Aug

Chris Britton watched this game in a hotel room surrounded by empty beer bottles and hot women

It’s 3:30 a.m. Do you know where your Chris Britton is?

This evening, I left work at around 6:30, had drinks and dinner and saw a show at the NYC Fringe Festival. I came home at 12:30 a.m. with all of the intention of going to bed. Instead, it was the 4th inning. So I watched 8 painful innings of baseball. Lovely.

Here’s your recap in convenient bullet-point form. Yes, I’m bitter at this game.

From the “I’m Just Saying” Department: Chris Britton in the Minors this year: 56.0 IP, 49 H, 14 BB, 57 K, 2.41 ERA. Chris Britton in the Majors this year: 5.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 1.80 ERA. And yet, Sean Henn?
Mariano Rivera has now given up 15 hits over his 7.1 IP. Add three runners via the BB, and his WHIP during that stretch is an unsightly 2.53. This isn’t just a stretch of a few games. This is a stretch of seven appearances in which at least one runner is on base. Something is not right.
Sean Henn should not be pitching in the bullpen for the New York Yankees. It’s that simple. He’s blown two games in extra innings this week, and whereas Chris Britton throws strikes, Henn has a 1:1 K:BB ratio. He can’t buy his way into the strike zone.
I hate to be the one to write this, but the Yanks are looking mighty dead in the water right now. Because of Sean Henn, they are now four behind behind the Mariners in the loss column in the Wild Card race and are essentially finished in the AL East. They’re 6.5 behind the Red Sox, and it will take a six-game sweep of the remaining season series for the Yanks to have any shot at catching Boston. The Mariners also need to start losing.
Can no Yankee reliever pitch more than one inning at a time?
Do the Yanks have a strategy in the late innings? Bunting with Derek Jeter and not with Robinson Cano. Going inside on Carlos Guillen after he missed outside pitches. Pitching to Carlos Guillen with a horrendously ineffective Ivan Rodriguez on deck. Sure, hindsight is 20-20, but these were things I was shouting to my TV as the game unfolded. What does Joe Torre know that no one else does around here?
Seriously. Inside pitches from Sean Henn are batting practice fastballs. Let me beat that dead horse for a few more bullet points.
Roger Clemens has to pitch better than this if the Yanks are going to make it past the end of September this year. For $1 million a start, he can’t pitch like Mike Mussina every time he goes out there. With this lackluster effort tonight, six of his 14 starts have been pretty pathetic.

That’s it. I’m going to bed. What a way for the Yanks’ season to start heading down the drain.

Thanks to Emma for the inspiration behind the title of this post.

Categories : Game Stories

10 Comments»

Stuart says:

August 25, 2007 at 3:58 am

1 inning relievers, and guys who cannot go consecutive days, then you have the JOba rules..it is stupid at this point we can se he may be great use him more but wisely or end this tease.

there last 2 guys in the pen at present are stiifs and with kyle not going back to back games and the joba rules this is a friggin joke..

i have been saying for a while not that britton will be a savior but the guy deserves a shot give the guy a shot………

what a joke………

Ivan says:

August 25, 2007 at 4:17 am

Ben K, I can;t believe you are talking like this.

“What a way for the Yanks’ season to start heading down the drain.”

Come on Ben, we have more than month of the season left and we are in a tough part of the schedule. 3GB is not impossible.

Besides Seattle is bound to lose at some point. don’t worry.

As for the bunting thing, I wouldn’t bunt with cano, Cano can’t bunt and I,ve seen him bunt before and looks very unconfortable doing it, so whats the point there. To me I wouldn;t bunt with Cano.

Jeter is tough because of the simple fact that melky stole second anyway, plus, you risk taking the bat out of rodriguez hands. If I am going down I am going down with A-rod swinging. Plus, I hate it alot when jeter bunts. Your Fucking Derek Jeter, one of the better hitters in baseball, swing the damn bat please especially in late spots.

Ivan says:

August 25, 2007 at 4:18 am

Nevertheless, this game was definitely fustrating.

Ivan says:

August 25, 2007 at 4:21 am

Plus, with Henn on the mound with sub average control, I wouldn’t put him in a spot with the bases loaded with pudge at the plate. Like you said, henn can’t throw strikes consistently, and he probably walks in the run which would be worse than a walk off hr. Nevertheless, Henn sucks and the only reason he is on the team is because he throws with his left hand.

Patrick says:

August 25, 2007 at 9:42 am

Ok, so I fall asleep last night because my MLB Radio decided to fart out at around 2 am. I wake up this morning only to find that Sean “@!&@#&*@&@#&*(*#@(*#@(*(#*@” Henn gave it up like a prom date again(not mine of course, she gave me the cold shoulder). While there was mention of the two games he blew in recent weeks, my lasting memory is Sean Henn versus Manny Ramirez earlier this season. I mean, I always thought that Manny ate left-handed pitching for breakfast when him and Papi weren’t pawning their goods on Ebay. Maybe we find a way to get Henn out of there almost the way we get proctor out of there. Right now, I’d rather see Kei Igawa as the left-handed reliever or maybe even let Guidry come out of the come. For goodness sake, Joe Torre. Stop the insanity! I don’t think Britton slept with Torre’s wife. I think Torre slept with Henn’s sister and Henn has the pictures to prove it. We’ve got to find out what kind of money Henn would take to destroy the negatives.

monkeypants says:

August 25, 2007 at 10:50 am

Season down the drain? Maybe, but if so, that drain was built in April and May. Anyway, one of two things has to happen: 1] the M’s lose once or twice this season, or 2] they will pass the Angels. There are three Yanks-M’s games left, but perhaps more importantly the M’s and Angels have seven games against each other. So it’s not just about Seattle; the Yankees still stand a very good chance of overtaking the loser of the Mariners-Angels battle.

Ben K. says:

August 25, 2007 at 11:26 am

Now that I’ve had a chance to sleep on it, I think that “start heading down the drain” may have been said out of frustration. But the truth is that the Yanks need to win games like this against struggling teams. They shouldn’t be in a position for this to happen. I would have rather seen Bruney or Mussina in the 11th than Sean Henn last night. It’s just sloppy managing.

Relaunch says:

August 25, 2007 at 12:03 pm

Agree with Ben. Good teams win games like this. Too many wasted opportunities.

Ben K. says:

August 25, 2007 at 4:41 pm

This is just a test.
This is also a test.

This is more of a test