WasWatching.com

That last one doesn't tell me if it was 1-0 in 1st inning or 9-2 in the 8th. Given my dim view of Proctor/Farnsworth, I wouldn't be surprised if we were losing games in the middle innings when they pitch...

Getting to it and staying away from it are the keys to winning (Gene Michael). That is, hitters who see a lot of pitches get starters out of the game earlier and allow you to attack every team's biggest weakness, middle relief. Conversely, starting pitchers going long reduces the number of innings pitched by your own middle relief. Call it moneyball, call it common sense...it's probably the smartest way to construct a winning team.

I too have grown tired of watching Proctor get whiplash, but last week in his midseason report Steve said that the bullpen is the second best in the AL in BAA. For this reason he gave the Yanks an A for the bullpen. Based on that, it seems like it might be the starters blowing leads.

If the bullpen is performing relatively well but we are still losing leads and games, then it must be that we characteristically stop scoring from the 4th or 5th inning onward...which seems right without looking at the game logs. Mr. Torre himself has noted how this team doesn't "tack on" runs...indeed, at all. I wonder how much a severely challenged bench hampers our ability to score later in games, given that an opposing manager can easily pitch around either hot hitters or RBI men from the 7th inning on. A power bat (or 2) off the bench would really enhance our chances of scoring late runs.