Sunday, May 26, 2019

"Never save a pitcher for tomorrow. Tomorrow it might rain."

With thanks to Leo Durocher.

A quote that is all the more relevant considering that it now seems to rain every day and every hour with our new, 21st century climate here in New York.

I've said this before, and I know it is becoming old hat.  But still.

How can it be that Aaron "Mad Monk" Boone does not try to sneak off with that game today?

None of his 45 different relievers had been worked overly hard.  Nobody pitched more than once in Saturday's twinbill (Don't you just love baseball words like "twinbill"?).  There was no game on Friday.

Why not try at least an inning from each of Britton, Ottavino, and Chapman?  You really think you're not going to be able to break through again on the Royals—a team you've already scored 7 runs against on the afternoon and that has resorted to pitching Joe Kennedy III—until the 13th?

Even Green would've been a better choice, since he would not have been "opening."

Tomorrow it might not rain.  But tomorrow you're playing the San Diego Padres, at home.  Tomorrow you might be winning 10-1 in the 6th inning.  You can pitch Jonathan Surrenderer then.  Or you might be losing 10-1 in the 6th.  Same thing.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I ask you again:  why keep 8 relief pitchers on your staff—is it technically 9 now, with CC and The Ace, James Paxton, on the DL?—if you're not going to use them?  Why put out your least effective, most frightened looking sacrificial offering in a game you have a real chance to win?

After his recent, theology awakening, this was Mad Monk Boone reverting to the worst of conventional baseball dogma:  "Oh, we don't have a lead on the road, so I can't use my best relievers!"

Balderdash, I say.  Balderdash and poppycock.


26 comments:

Anonymous said...

...to which I might add, Balls!! Another Bo(o)ne-headed move costs us another one. This one would have been a spectacular come-back for our highlight reels, too.

Mother clearly doesn't know best. LB (No J)

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Mother is only half of it. Well, his nickname at least.

Anonymous said...

Classic second-guessing. How dumb and boring.

Anonymous said...

And then when they actually do have a close game tomorrow it will be the same bing all over again...damn the season is 162 games...all the Yankees fans would have the bullpen blown out by June

Local Bargain Jerk said...

Classic second-guessing. How dumb and boring.

Classic commenting on second guessing. How dumb, boring, and preternaturally annoying.

13bit said...

LBJ, he's predictable, shallow and filled with hate. Must suck to be him. Who would keep coming to a place where everybody either hates your or ignores you? It's sad.

HoraceClarke66 said...

You know, I will say this: I don't know everything that's going on in the Yankees' clubhouse.

MAYBE—just maybe—every one of the 4 pitchers I named came to Ma Boone before the game and said, 'Hey, Skip, you know my knee/arm/oblique/big toe is barking. If you can spare me today...'

But I doubt it.

None of the guys I named is on course to throw as many as 70 innings in the show this year, with the exception of Ottavino who, at this rate, would throw 72.

In fact, the guy with the most innings logged in the pen going into today?

Yep. Jonathan Surrenderer, with 25.

So with a very winnable game on the line, and a pen that had NOT been pressed hard of late, Boone chose to use the reliever who was both MOST used and LEAST effective.

Yeah, that's managing all right...

Vampifella said...

Robot managing for the Yanks has been like this: Holder is their guy for late inning tied games. Chapman if they are a run or two ahead. Someone else if 3 or more runs ahead. They won't deviate from that game plan and it's been similar to that for ages now. Almost every fan would have put someone hot up there and get the win but the Yanks are the Yanks and they play by the binders. Also, it's very likely they were willing to get the loss to avoid getting a morning flight out of town for their 1:30 game tomorrow morning. Why that game isn't scheduled as a night one I really don't know. A holiday game doesn't have to be right after lunch.

I do love hearing about another late inning come from behind though. Honestly I had the turned the game off at 7-1. Missing yet another come from behind because I had no faith in the team to overcome this. The normal Yanks would have swung though everything and loose 7-1 (or perhaps 7-3 if they managed a pair of meaningless solo HRs).

Either way, it sucks that the Rays and Sux gained ground. Every Yankee loss with their win is like a punch to the gut. We know that the Yanks can be overtaken in a heartbeat and it seems the rest of the top teams are at least 7 games above their second place rivals. I'm nervous with the Sux coming for us at the end of the week. The Padres, even tough they suck, I have a feeling will showcase what a stud Manny is and make us hurt for not getting him...A very though week ahead.

Anonymous said...

Hey Local Bargain Jerk--you're one of the prize championship philistine who makes a joke of this blog by compulsively dismissing the advanced analytics used in every major league front office BECAUSE THEY WORK and because these teams have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake--unlike you, who have nothing at stake except your determination to prove, over and over again, that you're a moron. No need to bust your chops anymore, LBJ--stipulated from now on that you're an ignorant, illiterate gasbag. You can retire now.

Anonymous said...

