Joba’s got fleas
By Travis
For months, maybe years, MFY fans will be bemoaning the plague of gigantic gnats and mammouth mosquitos that made their latest wunderkind go flat, but there are plenty of other flaws to blame.
But we’ll still revel in their misery as long as we can. Bye-bye Joe Torre. Can’t say we’ll miss ya. Bye-bye A-Rod, your latest postseason choke job guarantees your exodus to Anaheim or Chicago. Bye-bye Rocket, finally. You got what you deserved for selling your soul to the darkside.
And for Joba, we can only hope that the fleas that infested you and the trauma forever ruins your career in pinstripes. May this be your equivalent to what Albert Pujols did to Brad Lidge.
Onto the second-guessing:
1.) Joe Torre handicapped his team from the beginning by starting Chien-Ming Wang in Game 1 rather than Andy Pettitte. Sure, Wang had a better earned-run average and four more wins, but he also had the second-most run support in all of MLB and had a home-road split of 10-4 and 2.75 at home, 9-3 and 4.91 on the road. Pettitte had a better ERA on the road and a better postseason track record. Had Torre gone with Pettitte in Game 1 he wouldn’t have wasted his brilliant Game 2 performance against Fausto Carmona and the gnats, plus he would have been the pitcher on short rest in Game 4 rather than Wang, who was miserably bad in both starts.
2.) Lou Piniella shouldn’t have pulled Carlos Zambrano early in Game 1 against the Diamondbacks. The Cubs had a deeper starting pitching staff to begin with and shouldn’t have been afraid to pitch Jason Marquis in Game 4 because the D-backs were going with four starters. Ultimately, none of the pitchers other than Zambrano, especially Carlos Marmol, pitched well enough for it to make a difference.
3.) Likewise, Charlie Manuel should have stuck with his starter, Kyle Kendrick, as long as possible in Game 2 of Philadelphia’s series against Colorado. His bullpen had three semi-reliable relievers — JC Romero, Tom Gordon and Bret Myers, and all but Romero are only superb compared to their own bullpen bretheren — and couldn’t afford to go to his pen any earlier than the sixth inning. And with the NL’s top-scoring team, he should have expected more than two runs to win the game. But the Phillies had a slim chance from the start with such a poorous rotation.
4.) Can’t really find much fault in Mike Scioscia. The guy was left with a postseason team that was only a fraction of what he had to work with in the regular season — and he still worked wonders in the regular season — because of injuries. He probably should have started Kelvim Escobar in Game 1 given John Lackey’s history against Boston, but it wouldn’t have made a difference.
5.) The Indians relievers have plenty of time to recover, but Eric Wedge’s three-man bullpen will not work against Boston. The Sox lineup is too deep and gets into bullpens too soon for Rafael Perez, Rafael Betancourt and Jensen Lewis to protect the Indians from using Joe Borowski at all. Wedge overworked them against the MFY but had to.
6.) Clint Hurdle might want to start Ubaldo Jimenez in Game 2 of the NLCS. The rookie has been phenomenal and more reliebale than Josh Fogg, Franklin Morales or Taylor Buccholz.
7.) Will a team ever quit throwing the young D-backs hitters fastballs? That’s all they can hit, but they crush fastballs in obvious fastball counts. Pitch backwards to them.
8.) Schilling better start Game 2 rather than Dice-K. Matsuzaka-san looks inept and impossibly wild. Even when he gets ahead of hitters he manages to pitch himself back into hitters’ counts. Watching him nibble with a 94-mph fastball is like watching Paul Bunyan trying to cut down a tree with a butter knife. And against a patient Indians lineup it will only get him into more trouble. I want no part of watching that twice in the same series.
Revised predictions: Boston d. Cleveland, 4-2; Colorado d. Arizona, 4-1. Boston d. Colorado, 4-2.