Postgame Spread: 5th starter, found!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

He is coming.

oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

why do I feel this will end not so well?

so, let's discuss... good move, bad move?
Obviously panic move, but would you have done it? If not, what would you have done?

Personally, I'd have had Farnsworth wail on his lats for three hours straight, then translate the added sexy into him starting, and move Kei to the pen, and Chase to the shrink's office.

Labels: baseball

6 Comments:

Hughes is obviously a custom bitchen delivery, but this is dumb.

I find it hard to believe that this is the best answer. That they elected to rush their minor league talent, rather than sending PTBNLs around the league for spare AAAA retreads, is actually a pretty huge story IMO. Were Wright, Karstens and the other guy really their best option? They're the Yankees, for God's sake. How in the holy hell did it come to this?

I find it harder to believe that they couldn't have bought Jon Lieber back in March. We all know how well pinstripes suit Lieber.

By Jeff, at 11:35 AM
And, just for good measure:

pr0ff3ss0r_f4rnsw0rth: /thrusts crotch, throws directionless haymakers

LOLZ

By Jeff, at 11:43 AM
What I've been reading most places is that Hughes has basically been ready and that they've just been biding their time. So anyway, I don't know a thing about this kind of stuff, but there are certainly a lot of people out there who don't think that this actually is rushing Hughes, that he has nothing left to learn in the minors. And they're not just Yankees fans or prospect junkies. That doesn't necessarily make them right, but it's worth mentioning.

Jeff's definitely right that the other callups feel pretty nonsensical. I don't know why they haven't found somebody already.

By Jesse, at 1:33 PM
Hughes stuggled mightily in Spring Training, esp. with his lesser pitches (non-curve, non-fastballs). He's had three starts in the minors, and has pitched lights out in one of three. Now, maybe in ST he was just monkeying around with alternate pitches that he doesn't seriously expect to use very often, and maybe he really is ready and has been since last year. But if that is the case, why not call him up the moment Moose/Wang/Pavano went down? Why subject us to two starts out of the Chase Wright Experience?

By Alex, at 2:13 PM
Yes, that's the key to the whole thing. Why now? I was stunned he wasn't brought up at that point. So why do it now? Just because an A-ball guy gave up 4 HR in a row, they're gonna ditch the plan with their most valuable prospect? That's brutally idiotic. Either they're protecting him or they're not. Why half-ass it?

By the way, I am thrilled about this whole mess. No matter what happens, the Yankees did a stupid. If he tanks, they rushed him and broke his brain. If he succeeds, then those moron AA-ballers lost crucial games for no good reason... and couldn't those games against Boston loom large in September? Etc. Faaaantastic.

By Jeff, at 2:23 PM
I think it probably went more or less like this:

1) Invite Hughes to spring training, see if he's ready for the rotation.

2) Get nervous about a few things, decide it's better not to rush him.

3) Various catastrophes

4) Decide to be cautious about bringing him up, maybe you can get by.

5) Realize simultaneously that you can't get by and there's no reason to anyway. Call his ass up.

From my vantage point, it was always clearly the case that he was either going to break camp with the team or get called up at some point during this season. I think they were probably a little extra cautious, and it lost them games, but I don't see it as that big of a deal.

As it turns out, the Yankees never should have experimented with Chase Wright. That was foreseeable, as well, so that should never have happened one way or another. But I don't see it as that stupid. They didn't bring anyone else into the rotation from outside the organization because they knew it was Hughes' spot. They were a little too cautious about just handing it to him, but I can understand that.

That's what I think anyway.

By Jesse, at 3:43 PM