Yes, I hollered because of David Hale. He had pitched four innings, yielded two, and retired the last 10 Padres. Of the Yankee staff, he was yesterday's Iron Man McGinnity, throwing 61 pitches, nearly five times that of anyone else. At 31, Hale recorded his 11th MLB win - first since 2015, with the Rockies of Psilocybin City. Today, he's probably on a Greyhound to Scranton.
Hale replaced - take your pick: James Paxton, CC Sabathia, Luis Severino, Dellin Betances or maybe even Jonathan Loaisiga. He has pitched twice for us this season, both four inning stints in winning causes. (He saved a game against Baltimore.)
Last week, when Hale was unavailable, we promoted Chance Adams. Twice, Adams gave us decent outings, a total of 7 innings, 3 earned runs. I see Adams, 24, as a second-half wild card. He lost 2018 due to complications after elbow surgery. Maybe he'll reclaim his prospect status.
If not, there is Nestor (Ocasio)-Cortes Jr., also 24. In his last outing, against KC, he threw four scoreless innings. Had he pitched five - instead of being replaced by Jonathan Holder - we might have won. Going forward, Cortes looks like a cool LH spot-starter; when the next wave of injuries hits, who knows?
After these three, the Scranton cupboard isn't exactly the waiting line at Mount Everest. Loaisiga is either being hammered or getting hurt. We have Drew Hutchinson, 28, with an ERA over 6.00), 26-year-old Daniel Camarena (4.98 ERA) and 24-year-old Adonis Rosa, who has streaked through the Yankee system, but has stumbled at Triple A (5.11 ERA)
It's easy to treat these guys like nickel bottle deposits. But this week, the Padres will probably use their closer, the one with the funny name. You'll surely remember it: Kirby Yates. He spent 2016 - at age 29 - with Scranton and the big team. Last year, he threw 65 games for SD with a 2.65 ERA and became their closer. This year, with a 1.13 ERA and 20 saves, he'll probably make the All Star Game.
Yates? Who knew? Hale, Adams and (Ocasio)-Cortes? Who knows?
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16 comments:
Nestor!
What would John use for Nestor's home run call? If he ever gets to swing the bat.
Re your TV: you always hurt the one you love.
They said in the paper that Yates had developed a new pitch of some sort.
As for the Nestor Cortes call, well, how about "Look out, Montezuma! There goes Cortes!"
Or, "A mighty swat by the Argonaut!"
No? Needs work?
For all those who bemoan short stints by starters and openers and other such novel mound developments: there's incontrovertible data showing that the third time through the order is, ON AVERAGE (so spare us the anecdotal exceptions), poison for a pitcher. The opener helps the starter to avoid that third time through, as do the shorter starter outings in general. Then there's the issue of minimizing damage to pitchers' arms in this age of max-effort hurling, where 95 MPH is ho-hum rather than holy crap! Try to find a video of Larsen's perfect game from 1956, when the camera was trained on the "high-home" position during commercial breaks, with commercials superimposed on the field image. Larsen and Maglie were soft-tossing during their warmups, not even signaling which pitch was coming. And they were throwing MAYBE in the mid-80s. Overall, far less arm strain than is common nowadays.
So if you value your pitchers' arms, and want to maximize your chances of winning games, openers and shorter outings are clearly the rational choice, trumping misplaced nostalgia for the good old days.
Hoss,I love, "A mighty swat by the Argonaut!" Who knew you were well read too!?
It works well on a short term basis, but implemented over an entire season could wreck your pitching staff unless baseball goes to a twenty seven or twenty eight man roster.
Stratman--equally distributing the pitch-count load is easier on the staff than having one guy throw 110 pitches every fifth day. If you think it doesn't work, look at Tampa Bay--the amount of wins they extract from a tiny fraction of the Yankees' payroll.
To RS and Anon --
Expanding the 25-man roster (for pitching) is -- sorta kinda -- what the Yankees already ARE doing, with the shuttle to/from Scranton.
Nothing new, I don't think. However: It seems to be the way they are trying to accomplish the "opener" tactic. I'm not sure whether or not Tampa Bay did/does the same thing.
See the "transactions" page on the NYY MLB website --
http://m.mlb.com/nyy/roster/transactions/
Omitting the depressing # of injuries, and various other stuff (like free-agent signings) -- here's what it shows in May alone, for pitchers:
5/4 - Barrett recalled
5/6 - Tarpley sent down
5/9 - Barrett sent down, Cortes sent down
5/12 -- Green recalled
5/13 -- Adams recalled (after Johnny Lasagna's trip to the IL)
5/14 -- Cortes brought up
5/15 -- Harvey sent down
5/20 -- Adams sent down, Barrett recalled
5/21 -- Cortes sent down, Hale brought up
5/23 and 5/26 -- Barrett and then CC Sabathia placed on 10-day IL
5/26 -- Adams and Harvey recalled
By my count, omitting Lasagna + CCS, there are SEVEN pitchers on the shuttle in the list above:
Adams, Barrett, Cortes, Green, Hale, Harvey, Tarpley
...and May has a few days to go yet.
Joe--Tampa Bay pioneered the "opener" tactic and of course still uses it. See, for example:
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2019/03/22/rays-2019-ten-things-to-know-about-tampa-bays-opener-approach/
Yeah, I know TB did that.
What I don't know is if they accomplished what they did (and do) via a Southern Fried version of the Scranton Shuttle.
Thanks, Warbler! Glad someone got that!
HC66--Glad someone got what? You didn't type one syllable on the topic of rotating pitchers from the minor leagues.
"You and others like you drive away potential participants in this blog in droves. Just shut the fuck up already."
I suspect the flamethrower era of pitching will implode upon itself. A guy like Nestor is not by any means overpowering, but he pitches, rather than throws. With several pitches and a couple of slots, he can not only eat innings, but he can befuddle hitters if his control is good. I don't mind openers and closers and shuttling relievers. But the aforementioned strain on the 95+ guys makes it necessary. If there were more finesse pitchers, and clubs actually appreciated what they can do, tight pitch counts and third time through problems might be alleviated to some extent. It's the counterpart to what's happening in batting. Always swinging for the fence and refusing to hit against the shift have worn out their welcome on the better teams. Suddenly, the crazy, old-fashioned idea of contact and, to a degree, situational hitting are back in vogue. Who knew? Besides the clueless old farts who frequent this blog.
Seems to me that balance is the key. Having hard throwers like Severino and Paxton minimize their innings by using an opener makes all kinds of sense. But it helps to have some “crafty” innings eater type starters to balance the load. Otherwise the bullpen gets overworked and is shot by October. And not all of those shuttle relievers are equal - some guys are just better than others. To win in the post season you need your best guys sharp.
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