Stretching The Truth Into A Bright Future

So the word is;  " Chance Adams did a respectable job.  This was the bright spot of an otherwise miserable day," they said.

And some of you foresee Tom Seaver in the wings.

Certainly all the Yankee-paid , talking heads gave the same opinion.

And I don't argue against the point that the Yanks, from minute one, would have been smarter to bring up Adams and Sheffied than trade all we had left for the guy with hoof and mouth disease, and the 33 year old from the Twins.  Oh, and some lug nut named Luke who will play first base in Trenton.

But I feel compelled to respond to the positive evaluations of Chance Adams;

1.  He did take all heart out of the Yankees and lose the game in the first inning.  That two run blast by Moreland set the fans and the Red Sox up with a confidence booster.  Like a shot of adrenaline.

2.  His hair suggested that he was throwing better than he was.  It made us all think us all of Jacob LaGrom ( Met guy ?) who has demonstrated more heat, more command and more talent, albeit across town.

3.  At least three of the outs he earned would have been base hits, save for incredible " shift" positioning by Didi.

4.  Most other outs were what I describe as " rockets."  I think there is even a statistical category now for " hard hit balls."  Well, Chance registered about 8.3 on that Richter scale.

5.  Too many 3-2 counts.  Not much evidence of an " out " pitch.  Therefore, he was burned and dusted by the end of five innings.

6.  Great defense saved him from even more damage, and nearly put Aaron Hicks into the hospital.

7.  Just to remind us that he never really " got on a roll," was the 35th home-run of Martinez, who is light years ahead of our big sluggers in that category.

8.  I saw nothing , in terms of his stuff, to hang my optimistic hat upon.  His speed was average.  His breaking balls were not devastating.  He had nothing for which he was famous ( eg: high heat from Nolan Ryan; precise placement of Maddox, Cutter of Mariano, Curve of Gooden, attitude of Gibson...).

It is true that 3 runs in five innings against the best team in baseball, at their ballpark, left the Yankees ( in theory ) with a chance to win the game.  But the ERA was not good.  He recorded, what, 2 K's?

 The reason for all the optimism, is that everyone expected him to give up 12 runs in 2.1 innings.

Leaving this Yankee team down 3 runs with 4 innings to go, on the road, is pretty much a guaranteed loss.  And this pitching effort paled, dramatically vs the debuts of both German and Lasagne.

Just saying.

Don't get your hopes up. " Not awful" is a low bar to set.