Though it would be a bit much for a NY columnist to focus on the one thing no one in Boston or New York wants to acknowledge — that the 2005 Orioles might have a better pitching staff than either the Red Sox or Yankees (and certainly have enough offensive firepower to compete with anyone in the league) — Newsday’s Jon Heyman is comforable enough with his own bad self to reference his good buddy Curt Schilling with the title of today’s “Have Mystique & Aura Left The Building?”
Not only have the Yankees lost a lot of games already, they’ve lost their chance at intimidation. One AL exec said, “I don’t think people fear the Yankees at this point.”
GM Brian Cashman doesn’t disagree, saying, “Right now, if you’ve watched us … you want to play us.”
One AL scout recently offered these thoughts:
“Bernie’s banged up … When I saw Brown, he was soft. It wasn’t that hard, biting stuff you’re used to. I don’t think Brown’s going to be an asset … Jaret Wright was never a given. He came back, and his velocity came back. But he had arm trouble before. I’m just surprised it surfaced so early …
“I don’t fear Giambi anymore. He’s got big holes in his swing … Posada’s going to be OK. Tino, I don’t know. We’re talking age … Tom Gordon might have been over-used last year … Stanton can’t pitch anymore. I was surprised they got him … Joe’s been mixing and matching. Gimme a break. What was that old song? ‘I’ve been searching …'”
Some observations of my own:
They should have picked up Jon Lieber’s one-year, $8-million option rather than try to save pennies by offering $12 million over two years. “Everyone wanted Jon Lieber, but no one felt eight for one was justified,” Cashman said. “But I’m the [GM], so I’ll take responsibility for that misread of the pitching market.”
The rotation has been underwhelming (batting averages against heading into the weekend: Wright .400, Mike Mussina .361, Brown .346, Carl Pavano .288, Randy Johnson .211), and the radar-gun readings are down. Torre didn’t like readings being posted on the scoreboard because they can be “distracting.” Embarrassing, too.
Perhaps it’s time to question Mel Stottlemyre. Javier Vazquez, Jeff Weaver and Jose Contreras never pitched to expectations. Cashman countered those examples, pointing out that David Wells did his best work in pinstripes, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera developed under Stottlemyre and Tanyon Sturtze emerged. Cashman looked at the data, which he called “a hodgepodge” that doesn’t point one way or the other.
It’s been a rough afternoon for Yankee pitchers, Carl Pavano and Mike Stanton in particular, Toronto leading 8-6 after 8 innings. If you’re a fan of the Bombers (and I understand 3 or 4 of you are just that), I sincerely hope that you’ve paid your cable bill — the only way Michael Kay comes off like an intelligent, non-biased broadcaster is if you compare his TV work to the radio calls of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman. To hear Waldman wax poetic about Hideki Matsui’s “professionalism” when the left fielder knocked in Alex Rodriguez via a sacrifice fly to left was nothing short of cringe inducing. To believe Waldman’s account, Matsui intentionally interrupted his quest to break out of an acknowledged slump by popping up to Frank Catalanatto, thus helping his team. Going by the same logic, had Matsui blasted one out park, would that have been unprofessional (or unintentional?).
If the batter loops a pitch into the opposite field for a single, it’s what? A “nice piece of hitting.” If the same batter pulls the same pitch into the upper deck, Kay & Waldman (and many others) aren’t impressed.
It’s the American League in 2005 and almost every game is won with walks and homeruns. Yet, the Guardians of the Game still get thrilled with sac bunts and productive outs. Kay & Waldman aren”t so much pro-Yankee as they are pro-stupidity.
Oh, and let me guess … when Sojo waved Rodriguez around and he was easily thrown out at home, even though the relay throw was ten feet up the baseline … was Sojo described as “blind”? Or “mentally incapacitated”? Or was he described as “aggressive”?
Ted Lilly, Yhency Brazoban, Javier Vasquez, Kevin Brown, Jeff Weaver, Jake Westbrook, Denny Neagle. The list of pitchers who’ve had much greater success without Stottlemyre around in the past few years is much more impressive than the list of aging stud pitchers who tolerated him and pitched to something near their career averages. I’m not certain that developing 3 young pitchers in 10 years can’t be chalked up to coincidence anyway.
There was a time when Mr. S. developed young pitchers and I thought highly of his ability to do so (circa 1985-1988), but that time is long gone sadly.
your cheeseness,
I think Kevin Brown was at the end of the line when the Yanks acquired him for Jeff Weaver.
Denny Neagle’s hearing about the most expensive blow job of all time is later this week. Just wanted to drop that on you.
Couldn’t you make the argument that Jim Colburn was at least still getting productive innings out of Brown through the early 00’s? Like the old song says ‘The man can’t throw like he used to/at Penn State, Paterno will abuse you/I got a friend named Jodie, but here comes Odie/so Peace Out!’