be an even bigger one for the Rangers. Cliff Lee is their selling point…their reason to believe. If the Yankees can take him down then it could deal a huge blow to their confidence. It also would take some of the pressure off AJ in Game 4.
All pitching talk aside, we need to hit much better than we have so far.
A-Rod is 2-10
Teixeira is 0-8
Posada is 1-7
Swisher is 1-7
Gardner is 1-5
Granderson is 1-5
Betsy -
Over his last several starts, Hughes made a concerted effort to use more of his secondary pitches, so I don’t know how you can guess that he doesn’t want to. And I don’t understand what you mean by “If he honestly thinks that he needs his other pitches (and not just because the Yankees ordered him to mix it up), then I would imagine he’d improve.”
No one is saying, to my knowledge, that Phil Hughes is perfectly fine getting by on just a fastball. And no one is saying he doesn’t need to work on his secondary pitches. You said he regressed. You said he was stubborn. From his quote last night, I would guess just the opposite. When his fastball stopped working, he went to secondary pitches. They didn’t work either. That doesn’t sound like someone who is satisfied throwing one pitch, or someone who is stubborn. It was a bad day. Period.
I honestly don’t understand your outlook on Phil Hughes. It’s been an enigma to me all season. You were the one at the very beginning of the season to warn people not to set their expectations too high. I mostly just read what you have to say and occasionally I respond, but mostly I don’t because I know it’s often a more contentious exchange than I had thought it would be or wanted it to be. I just really don’t understand where you’re coming from.
You don’t owe me an explanation, and I don’t expect one.
WCYF -
That’s for sure!
blake – I think I agree with you. Texas has put an awful lot of eggs in Lee’s basket. The potential blow to their psyche might be out of proportion to the actual loss (down 2-1 in a 7-game series is not fatal).
I’ll leave it to the media to work that angle, and plant that seed in the Rangers’ minds.
I’m glad Girardi’s keeping in rotation. I would think that when he planned his rotation to begin with, he anticipated a split on the road (while of course playing to win both games).
Joe,
Its sorta funny to watch the media flip flop back and forth after each game in a series. After Game 1, the Yankees were unbeatable, were in the Ranger’s head, yada yada yada…now the momentum has swung and Cliff Lee looms. You really hear no talk on the fact that the Yankees now have home field advantage or that they also have a pretty good pitcher going in Game 3.
I think the Yankees need to win 2 of 3 (at least) at home. Doesn’t really matter which games they win but I do think the Rangers and everyone else thinks they will win Game 3 and really any game Lee pitches….I’d be interested to see how they respond if that security is taken away.
Hughes has been great. The micro-over-analysis gets nauseating.”
I COULD NOT AGREE MORE.
Not only is it nauseating, it is downright stupid for posters to take out microscopes every game and then make pronouncements about the way things are. Yeah – maybe for the moment!
I’ve complained about posters doing that kind of thing all season and I’ve also complained about the crazy negative snapshot-in-time suicide that takes place on games thread.
Comforting to see some of you finally stepping forward and agreeing.
Baseball is NOT a sport for people who need immediate gratification.
On another note, I saw MG (I think it was MG) saying he wished we could have a separate thread for rational posters.
I started asking for that at least three years ago.
Later y’all.
Phil Hughes is what he his, he is a pitcher who was pretty much supposed to be getting his feet wet in his first full major league season as a starter. Instead, AJ and Vazquez were cr*pshoots this year and Phil has been asked to step up and perform like he has been around for years(i know he has, but not as an SP) If Vazquez and AJ had been better this year, then they would be part of the Postseason rotation and Phil would probably be in the bullpen but that is not the case. Phil still needs time to develop, he said last night that he was trying to mix in his different pitches and they werent working for him. That happens. Every starter on our team has had an outing where nothing was going right for them. Every starter on every team has a night or two like Phil had. Its like Andy said before his start last week, you can be as mentally prepared as possible but if you go out there and you havent got it, youre going to get hit.
Our offense is what it is too. These guys all get into slumps, beside Robbie, we have been watching them all year long complaining about how Teixeira is batting 3rd and hes not getting hits, Posada is slumping and his defense sucks, Gardner never steals, Swisher strikes out too much. The guys arent going to change now, if you dont believe in them then maybe you should go root for some other team that doesnt have these problems but good luck. Have you seen how bad Philadelphia has been in this postseason? they batted like .222 in the NLDS. Theyve got problems too.
If the Yanks get an early lead against Lee, it will be interesting to see Washington’s response. If Andy holds that lead, late into the game, with NY’s pen lurking – will Washington then concede the Game 3, take Lee out early, and preserve the potential to bring him back early should Texas face an elimination Game 5 or 6.
I know Lee hasn’t gone on short rest, but, if that scenario does occur, it will speak volumes about how Washington sees his pitching staff.
