Disabled former Yank

April 6, 2008 by Joe Pawlikowski 11 Comments

The Rockies placed Luis Vizcaino on the DL with a strained shoulder. I’m having a hard time not saying: “Well, duh, he was a ‘trusted vet’ in Joe Torre’s bullpen last year.” But, uh, I guess I just did.

Rich

I wouldn’t have given him a month to month contract.
Vincent

I have a feeling that it will only take a few more Farnsworth appearances before fans start to miss Torre’s overuse of dime-a-dozen mediocre journeymen relievers. Girardi’s insistence that Farnsworth can pitch in the middle of innings and on back-to-back days is a far bigger threat to the success of the Yankees than Torre’s preference for going with the hot hand.
- zack
  
  Um, it is? How is that exactly? I wouldn’t call it “going with the hot hand” so much as going with th same two people over and over again…And its not like Torre didn’t try damn hard to force Farnsworth into that 8th inning role
- ikl
  
  I disagree. Torre’s babying of Farnsworth was one of the causes of other relief pitchers being overworked the past two years. Treating Farnsworth as an ordinary relief pitcher and not a set up man to be only used for one inning (usually the 8th) makes the bullpen more flexible. And it makes it much easier to use Farnsworth as something other than a set up man – a role in which I would prefer never to see him again. The downside is that Farnsworth might be more likely to get hurt. But frankly, given his poor performance over the past two years, there is no excuse for burning out our most trusted middle reliever (Proctor in 2006 and Vizcaino in 2007) to protect Farnsworth’s arm and back.
  - Vincent
    
    Uhh…Proctor was burned out in 2006??? His 2.28 era in the 2nd half and 1.65 era in Sept/Oct suggest otherwise. Heavy usage does not mean he was burned out. And Vizcaino’s 2007 stats were right in line with his career averages. There is no statisical evidence that shows Proctor or Viz were “burned out”, but let’s not let facts get in the way of a lazy argument.
    - steve (different one)
      
      how about Vizcaino’s numbers in September after being used with 5-8 run leads all through august?
      
      the bullpen has been pretty great so far, outside of Hawkins.
      
      i’m not sure what has warranted the potshot at Girardi.
    - Rich
      
      Torre overused Tom Gordon in 2004 to the point where he was burned out by the time the playoffs rolled around, having pitched the most innings in his career since he was a starter. To make matters worse, Torre used him with a 9 RUN LEAD in Game 3 of the ALCS v. the Sox after using him in Games 1 and 2.
      
      Another example, Paul Quantrill’s Pre-AS ERA in 2004 was 3.05, while it was 7.09 Post-AS.
      
      The only people that will miss Torre’s bullpen management are the people who defended him even when he was running it into the ground.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=56352514 Jamal G.

Yeah, I was watching the game when it happened. It was yesterday in COL loss to the DBacks (finally showing that offense, and I was wrong about Upton, thought it would take him till mid-season to start smacking the ball like he can) and he was warming up, then all of a sudden he stopped and Micah Bowie began to warm up and entered the game and struck out the final two batters (including Upton).

You had to know something was wrong because the final two batters were RH while Bowie is a LHP. Viz was warming for those two then all of a sudden he just stood in the pen as Bowie began to loosen.
Irving Schlemiel

Irving wishes both Farnscardiac and LatroyBoy both strain their shoulders very soon for the sake of Yankee fans everywhere.

But that would sound cruel.
http://yankeesetc.blogspot.com/ Travis G.

with any luck, Farnsy will go down with a strained (pick your body part) from overuse, then we can bring up one of: Patterson, Britton, Edwar, Horne, etc.
RollignWave

to be fair though. Latroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth were both part of the only bullpen that might have been worse than Torre’s

the 2003 Cubs