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May 04, 2005
Missing What You Should Know
You can watch a person walk up and down the street and think that you know what they're all about - but, you'd probably be wrong. You can hang out with someone and think you know them - but, there's probably something about them that you never get a chance to see. You can work with someone and think you have them down - but, there's stuff that they probably do at home that would shock you. Until you live with someone for a good while, you'll never really know everything about them.
This is why I cannot totally fault the Yankees brain trust for picking up players like Jeff Weaver, Javy Vazquez, and to some extent, Jaret Wright, and having it backfire on them. You can only see so much from scouting, etc.
But, when I look at the Yankees failure this season to date, I can fault them entirely for making terrible calls on the players that have been with them for a year or more - and who have not performed well so far this year. The Yankees have had these players in their home and lived with them long enough to know that.......
Bernie Williams is 36-years-old, has always been injury-prone, and was coming off back-to-back years of sub-.800 OPS seasons.
Jason Giambi was never going to have a SLG% over .500 without the use of performance enhancers.
Jorge Posada lost some of his batting eye and power after getting smacked in the face with a throw when sliding into second last year.
Teams peppered Kevin Brown for some reason from his 16th through 45th pitch in 2004.
Tom Gordon was so burnt out that he logged less than 40 IP after the All-Star break and his ERA went up 1 whole run and teams hit better against him in those 39 IP than they did before the break.
Bubba Crosby, who batted .151 last year, has about as much of a reason to be on a big league roster as the 'Bubba' Shrimp guy from Forrest Gump and/or Denise Crosby.
On the flip side of all this, the Yankees should have known that Jon Lieber was a quality person and pitcher and that Brad Halsey had the potential to also be both these things.
When I think of players like these, and their place on the Yankees 2005 roster (or in the case of Lieber and Halsey, their place not on the roster), I have to wonder if the Yankees evaluate their own team at all? Or, if they did, what could they have possibly been looking at?
Posted by Steve Lombardi at May 4, 2005 01:07 PM
Comments
Yeah, I didn't like the way this team was constructed at all. I don't know if I had said as much on netshrine, but I did not like many of the moves the Yanks made.
I would've loved to have Beltran & Pedro. If they were unavailable, then look to have Lofton in CF for another year. Move Bernie to full-time DH, and wave (waive?) bye-bye to Reuben Sierra.
I would've kept one of the two of Lieber or Duque. Maybe Clement, if one of them got away. I'd still make the trade for Johnson. No way in HELL would I have signed Wright. Then again, I wouldn't have moved Contreras either (put him in the pen, maybe)
Sturtze? Thanks, but we've got Karsay coming back.
Womack? Don't make me laugh... I'd get a warm body to play 2b, maybe someone from the minors, maybe a fill-in until Cano was ready.
I think I've ranted long enough. I'm going to watch the Yanks get spanked by the Rays some more.
It's going to be an interesting year in the Bx
Posted by: Raf at May 5, 2005 09:32 PM
At this point, I'd be happy with interesting!
Posted by: Steve Lombardi at May 5, 2005 11:20 PM
bottom line....pitchers for whatever reason can not pitch well for the Yankees.
Look at how many ex-yankees who were marginal in pinstripes have had very good seasons so far. Weaver, Contreras, Loiasa...to name a few.
Also- is it just me- or does it seem like every pitcher who comes to the yankees with a reputation of being a "fireballer" (aka- pitchers in the high 90's) come here and barely hit 90?
Irabu, Contreras, now Randy Johnson.....what is up with that? is it the mound??
Posted by: Phil at May 6, 2005 12:17 PM
Maybe they're afraid Posada won't catch it?
Posted by: Steve Lombardi at May 6, 2005 12:37 PM