The front office is hopeless!

by flconticello on May 5, 2008 11:12 AM EDT Comment 14 comments

I just don't understand what they are doing. They tell us all off-season that we as fans need to be patient with the development of young pitchers then they pull Ian Kennedy from the rotation and roster at the first sign of trouble. If you look at his last 2 starts he really only had one bad inning in each and really wasn't helped at all by his defense. They are telling him to throw strikes and guys like Bobby Abreau (who is an aweful outfielder) and Damon are misjudging balls all over the lot. It' s not like he's giving up gofer balls ...he's yet to let one leave the park.

Someone please tell me the #1 ace pitcher who in their rookie year was dominant......times up... there aren't any.

The problem with the yankee front office is that they are too influenced by the media. They hear that these guys should be sent down...low an behold they are sent down.

They hear that Jaba should remain in the bullpen where his talents are wasted...he's staying in the bullpen....

A little advice....make a plan, grow a backbone and stick with the plan!

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I think the front office has made some

questionable decisions… but saying they are influenced by the media is a ridiculous statement. If anything the media has been calling for Joba to start. And as for Kennedy- there’s a difference between a rookie pitcher not being dominant and looking lost out there, and he has been the latter this year so far. I would rather have him work on his mechanics somewhere where there is less pressure (i.e. AAA), and then come up and be a productive memeber of the big club.

The front office doesn’t have a whole lot fans on this blog, but your arguments in this post don’t really hold much weight in my opinion.

The Jayfiss Report ...one fan's rants

by NumberSeven on May 5, 2008 11:37 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

RE: I think the fron office...

What media are you reading or listening to. Everyone I hear is calling for Joba to be the next closer and saying :” Joba is dominant in the setup role so leave him there….we don’t know if he can start”.

My point in the whole thing is that they need to show the patience that they asked the fans for. And let’s not get too excited about Rasner…4 batters in the lineup were batting under .200 for the season.

by flconticello on May 5, 2008 1:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Gooden and Verlander

I named two for you.

And despite the talk shows and back pages, Hank, Cashman, and Girardi have not wavered from their stance that Joba will be moved to the rotation.

"Well, that kind of puts a damper on even a Yankees win."
-- Phil Rizzuto after hearing about the Pope's death

by matthaggs on May 5, 2008 11:58 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Gooden and Verlander

Gooden was a freak and I’ll give you that one but could we get someone contemporary.

Have you taken a look at Verlander in ‘08:
SPLITS G GS CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB SO W L P/GS WHIP BAA ERA
Season 7 7 0 0 43.0 42 35 30 6 20 25 1 5 107.9 1.44 .251 6.28

And a 3.63 with a .265 BA against isn’t what I’d call dominant in his rookie year not to mention early that year and the 2 starts the year before he got roughed up pretty good…do your homework. They just had the patience the yankees need to exihibit.

The point is you can look at pretty much any great pitcher early in their career and it looks pretty bad….look at Sandy Koafax’s first 4 years…had an era over 5 for those years until it finally clicked.

Yes Hank has been saying he wants Joba to start but if you read between the lines is sounds like Cashman and Girardi want him in the 8th.

by flconticello on May 5, 2008 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You’re telling us to be patient based on the small number of starts for Kennedy, then you bring up Verlander’s numbers in ‘08 – based on 7 starts. There’s a difference between patience and blind faith. IPK was putting up stinkbomb after stinkbomb.

You can be bad as a rookie if you’re on a bad team, as was the case for a lot of these guys. But the Yankees are a good team, and Kennedy has to make it past the 5th inning if he wants to stay here. The Yankees did the right thing by sending him down. He has no confidence right now, and its hard to be successful without that.

"Well, that kind of puts a damper on even a Yankees win."
-- Phil Rizzuto after hearing about the Pope's death

by matthaggs on May 5, 2008 1:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think that the most important thing to look

at is the schedule coming up. If IPK were to stay with the team, he would be needed to pitch once in the next month. Thats the only time we need a fifth starter.

So developmentally is it better for him to sit around in the bullpen and throw good bullpen sessions with Dave Eiland? or is it better for him to go to the minors, get the ball every 5th day and continue pitching to hitters. I would say the 2nd would be better. And if he dominates down in triple A and gets some of hte confidence we saw last year return then its an added bonus. I just htink the most important thing is for him to make his starts.

Crowds are won and lost and won again, but our hearts beat for the diehards.

by Edwantsacracker on May 5, 2008 1:18 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Great point

Hopefully, 4 or 5 weeks in Scranton will get him re-focused.

I always feel pressure. What I don't have is fear. -- El Duque

by LateInningRelief on May 5, 2008 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Prefer he be with Eiland, however ...

He hasn’t pitched badly in his last two starts. But without a dominant pitch, he must rely on command to be successful. In his 23.2 innings, he walked 20, and righties were torching him at a .356 clip. Obviously his command was off—WAY OFF.

Given he isn’t going to be needed in the next month, I think it makes great sense that he go down to Scranton and regain his command, poise and confidence. I think it’s the perfect move. IPK said himself that he wasn’t as confident as he was last year. Scranton is the perfect place for him to start building his 2008 resume with success.

"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will

by Ronster22 on May 5, 2008 3:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tailgating yesterday

PinstripePowerhouse made a great point: while keeping Hughes around Eiland makes sense, IPK only worked with Eiland over 3 starts at AAA and when Eiland came up to the big club in September. We might have overstated the Eiland-Kennedy rapport.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on May 5, 2008 6:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't think so.

Great point about how little IPK has actually worked with Eiland, but from what I’ve gathered is that Eiland landed the job in part because of his rapport with young pitchers. A scout friend of mine says that Eiland reminds him of Brad Arnsberg (a former NYY #1 draft pick) who has a great reputation developing young pitching talent.

Regardless, I think IPK going to Scranton is a good idea.

"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will

by Ronster22 on May 6, 2008 9:58 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Tim Hudson, Roy Oswalt and C.C. Sabathia

are the three current starters who have been pretty dominant from their first season in the big leagues. I could also add Chien-Ming Wang, but some people would complain becasue he did not dominate Cleveland in last years playoff series.

But, of all the pitchers since 1900 with at least 50 decisions, Wang’s record of 52-18 translates to a .743 winning percentage – the best winning percentage OF ALL TIME!

Give me Wang any day over 5-6 inning starters who get “quality starts” but never win any games because they don’t go deep into games.

by thejobarules on May 6, 2008 3:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs