LIKE I SAID,
Torre lost today's game last night. If he leaves Pettite in and doesn't use half his bullpen, he would have been willing to take Karstens out in the second inning like he needed to. I mean having given up 4 runs in 2 innings and having been lucky to not give up more (Abreu brought back an Ortiz homer) Karstens should not have been pitching to Ortiz in the fifth. Did you see the stuff he didn't have on his pitches. Did you see the middle of the plate locations he was hitting. He just didn't have it today and Sean Henn should have been in there early, handing off to Bruney, Proctor, Vizcaino and Farnsworth for the mid to late innings. If Torre leaves Pettite in last night, they might have won then and they might have won today, but the odds are they would have gotten one of them, which is all they needed for the series. Now they are facing the likelihood of a sweep and a sub-500 record. A sub 500 record! With Arod hitting out of his mind, Posada at 350, Jeter well over 300 etc etc.
On the larger scale,
I can root for a team that loses; I find it damn hard to root for a team that isn't even trying.
Item: every time Ortiz comes to the plate today they pitch to him, and I mean they feed him strikes. Manny is hitting fucking 179 for Chrissakes. At this moment Ortiz has no protection whatever. Make Manny beat you. Don't just throw in the towel and surrender the runs you know Ortiz will produce.
Item. If Damon can pinchhit, Damon can play. If Damon can't play and Matsui can't play and Posada can't play, then you have to get some offense elsewhere. Phelps can catch; have him catch. Nieves hasn't had a hit in the majors since 2002. He's got to be the only position player in baseball who has gone o for the last 5 years. He gives new, or I should say literal meaning tto the phrase automatic out. He can't be playing at the same time you are playing a second string outfield and the weakest hitting corner infielder in the major leagues. Not at a bandbox like Fenway.
Item Matsui was eligible to come off the DL by now. Why the hell isn't if off the DL? He's better, I know that. He's coming back to take on the Rays! By all means, don't bring out your best for Boston.
Item Wang has been eligible to come off the DL for some time. A week ago he completed a successful rehab start. Instead of bringing him up for this series, when they so badly needed him, the Yankees send him out on a second rehab start and propose to bring him back for the Rays! Why pitch your number one starter against the Red Sox when there's a thursday night game in Class A Greenville or something.
What is most sickening about all of this is that Torre gets a pass because the team has been so "plagued with injuries" when in fact he milks these maladies like a schoolboy confronting a math test. It's not that he doesn't rush people back, it's that he delays bringing back those who have been pronounced healthy. He insists upon sitting people for minor bruises and strains. And he refuses to allow the completely healthy, like Pettitte, to perform for the full duration of their prowess. If you put all these things together, you have to say that he doesn't really try to win, or at least he absolutely refuses to struggle for victory. He refuses to push his millionaires or, in the case of gamers like Matsui, Pettitte and Damon, he refuses to allow them to push themselves. And I have to tell you, as someone who a) pushes myself at my own work and b) sweats the fate of this team on a daily basis, I feel not disappointed in Torre, not only disgusted with Torre, I feel, frankly, ripped off by Torre--and by his enabler Brian Cashman.
Steinbrenner was frequently a buffoon, always a blowhard and usually a terrible evaluator of big league talent, with an overdeveloped fetishism for big name vets past their prime. But at his best, and even at his worst, he understood that for the fans who were paying the freight for the endeavor of Yankeedom, it was more than a game, more than a pasttime, that it demanded of them a great deal more than time and the willingness to be entertained, and that as a result he and his organization owed them something in the way of unremitting effort. When I look at the Yankees this year, I feel like that ethos is as dim a memory as Steinbrenner's own has become.
Remember how George became a figure of national fun for his hair trigger firing of managers. Well there's nothing funny, or fun, about his senility-induced failure to fire this one. For the last 2 years, Joe Torre has ruined a team. But now, with his fully developed, fully sanctioned, win at no cost attitude, he is ruining a organization.
On the larger scale,
I can root for a team that loses; I find it damn hard to root for a team that isn't even trying.
Item: every time Ortiz comes to the plate today they pitch to him, and I mean they feed him strikes. Manny is hitting fucking 179 for Chrissakes. At this moment Ortiz has no protection whatever. Make Manny beat you. Don't just throw in the towel and surrender the runs you know Ortiz will produce.
Item. If Damon can pinchhit, Damon can play. If Damon can't play and Matsui can't play and Posada can't play, then you have to get some offense elsewhere. Phelps can catch; have him catch. Nieves hasn't had a hit in the majors since 2002. He's got to be the only position player in baseball who has gone o for the last 5 years. He gives new, or I should say literal meaning tto the phrase automatic out. He can't be playing at the same time you are playing a second string outfield and the weakest hitting corner infielder in the major leagues. Not at a bandbox like Fenway.
Item Matsui was eligible to come off the DL by now. Why the hell isn't if off the DL? He's better, I know that. He's coming back to take on the Rays! By all means, don't bring out your best for Boston.
Item Wang has been eligible to come off the DL for some time. A week ago he completed a successful rehab start. Instead of bringing him up for this series, when they so badly needed him, the Yankees send him out on a second rehab start and propose to bring him back for the Rays! Why pitch your number one starter against the Red Sox when there's a thursday night game in Class A Greenville or something.
What is most sickening about all of this is that Torre gets a pass because the team has been so "plagued with injuries" when in fact he milks these maladies like a schoolboy confronting a math test. It's not that he doesn't rush people back, it's that he delays bringing back those who have been pronounced healthy. He insists upon sitting people for minor bruises and strains. And he refuses to allow the completely healthy, like Pettitte, to perform for the full duration of their prowess. If you put all these things together, you have to say that he doesn't really try to win, or at least he absolutely refuses to struggle for victory. He refuses to push his millionaires or, in the case of gamers like Matsui, Pettitte and Damon, he refuses to allow them to push themselves. And I have to tell you, as someone who a) pushes myself at my own work and b) sweats the fate of this team on a daily basis, I feel not disappointed in Torre, not only disgusted with Torre, I feel, frankly, ripped off by Torre--and by his enabler Brian Cashman.
Steinbrenner was frequently a buffoon, always a blowhard and usually a terrible evaluator of big league talent, with an overdeveloped fetishism for big name vets past their prime. But at his best, and even at his worst, he understood that for the fans who were paying the freight for the endeavor of Yankeedom, it was more than a game, more than a pasttime, that it demanded of them a great deal more than time and the willingness to be entertained, and that as a result he and his organization owed them something in the way of unremitting effort. When I look at the Yankees this year, I feel like that ethos is as dim a memory as Steinbrenner's own has become.
Remember how George became a figure of national fun for his hair trigger firing of managers. Well there's nothing funny, or fun, about his senility-induced failure to fire this one. For the last 2 years, Joe Torre has ruined a team. But now, with his fully developed, fully sanctioned, win at no cost attitude, he is ruining a organization.
posted by joe valente | 6:27 PM
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