I stand chastened
The dreaded words "And now pitching for the New York Yankees, Scott Proctor," were heard last night, and were heard with 2 men on and the Man(ny) at the plate, and disaster did not ensue, as I would have, and have, predicted. To the contrary Proctor blew Manny away with a high 95mph fastball and went on to complete an impressive hold. Earlier in the day Torre was quoted as saying that Proctor was not the same guy as last year, and while I think he has pretty much been that guy until very recently, I must conceded he was not that guy last night. One of the good things about all this, of course, is that Tanyon Sturtze is surely done now, to BGW's immeasurable relief.
I was less impressed with AROD's resurrection. Schilling grooved one in the middle innings and he hit it a long way, but it was the middle innings, the Yankees were not behind (which is when he really stinks) and so it barely qualified, if at all, as a clutch situation. The fact that he was able to field a routine grounder with men on base was even less noteworthy, particularly since his throw almost pulled Giambi off the bag.
Damon had his single worst moment as a Yankee in the first inning of last night's game. Having fallen behind 2 strikes, he just waved at a ball in the dirt, belying his reputation as a selective hitter and ferocious 2 strike warrior. I think the shame of his performance got through to him, howver, because after that he was a different hitter. The next at bat, he ripped a pitch to left that Manny had to make an uncharacteristically good play on, and then he singled to drive in the last Yankees run. Hopefully that first inning whiff, his 3rd in his last 4 at bats, was a turning point in his play against the Red Sox.
As for Cabrera, I hope when Sheffield returns, he stays on the team for his bat. But you just can't be putting him out in the field. Maybe he's still jst nervous, but he looked shaky on every routine fly ball that came his way.
It was so sweet to see "fat man self-promoting" get toasted last night. He's been rebuilding his ersatz legend against some pretty bad teams so far this year, but last night showed that he is vulnerable to a patient line-up. His fastball started out high 80's to 90 and then went up from there to 94-95. While this might have seemed a good sign from the chowderhead perspective, it really indicated that he was feeling tired and beginning to overthrow. Less than an inning after he established his fastball, it was leaving the park even faster. Schilling's performance was just about as bad as Johnson's the night before and served notice, I think, that these 2 guys will not be at the center of their repective teams fortunes this year. And if I'm right, it means that the fat man (unlike Johnson) will not be going to the Hall of Fame, and that judgement comes from none other than professional Red Sox doglicker Peter Gammons.
I was less impressed with AROD's resurrection. Schilling grooved one in the middle innings and he hit it a long way, but it was the middle innings, the Yankees were not behind (which is when he really stinks) and so it barely qualified, if at all, as a clutch situation. The fact that he was able to field a routine grounder with men on base was even less noteworthy, particularly since his throw almost pulled Giambi off the bag.
Damon had his single worst moment as a Yankee in the first inning of last night's game. Having fallen behind 2 strikes, he just waved at a ball in the dirt, belying his reputation as a selective hitter and ferocious 2 strike warrior. I think the shame of his performance got through to him, howver, because after that he was a different hitter. The next at bat, he ripped a pitch to left that Manny had to make an uncharacteristically good play on, and then he singled to drive in the last Yankees run. Hopefully that first inning whiff, his 3rd in his last 4 at bats, was a turning point in his play against the Red Sox.
As for Cabrera, I hope when Sheffield returns, he stays on the team for his bat. But you just can't be putting him out in the field. Maybe he's still jst nervous, but he looked shaky on every routine fly ball that came his way.
It was so sweet to see "fat man self-promoting" get toasted last night. He's been rebuilding his ersatz legend against some pretty bad teams so far this year, but last night showed that he is vulnerable to a patient line-up. His fastball started out high 80's to 90 and then went up from there to 94-95. While this might have seemed a good sign from the chowderhead perspective, it really indicated that he was feeling tired and beginning to overthrow. Less than an inning after he established his fastball, it was leaving the park even faster. Schilling's performance was just about as bad as Johnson's the night before and served notice, I think, that these 2 guys will not be at the center of their repective teams fortunes this year. And if I'm right, it means that the fat man (unlike Johnson) will not be going to the Hall of Fame, and that judgement comes from none other than professional Red Sox doglicker Peter Gammons.
posted by joe valente | 9:57 AM
1 Comments:
The numbers don't tell the whole story, of course, but Proctor is currently sitting on a 1.25 ERA and a WHIP that's just barely below 1. Maybe he's turned it around--he'd only pitched 70 major league innings before this year, after all. Let's hope... as you say, at least Sturtzy is lower on the depth chart.
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