Without Farnsworth, bullpen gives away another game

August 9, 2008 by Benjamin Kabak 24 Comments

Since joining the Detroit Tigers on August 1, Kyle Farnsworth has been a bit less than impressive. He’s thrown 4.2 innings, allowing seven hits and four earned runs. By all accounts, his Detroit performance has been something of a market correction after a stellar four months in the Bronx. But, right now, the Yanks actually miss him.

This afternoon, in Anaheim, the Yanks’ bullpen imploded. While Dan Giese exceeded expectations and earned himself another start, after Giese left the game, everything fell apart. Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez and David Robertson combined for the worst two innings I’ve seen any bullpen toss in a long time. The three gave up 11 hits and 10 runs — nine earned — en route to blowing a 3-1 Yankee lead. When the dust finally settled, the Angels walked away 11-4 winners, and with the Red Sox winning, the Yanks saw their October hopes slip further away.

Offensively, the Yanks didn’t do much against John Lackey and the Angels. A-Rod homered for the second straight day; Jason Giambi added his second post-mustache home run; Damon singled; and Jeter hit a sac fly. That would be all the Yanks would muster against the Angels.

But again the story focused around the bullpen. After giving up the game on Friday night, the gang out of the pen did it again tonight. In August, the pen has been beyond horrible. They’ve thrown 28.2 innings with an ERA of 8.16. They’ve blown Yankee leads and close games; they’ve snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and have stymied potential comebacks. It has, in a word, been a disaster.

Ironically, the problems started when Kyle Farnsworth was shipped out for Ivan Rodriguez. While Farnsworth was never a sure bet, he provided stability in relief. With Krazy Kyle around, the rest of the Yankees relief corps were all pushed back an inning. But when Kyle left and Damaso Marte arrived, the New World Bullpen Order collapsed. Marte hasn’t yet filled in for Farnsworth, and no one else is getting the job done.

Perhaps, this rough patch is just one of those things that happens in August when everyone’s feeling the aches and pains of a 162-game season. Perhaps the pen will snap out of it and restore itself to its July grandeur. But right now, it’s costing the Yankees precious games in August in a pennant race, and I actually find myself missing Kyle Farnsworth. What ever have we come to?

Old Ranger

The thing that surprises me the most is, Robertson. This guy has very good stuff and good command of the strike zone. This is the time of the year arms get very dead, being his 2nd year in pro ball (I think) he may have run into this problem. If that is the case, he’ll snap out of it. The rest of the guys have had a bad week too. They’ll snap out of it now! Or, the bus goes both ways guys! 27/08 ??
- Manimal
  
  because of the long relief situation alot of these guys have been getting almost no rest which doesn’t help the Dead arms.
  - Old Ranger
    
    Joe G. has been trying to give these guys rest but, when one has the starters only going 3 to 5 innings a start…oh well, we all can see it.
    I liked the fact of Joe getting upset with the reporters, good for him! 27/08??
Guiseppe Franco

I don’t miss Farnsworth. At all.

In fact, I really hope Cashman doesn’t view this stretch as a reason to bring him back next season.

I might have to go find Cashman and punch him dead in the face if that happens.
- dan
  
  One- cashman isn’t bringing him back
  two- I doubt he’d want to come back after being traded (yea I know he wanted to stay)
  three- I enjoyed your interview on metsblog the other day
  - Guiseppe Franco
    
    Don’t be so sure. It was stupid to sign Farnsworth in the first place yet Cashman did it.
Steve S

Its time for Melancon, as much as they have said they wouldnt bring him up, its time to bring up a fresh arm who can succeed in high leverage situations.

Its easy to feel sorry for them but it looks as though Joba will be back. Hughes should be ready in a week. They seem to play well against the Twins, if they can salvage this game and then take two of three from the Twins, then they will have tread enough water to make the first week of September meaningful.
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike A.
  
  I don’t think Melancon is the answer. It’s not smart, or even fair to him, to call him up and basically throw him to the wolves in high leverage situations. Joba did it last year, but that’s such a unique case, Joba’s in his own little world.
  
  What happens if Melancon comes up and doesn’t do the job? The media, the fans, everyone will get on him just like they did with Hughes & Kennedy, fair or not.
  
