Don’t forget the little guys in Game 2
ByThe focus of last night’s game is on Jerry Hairston and A-Rod, who played the biggest roles in the tying and winning runs. It’s great to have heroes to paste on the back page (or, in this case, the front page), but there are plenty of other players whose contributions kept the Yankees alive. Feinsand runs down the big names, and among them are a few smaller guys. Rebecca reminds us to not forget David Robertson, and I made sure to mention Mariano Rivera’s contribution in my YES game recap, however awkward it may have been to the flow of the article. Those guys kept the Yankees in the game.
Which brings me to the realization that I had with a buddy last night. Even if the 05, 06, and 07 Yanks got a start like that from Mussina, Wang, whoever, would the bullpen have been able to hold it? To answer my own question, hell no. Those pens simply weren’t deep enough.
are you trying to say that tanyon sturtze, scott proctor, paul quantrill, gabe white, mike myers, felix heredia and esteban loaiza werent up to snuff?
“Don’t forget the little guys in Game 2″
I read the title, and then read the post and was confused that Dustin Pedroia was not mentioned.
Well, they do have Figgens and Izturis.
BTW-MLB.com has Pedroia listed at 5′9″.
http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/t....._id=456030
Heh.
He was wearing his 6-inch stilettos on Team Photo and Measurement day.
Maybe they mean he’s 5 feet tall and 9 inches somewhere else?
It’s possible. There are some 9-inch long vaginas out there…
His vagine, it hang like sleeve of wizard.
Also, Swisher is also listed at 5′9″.
His height is listed at 5′11″, though.
I thought it was in reference to Ken Rosenthal.
Yea, it was a total team effort (I sound kinda like Swisher there)
Does this count as an open thread?
Salty’s champing at the bit to TALK SOME FOOTBALL ACTION!!!
Yea, but it kinda sucks the Broncos aren’t playing today. They play tomorrow when I know I won’t have much time. The stupid NE-TEN game is on here.
Does this count as an open thread?
Nope. 7 p.m. you’ll get one.
Got it.
What happened to there being an open thread on Sundays at 1pm? Also, I thought there was a promise of chats the day after every postseason game.
you greedy, greedy man
We’ve never done customary open threads at 1 p.m. on Sunday. As for the chats, Mike is going to host one tomorrow during the day. Weekends are slower.
What are these?
http://riveraveblues.com/2009/.....ats-17347/
http://riveraveblues.com/2009/.....day-13804/
http://riveraveblues.com/2009/.....ead-16241/
Yeah, I guess its better only allowing people to talk after 7 pm. Anything off topic before then is bad for the blog. Heaven forbid you ever post an open thread before then.
So now my comments won’t show? Can’t handle criticism? Oh well.
Mike: If you don’t chill out and let us run our the site the way we want to, you’ll be banned. Final warning. Your comment didn’t show up originally because it had too many links.
On weekends when we have other things to say, we don’t run open threads for you to talk about football. If you don’t like our posting schedule and our off-topic rules, feel free to go somewhere else. End of conversation.
KABAK YOU SOCIALIST BASTARD QUEER!!!!
/IronHorse’d
KABAK IF U CANT STAND THE HEAT STAY OUTTA TEH BLOGOSPHERE
YOUR MOTHER’S A WHORE KABAK!!
[/connery’d
i’m confused, are you implying that Mariano’s contribution is at risk for being overlooked?
sorry to nitpick, but i think most people are 100% aware of how huge he was last night.
Joe, who is Jon Lane & why is he credited with your YES recap?
He linked to the wrong recap. Here’s Joe’s:
http://tinyurl.com/yjwgogc
http://www.nomaas.org/images/angels_errors.jpg
I love No Maass.
The Yankees’ bullpen ERA from 2005-2007 was 3.23. This year it’s 1.57. That difference isn’t so great that “Those pens simply weren’t deep enough.”
Among their outings were 8 IP/2 ER, 6.2IP/1 ER (same as last night), and 5.1/0 ER after having much more taxing seasons due to fewer starter innings and Torre’s style of bullpen management.
The key isn’t the relievers, it’s the starters. From 2005-07, NY starters went 6 or more innings 6 times. That’s already been done 5 times this season. The starters’ ERA in those past seasons was 6.83. This year it’s 1.63.
You have a point, but it’s not applicable here.
The point of the post is that since this game went 13 innings, it required more than just 3 good relievers pitching 3 good innings, it required 7 good pitchers pitching 7 good innings.
So, while having a good starter enables you to survive with a good but not deep pen, when a game goes long, you need your pen to be both good AND deep. Our bullpens under the later Torre years may have had 1-3 good pitchers at the back end, but they weren’t good from pitcher #1 through pitcher #8, so that pen would have likely blown this game in extra innings in craptastic fashion.
I understand what you’re saying, tsjc, but I don’t think it’s correct to make a clear-cut separation between the starters and the relievers as if they are independent of each other. The bullpen sure looked good last night, but they’ve also had most of the last two weeks off, in part because of the playoffs schedule and in part because of the starters.
Rivera had zero days off. Hughes and Chamberlain had six days of rest, and everyone else who pitched last night had 7 days of rest.
I agree. My retort:
I don’t care how fresh and rested the 2006 bullpen could have been if we had had better starters; Mo Rivera backed up by Kyle Farnsworth, Scott Proctor, Mike Myers, Ron Villone, Octavio Dotel, and Shawn Chacon are not holding the Angels to 1 run over 7 innings. It’s not happening.
Yes, better starters make bullpen pitchers better. But this group of bullpen pitchers are better pitchers, independent of the starter part of the equation, than our previous collections of bullpen pitchers.