I know, “if” is the biggest word in the English language.
Blake, I think they already believe. Even if Lee doesn’t pitch well or he does and they lose, they have 2 very good pitchers going in Wilson and Lewis. They could have folded yesterday and didn’t.
“If the Yanks get an early lead against Lee, it will be interesting to see Washington’s response. If Andy holds that lead, late into the game, with NY’s pen lurking – will Washington then concede the Game 3, take Lee out early, and preserve the potential to bring him back early should Texas face an elimination Game 5 or 6.”
I sure hope we get a chance to find out.
boy, trisha as the rational one….
I don’t know why you guys are worrying about this Cliff Lee guy.
He throws hard stuff (4seam, 2seam, cutter) 83% of the time. Throws the curve only 6% of the time.
No future for this one.
Betsy,
I think they believe but I think a big part of their confidence is wrapped up in Cliff Lee and knowing he was going in Game 3. Lewis isn’t a very good pitcher….he’s a descent pitcher that had a good game yesterday. I hope we get a chance to see how they respond to Cliff Lee losing.
Doreen, that’s not true that people don’t think he needs secondary pitches. I remember conversations from very early in the season through to the present where some people would say that until hitters can show they can hit his FB, he’s fine throwing mostly FB and cutters. Well hitters adjusted and it wasn’t until his last couple of starts that Phil started mixing his pitches. Why? Why not do it before?
As to the comment you said you didn’t understand, it’s simple. If Phil believes that he needs to mix things up and needs his secondary pitches, he’ll improve in those areas. If he does it just because the Yankees order him to, it won’t. You have to really believe in something in order make changes – that goes for baseball and for life. Doing something to please other people is not a recipe for success.
Yes, as I said before, I read his quotes – and he threw one change yesterday.
You may not understand me, but you now what? It’s vice versa. I don’t get why it’s a big deal to say that Phil has to work on some things in order to reach his potential.
Blake, check out Lewis’ #s; they’re terrific. He struck out over 8 per 9 innings and had like a 1.19 whip, with a 3.72 ERA
LGY,
yup, as I poster earlier. Cliff’s first full season was at age 25 and he pitched to a 5+ ERA that year. The difference now is experience and command.
Really? That’s rational? Who is Trisha or anyone else to determine who’s a rational poster?
Betsy,
I’ve checked out his numbers. He’s also a 30 year old journeyman that had to pitch in Japan for 2 years. He’s not great….he’s pretty good right now but the Yankees can and should fair better against him the next go around.
Blake-
Totally agree. If I had my druthers of which game to win #3 0r #4, I hope the Yankees win big with Pettitte pitching a gem, and Cliff Lee subconciously wondering what it would be like to be a Yankee!
If AJ pitches poorly then, we’re still tied 2-2 and won’t be seeing AJ again this series.
Blake, I hope so. My point was that I don’t think the Rangers are as fragile or dependent on Lee as we may have thought. So far, their SP has been very good and ours hasn’t.
Only 3 Yankees had ever faced Lewis before last night. Now they all have…..
“So far, their SP has been very good and ours hasn’t.”
And yet the series is tied 1-1. I have to believe they will pitch better….hopefully starting with Andy tomorrow.
I expect Andy to pitch very well tomorrow – I trust him completely.
So I’ll be at yet another post season game with AJ pitching. That makes 3.
Oh for pete’s sake….
Wackiness is taking over again.
Later….
“Why? Why not do it before?”
——————————————-
Because he is a 24 year old kid in his first full year starting.
The difference between basically you and the rest of the board is that we EXPECT him to adjust and make changes as he matures as a starting pitcher. We see all that talent, composure, and development this year and don’t need to microanalyze every pitch he throws and every start to know the future is bright and whatever he needs to do he will.
We have enjoyed the ride this year because our expectations were appropriate. We expected and still do expect ups and downs just like yesterday.
This is not a unique problem to Phil Hughes. This is not abnormal in any sense of the word for young + developing starters. The “downs” for Phil this year are completely normal.
You need to put his problems in context. You need to expand your outlook past Phil Hughes and I sincerely mean this because the Yankees farm system is pitching rich and as Yankee fans we are going to hopefully be watching more young starters develop in the near future.
Blake–Excellent point about the Yankees facing Lewis.
I said earlier today that I thought they were really starting to figure him out in the game, and hit several shots at people. I think they will pick up where they left off and clobber him in game 6 (should it go that far).
Also, after 70 pitches, Lewis’s number get bad quickly….if the Yankees can make him throw more pitches early, they will score big.
And of course, Cano is all over him.
At 24, I think Hughes is pretty well ahead of other great pitchers from the past (with exceptions of course). He is on pace to be quite a pitcher as he continues to mature.