  The guys out in the pen need to perform better. They pitched well earlier in the season, so they’ve shown they can do the job. Just because the bullpen goes through a 10 day rough patch doesn’t mean it needs to be blown up.
http://www.myspace.com/lincolnsworld Link

I think they’re just tired plain and simple and that stretch of exceptional pitching was way over their heads as opposed to their actual level of performance…we’ll see how it plays out but i was concerned with the dynamic change bringing in marte and shipping out farns and hawkins would have…hopefully they can either get rest or bring in britton, melancon and cox and see wasup….
http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike A.

I think that’s an excellent point Ben. Farnsworth, even though no one ever felt comfortable with him on the mound, provided a sense of stability. He pushed everyone else back and inning, and guys more or less had defined roles – Veras was the 7th inning guy, while Edwar & Robertson were the middle guys that came in to put out the fires. Now it’s just a mess, who’s the 8th inning guy? Who’s the middle man? No one knows, the relievers come to the park each day not knowing what kind of situation to prepare for.

I know it’s cliche, but it’s important for guys to know their roles in the pen. Maybe it’s best to just let Bruney handle the 8th inning, and let the other guys fall back into place. Dispatch Marte for those tough lefties in big spots, and let the other guys do their job around him.
- kris
  
  Just a short while ago, people praised Girardi for not pinning the bullpen guys into fixed roles. Unlike Torre’s team, it’s not Proctor, Farnsworth, Mo for close games, and everyone else for mop-ups. The bullpen guys also seemed energized by the opportunity for getting the outs regardless of the inning. So that’s not true anymore?
  - http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike A.
    
    I thought it was pretty obvious that Girardi locked guys into roles, moreso than Torre, which is a good thing. If the Yanks had the lead, it was cookbook: Veras-Farnsworth-Mo. If they were down big, it was Ohlendorf/Giese and Hawkins, otherwise it was Edwar and Robertson.
stuart

Arod at 220 with RISP, is this still considered a small sample size? the league avg is 240.. that includes every hack you can imagine..

arod need to see a shrink and get some mental help… 115 games or so and arod is hitting 220 WITH RISP and you are going to tell me it is a small sample size!!!!!!!!!!

there offense was there usually unclutch all day today, yes the pen imploded but if you team has 5 or 6 runs it is easier to pitch then with 3 runs..
- barry
  
  ARod sucks.
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike A.
  
  Yeah, we should have gotten Mike Lowell instead. He has more balls than A-Rod despite having one fewer testicle.
- mustang
  
  I agree with your comment about A-Rod’s RISP # not what you expect from the “best player ever”. But that being said he hit a HR late in a scoreless game, which at the time meant a lot.
  Some of us are going to have to get use to the fact that we need to lower our expectations of A-Rod. That in reality he may never live up to what some us hope he could be.
BigBlueAL

In not so brighter news, both Tampa and the Red Sox won tonight….
tommy reynolds

the new york yankees make me beat up my liver more than i should
zs190

About the only silver lining I find in this game was that Giese was excellent today. He was on a 80-85 pitch count I hear so it made sense to take him out after 82. The fact that they got 6 great innings out of him was very encouraging for a low pitch count.

Bullpen just hasn’t done the job lately and honestly, I don’t know if JoeG is at fault here. Edwar and Veras have been good awesome, maybe I would have pitched Edwar 7th and Veras 8th instead but the fact is the kids just didn’t pitch well at all.

Frustrating loss and playoff chances slipping away, but not much they can do to fix it now. =(
- http://www.riveraveblues.com Mike A.
  
  Just need to win, only 4 games back in the wildcard. That’s not a huge deficiit. It just looks worse than it is because they’re playing like crap right now. Two weeks during their hot streak people were lining up the playoff rotation.
Efrem Goldman

Waswatching wrote about the curse of Farnsworth last week
mustang

I just have an overall question why can’t Hughes or Pavano throw their 80 pitches vs. the Twins. I mean wouldn’t that be a lot better then to watch IPK get hit around again?
Are there any reasons anyone can think of why they can’t because I can’t think of any?
- mustang
  
  They can do something like what they did with Joba when he came out of the pen they can have IPK as a long man if need be.
Andy In Sunny Daytona Beach

Call up Melvin Croussett. Sure he’s only 19 and pitching in the Dominican Summer League, but he needs to eat. And he’s left-handed strike-out machine. Maybe it’s too early.