It’s one thing to not be pitching well. Take Scott Proctor for example. He’s not finding the same kind of success he had last year, but he places the blame on himself (or his equipment, but a baseball player should be one with his equipment, and I’ll cut the faux philosophical baloney for now). Many people don’t want to see Proctor pitching right now, but fewer are calling for his immediate departure. That’s because the dude doesn’t bitch and whine.
Kyle Farnsworth, though, is not nearly as affable. He has been disastrous all year, and instead of taking the blame himself (which he apparently does when his PR guy tells him to), he blames external factors. From Pete Abraham’s blog”
“I don’t like [not pitching regularly] at all,” he said. “I didn’t come here to sit on the bench. That definitely doesn’t help.”
Well soooorrrry, Kyle, but you kind of have to earn playing time. It would be one thing to complain if he was rotting in the bullpen like Ron Villone was for the first few months of last season. But Farnsworth gets chance after chance, yet continues to fail. Hell, his manager even went out of his way to say he hasn’t seen any inconsistency from him, when any dunderhead with 20/40 vision could tell you otherwise.
The worst thing you can do to lead off the 8th inning is to walk a backup catcher with an OPS+ of 54. Likewise, the worst thing you can do after pitching poorly is to complain about your usage patterns. This isn’t to say we approve of Joe Torre’s bullpen usage; that’s an issue I’m just not prepared to address right now, because it’s reaching term paper level. There is, however, one golden rule of the Torre pen:
If you walk dudes, you’re going to sit for prolonged periods of time.
Of course, the more money you make the longer it takes for you to find a seat on the bench. But eventually you’re going to find your way there. The move for Farnsworth was long overdue, and that’s obvious to even the most staunch Kyle supporter — if there are any.
Our next game is at 7 p.m. on Tuesday; the trade deadline is at 4. Anyone think that Krazy Kyle will be sitting next to Mariano at that point?