As someone else mentioned earlier, part of the problem is that Hughes has been rushed into the role that AJ or Javy was supposed to fill this year. Can he handle it, sure he can and we saw that in the ALDS, but its not an ideal situation.
Betsy’s obsessive compulsive stalking of Hughes continues… Her Jekyll and Hyde critiques of Phil goes from game to game. Her emotion flow from adoration to absolute disdain from one game to next.
Phil is never going to be who you want him to be. Because who you want him to be simply doesn’t exist as a pitcher. Please stop your trite and redundant comments about Phil every freaking min or so.
Betsy,
I also think these issues in these conversations stem from how much you have changed regarding Phil.
In Spring Training you were one of his most optimistic and biggest supporters.
Now you are easily his biggest critic.
It has been very confusing to witness.
Get a life !
Moment of silence for ‘Freddy Sez.’ Just heard he passed away via Twitter.
Joe from Long Island October 17th, 2010 at 5:01 pm
boy, trisha as the rational one….
**************************
Someone has to be.
Barbara Billingsley, died, too. She was the mom on “Leave it To Beaver,” and the lady who spoke “jive” in that Airplane movie.
Al-
Sorry I missed you this AM. I was out hiking.
I responded when I got back.
Ruby posts all day and night. She apparently never leaves the house.
I’m starting to worry that her mom has her chained to a desk in the basement.
Doreen-
There is a lot of “jive” spoken on the blog.:)
Doreen October 17th, 2010 at 5:29 pm
Barbara Billingsley, died, too. She was the mom on “Leave it To Beaver,” and the lady who spoke “jive” in that Airplane movie.
—
Jeez. 2010 has been a bad year for celebrity deaths. (GMS, Voice of God, Freddy Sez are celebrities in my book.)
The decison seems like it was made too early, the Yanks were in a stronger keeping the Rangers guessing. I don’t see AJ having any real confidence out there and with him the damage comes pretty quickly.
Giants plated well for being as flat as they seemed to be. It’s a win we will take it. God what happended to Jacobs? he’s a shadow of the intensity and drive he had in the past.
As to what happened to Nick in SF -
Chad replied to my E-mail, and stated he had banned the IP address involved in that matter.
As to the information he received from different people, pointing the finger at another individual, Chad stated there was no evidence that the person being accused on the blog by WCYF, had anything to do with that outing of Nick’s personal information.
Chad also stated he is working hard, behind the scenes trying to keep the blog safe, and free of those causing trouble, and several have been banned, but, some of those banned have found a way back.
To me, it’s reassuring to know Chad and his staff are being diligent, and are doing what they can to improve this site.
MTU -
I left earlier to cut the lawn, hope it’s the last time. Things are well here. How was the hike, where did you go, and did you take lots of new pictures?
@AL – Thanks for the update. Glad to hear it.
Thanks, Big Al.
This Phil Hughes thing is simply known as beating a dead horse … dead … dead … dead …
I’m gonna throw a curve here (pun intended) and ask the blog a question -
Zack Greinke’s salary jumps up to $13.5 MM for the next (last) 2 years of his contract and the Royals have supposedly made it known that “they will listen to offers.” (as one poster here already translated, this means they are now willing to relieve a team of their top prospect(s) in exchange for a player they can no longer afford to keep)
Should the Yankees be interested? If so, do we give up one of our top prospects? He DID have a sub-.500 record in 2010 (but it WAS the Royals). On the other hand, he DOES have a Cy Young season on his resume. He was unhittable for much of 2009.
If they go after him, do they also sign Lee? Will their budget allow for this?
Or should it be either Lee or Greinke, but not both? Lee turns 33 next August! Greinke’s only 27. But Lee has the better resume and doesn’t need a shrink and meds (can Zack even handle NY???).
Most important of all, will Cliff Lee insist during negotiations that the Yankees allow him to keep that silly looking “soul patch” under his lip??? Or will Hal insist he shave it? Inquiring minds want to know!!!
Thinking about it it’s getting Lee’s pitch count up that maybe the key to the next game. Trouble is the guy throws strikes in the right places. It’s tough to get him out of the game until the late innings.
Doreen, I didn’t know that the person who spoke ‘jive” on Airplane was Barbara Billingsley!
Al-
It was just local through one of the Canyons near our home.
I do it when I don’t have anything more special planned.
It’s good exercise, convenient, and still inspiring. Very lucky it’s in our backyard.
Glad you are well.
That was a quick way for the Vikings to tie it.
Gary, that’s the thing with Lee. His control is pinpoint … 18 BB in 212 IP! That’s ridiculous!
BIG AL October 17th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
“…Chad stated there was no evidence that the person being accused on the blog by WCYF, had anything to do with that outing of Nick’s personal information”.
****************
Interesting, in that I never mentioned anyone by name. Make that more than interesting.