Hey 13bit--I have obviousness, stupidity, and the herd mentality. So you're right--I hate you: not personally, but everything you represent as an emotionally and intellectually stunted specimen of humanity. That might be cause for pathos if you weren't so fucking PROUD of it. It's because of jerks like you that the comments on this blog are of such abysmally low quality and confined to a few shut-in recidivists rather than a wider circle of thoughtful Yankee fans.

Anonymous said...

HC66 the Palavering Putz--it's not just a matter of who has thrown the most innings: it's a matter of who is accustomed to throwing how many innings and under what circumstances. The concept of conceding one battle to win a war--by not shredding the most valuable arms in your bullpen in May--seems lost on you, as does just about everything else except who fouled off the most pitches on the 1953 Yankees.

Anonymous said...

IT WAS LIKE BOONE WAS "TESTING" OR "DARING" TO SEE HOW FAR WE COULD GO WITH THE CRAP RELIEVERS, AND STILL WIN.

INSTEAD OF PUTTING OUR BEST GUYS OUT THERE.

WE HAD THEM STUNNED AND ON THE RUN TODAY, AFTER THE GREAT COMEBACK.

THAT IS UNTIL HE DECIDED ON HOLDER.

I STILL LIKE THE BILLY MARTIN WAY.

WORRY ABOUT TOMORROW, TOMORROW.

LETS WIN AT ALL COST TODAY.

Anonymous said...

CORRECTION OF TYPO in all caps:

Hey 13bit--I HATE obviousness, stupidity, and the herd mentality. So you're right--I hate you: not personally, but everything you represent as an emotionally and intellectually stunted specimen of humanity. That might be cause for pathos if you weren't so fucking PROUD of it. It's because of jerks like you that the comments on this blog are of such abysmally low quality and confined to a few shut-in recidivists rather than a wider circle of thoughtful Yankee fans.

Anonymous said...

It's really a marvel how all the really dumbass people on this blog chronically echo one another's dumbass points in the same dumbass way.

Anonymous said...

And of course if Holder had managed to retire the side in the tenth inning and the Yankees had gone on to win the game, none of the recidivist dumbasses would be whining, so they'd have to post one of their other patented recycled idiocies: such as how beautiful sacrifice bunts and hit and run plays are and how homeruns and strikeouts are the path to eternal damnation.

Anonymous said...

It's amusing to see that the assembled herd is all too eager to spray daily streams of abuse on Boone, Cashman, and/or any player who doesn't live up to their superhuman expectations. But when that same hose of abuse is turned on them, the fatass ignorant blog commenters, they whimper like little pups. Man up, assholes!

Publius said...

Assholes Of The Blog, Man Up! You Have Nothing To Lose But Sacrifice Bunts!

Anal-a-mouse said...

Looks like the biggest asshole got off of his shift at the pizza pit at 1 a.m. and had some pent up energy. The carpel tunnel must prevent him from his usual method of letting off steam. And the gerbil was tired.

Why does that asswipe bleat here? Must have been banned already from all of the redsockian sites.

JM said...

There has to be a way to specifically block his IP address....

Anonymous said...

Holder has been dreadful over his last nine games. (He did have a nice run of success before that.) I have to agree though, Holder was not the right choice to put into the game at that point. Maybe they just wanted to get out of town and wanted the game to end.

Carl J. Weitz said...

JM....why would you want to censor that guy....or anyone?
Unless his rant was extremely vile or racist why block his IP address?

HoraceClarke66 said...

I will say this: Surrenderer had actually had pretty good outings in 4 of his previous 5 outings. But there had been an implosion against Baltimore, and another one against Tampa Bay—not exactly Murderers Row in either case.

Also, he HAD pitched in a game on Saturday.

So why was he the choice?

It was either, as Vampi and an Anon speculate, that they just wanted to get out of town, or Boone going by "the book."

This is part of my problem with the sabremetricious. If you went to all that trouble to burn the old book, why write a new one? Why not adjust to situations as they come up?

For that matter, once second base was swiped—and have the Yankees EVER called a pitchout? Not in my lifetime—why not walk Merrifield, KC's best hitter? Why give their best guy the chance to win the game?

Durocher had a point. There will only be so many games you will be that close to winning, late. You have to seize the moment.

Anonymous said...

JM--Thanks for your contribution to the art of free and open discourse, Comrade Stalin. Maybe if you weren't so fucking PREDICTABLE AND TEDIOUS with your oafish attempts at wit and your regurgitation of herd-mentality antipathy toward analytics, there would more participants in this blog and a greater variety of viewpoints. Your are just a waste of bandwidth and protoplasm. You and others like you drive away potential participants in this blog in droves. Just shut the fuck up already.

Anonymous said...

Hey Warplist--we know your sock puppets by your pansy-boy obsession with the words "anal" and "puckered." Suck away at those hemorrhoids, floozy boy--the culinary delectation of the Warped One.

Anal-a-mouse said...

"You and others like you drive away potential participants in this blog in droves. Just shut the fuck up already."


You've entered the twilight zone. File this one under Captain Obvious Projecting.

John Keck said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.