OH "IT'S A SHAME"

alwright. Joe Torre was heard to say after the latest wasted game that it was a shame that Igawa, who allowed 3 hits and 2 er over 5.1, "couldn't get the win." The underlying shame is that Torre was allowed to continue managing this team after last year made his incapacities so abundantly clear. His knee-jerk bullpen strategy alone is cause for dismissal. At the star to fhtis year, he stated that he was going to be careful not to over use Farnsworth. It had come to his attention that the big F.... did not pitch so well on consecutive nights or if he logged too many pitches. So having pitched consecutive nights in Minnesota, the second of which resulted in a four run blowout inning that cost the game, the big F.... was back in there last night in the seventh losing another one. Listen, Bruney is a one inning stalwart and was again last night, Vizcaino is literally the best thing to happen to the Yankees bullpen since Ramiro Mendoza lost his sinker, Nelson lost his slider, and Stanton lost his nerve. Mo should have had the ball in the ninth with a one run lead and the game all but over. Instead Torre winds up burning Vizcaino for 2 innings, Bruney for 1.1, Meyers, Procter and the big F.... all in a loss. Now his bullpen is stressed and he's got nothing to show for it other than a temporarily overrested Rivera.

At this point, I am ready to concede that the biggest problem we have is not that Torre is a bad field tactician, which I have been proving chapter and verse since this blog began; the biggest problem now is that he is a terrible manager for this team. First of all, we should be starting a youth movement, particularly on the mound, where Karstens, Hughes, Sanchez, and others should be getting their shot. But Slow Joe, to quote myself, believes youth is something you need to outgrow. Not the manager for this moment.

Secondly, and more immendiately, Brian Cashman secured the Yankees some real bullpen depth this off-season. He deserves kudos for that--but total brickbats for supporting the one manager most likely to squander the resource. With all that relief possibility, a subtle and flexible straegy of deployment is increasingly necessary. A slow Joe is a rigid Joe, which is why we'll never see any such thing out of him. I'll give you my one example. What pray tell is the biggest weakness of the big F.... (not counting his mind or his lower back)? Why it's the proclivity for giving up the long ball. 100 MPH pitchers with too little movement are funny that way. What is the greatest strength of the big F.... (other than extracting excessive compensation for uneven work)? why overpowering the singles hitters and the weaker hitters. What pray tell can we learn, strategically, from this rather obvious set of facts. I don't know, how about you pick your situations, look at who is coming to bat for the other team, and adjust your bullpen rotation accordingly. For the moment, you pitch Vizcaino and Bruney in the tougher set up situations, Procter and Henn in the medium tough situations and Farnsworth and Meyer where teams look weak. Sometimes that will mean bringing Vizcaino in earlier--so what, is he addicted to the 8th inning? This know your role crap that the espninnies trot out is so overblown. Vizcaino's role will be to get out the meat of the other teams lineup whenver it shows up from the middle of the 6th to the 8th inning. The big F...will be charged with getting out the less dangerous segments over the same period etc etc etc. To trumpet "roles" in defense of the likes of Slow Joe is really to defend designating roles strictly on a rigid and arbitrary inning-identified system. That may define the limits of status quo Joe's imagination and it certainly defines the limits of the espninnies', but it is not a necessary nor, in this case, a productive or even acceptable managerial mode.

I really think this is the best bullpen the Yanks have had since the glory days of Nelson to Stanton to Ramiro to Mo. But it is also a more complicated and fussy machine than that one. It's like a Fiat which is currently being serviced by a superannuated mechanic at Ford motor.