06/02: Quick Strikes
Posted by: James
With Mariano, it's amusing that early on, there was a lot of clamor about how he was rusty and underused. Well, things have changed, huh? After the other night's masterful 3 inning beat down of the Tigers, his ERA is down to 2.30 thanks to a pretty good May (17.6 IP, 16 H, 3 BB, 11 Ks). His K/BB is back to its usual lofty heights (3.60:1) although his K rate (5.93 per 9) remains well below his career average (8.05 per 9 and 9.19 last year) and his BAA (.252) and WHIP (1.13) remain higher than his career rates (.218 BAA/1.05 WHIP). Hopefully, Mariano continues his climb back to his usual form. One thing to note is that Mariano's now on pace for 84 innnings, which would be his most ever, outside of his breakout 1996 season.
Speaking of overuse, the current posterboy would of course be Scott Proctor's who's on pace on 104 IP while Ron Villone, who has been a starter in his career is only on pace for 64. Proctor has been solid but Villone has been very good in his opportunities as well and I'd much rather see someone who has pitched 104 innings as recently as 2004 get the increased workload. As for Proctor, while the Yankees were smart to try to stretch out his arm last year (combined 87 innings between the majors and AAA), I'm very wary of seeing another pitcher get Karsay-ed (or Quantrill-ized or Flashed or whatever). As for Farnsworth, he's on pace for 73 IP which seems to be about right even though he has pitched 8 out of the last 10 days (and 7 out of the last 9 games).
Still, it's not the Yankees offense that has let down the staff (they have actually averaged more runs per game AFTER Matsui went down), so let's see some blowouts and deeper outings by the starters so we can get these guys some rest!
Finally, I'm a little disheartened to see Rasner being used as an arm out of the bullpen. While I'm happy he gets a shot, I'd much rather see him starting in Small's stead. It makes no sense to bring up the guy who's been a starter for his entire career (93 of his 95 appearances have been starts) to come up and pitch in relief. If that's what you wanted, you could have very easily brought up Jose Veras, the Beaner or even Ramiro Mendoza. I mean, if Rasner is just a stop-gap until the organization can call up Matt Smith again, it was a silly move to take Rasner out of his established spot and have him miss a start. We'll have to see what they were thinking. Who knows? They could surprise me and actually give Rasner the next spot start.
Speaking of overuse, the current posterboy would of course be Scott Proctor's who's on pace on 104 IP while Ron Villone, who has been a starter in his career is only on pace for 64. Proctor has been solid but Villone has been very good in his opportunities as well and I'd much rather see someone who has pitched 104 innings as recently as 2004 get the increased workload. As for Proctor, while the Yankees were smart to try to stretch out his arm last year (combined 87 innings between the majors and AAA), I'm very wary of seeing another pitcher get Karsay-ed (or Quantrill-ized or Flashed or whatever). As for Farnsworth, he's on pace for 73 IP which seems to be about right even though he has pitched 8 out of the last 10 days (and 7 out of the last 9 games).
Still, it's not the Yankees offense that has let down the staff (they have actually averaged more runs per game AFTER Matsui went down), so let's see some blowouts and deeper outings by the starters so we can get these guys some rest!
Finally, I'm a little disheartened to see Rasner being used as an arm out of the bullpen. While I'm happy he gets a shot, I'd much rather see him starting in Small's stead. It makes no sense to bring up the guy who's been a starter for his entire career (93 of his 95 appearances have been starts) to come up and pitch in relief. If that's what you wanted, you could have very easily brought up Jose Veras, the Beaner or even Ramiro Mendoza. I mean, if Rasner is just a stop-gap until the organization can call up Matt Smith again, it was a silly move to take Rasner out of his established spot and have him miss a start. We'll have to see what they were thinking. Who knows? They could surprise me and actually give Rasner the next spot start.
