SubscribeSeriously, I feel terrible for Kim, but he never should have been out there for game 5; he threw 61 pitches the day before, which was part of the reason he finally yielded another homerun in the 10th of game 4. But to bring him BACK out the very next night in the same pressure situation in Yankee Stadium of all places!?! Have you EVER heard of any pitcher since, oh, 1930 throwing 61 pitches on one day and even coming near a mound the next? Schilling had thrown 88 pitches when he was pulled for Kim in Game 4; it was wise to pull him, but then why put a reliever to throw nearly as many pitches- and then put him BACK in the next night? Brenly was asking for that to happen. Kim may be his best reliever, but really- after Kim gave up the lead-off double, why leave him in? In a 2-run game, the first base-runner usually means the hook for the pitcher at that time; why tempt fate? They went to Morgan one batter too late, and Morgan retired 7 straight (which raises the question, why did he then pull Morgan after 7 straight outs to put in Albie Lopez, he of the 19 losses this year?). He'd only have needed 3 of those outs if he had starte the ninth instead of Kim.
And have you ever seen starting pitching this good in a series? Schilling, Johnson, Anderson, Schilling, and now Bautista have all put out ludicrously good performances, better than the Yankees in every case but with Anderson/Clemens (and even then it was a 1-1 game when he left). That the D-Backs are down 3-2 isn't "magic", it's Brenly being a rookie manager that looks like he has no idea what he is doing, bunting like its going out of style and putting in overworked relievers so they can have a nervous breakdown in the middle of the game! If he pulls Johnson or Schilling at any point in games 6 or 7- short of a bone fracture- he oughta be summarily kicked out of organized baseball for life. I think if Schilling or Johnson get tired, they'd learn to throw with their other hand between innings before letting themselves get taken out of the game!
And don't even GET me started on having Matt Williams bunt in the 10th against Rivera with runners on 1st and 2nd and no-outs. Unbelievably bad managing.
posted by hincandenza at 2:43 PM on November 2, 2001
(But hincandenzera, with all respect, Matt Williams hasn't hit for toffee this series, and Rivera doesn't usually give away more than a couple of fly balls in an outing. Worst of all, Williams hasn't been patient when hitting, which meant that he wasn't the ideal choice to try and make Rivera throw a few more pitches. I was thinking "bunt or double play", and was glad when he bunted.)
Brenly's main problem at Yankee Stadium: he didn't play enough little ball. (And the defence was often shite.) I suspect that will change.
posted by holgate at 4:17 PM on November 2, 2001
Notice how good the Yankees were when they were the biggest franchise in sports from the 20's through the 60's. It can't be a coincidence that not long after free agency became a reality, the Yankees started suffering through that Mattingly-led blackout of success- they couldn't hoard all the best players any more. But eventually, skyrocketing free agent salaries even down to draftees right out of high school put the Yankees back in the driver's seat.
Brian Cashman is a good GM, but he's no Billy Beane: Cashman and Steinbrenner never have to make the tough choice, and when a player becomes a free agent in the Yankee system, he'll probably end up re-signing because if the Yanks really want him they'll outbid anyone. Meanwhile, ever notice how when other team's free agent superstars are the subject of off-season rumors, "New York" is always one of the places suspected as a 'possible' team to pick them up, even if NY isn't remotely interested. This is true of A-Rod even with Jeter on the Yankees already, it's what you hear about Jason Giambi now, it's true of everyone from Manny Ramirez to Mike Mussina to Roger Clemens- oh hey, those last two actually are on the Yankees, despite being two of the best right-handers in the game today and two of only about 10 true "aces" in the majors (interestingly, two of the others pitch for the D-Backs- but to afford them, you'll notice Arizona had to suffer a huge talent drop-off after that). Gee, what a coincidence- imagine if Minnesota could have signed Mussina and Clemens, or Seattle, or Philadelphia... the list goes on and on. NY doesn't get every big free agent, but they get the ones they really want- and they never lose the ones they have, unless they choose to let the go. They were outspent by the Red Sox this year, which shows that yes, a stupid GM like Duquette can waste a fortune, but it's still a LOT easier to win when you've got the megabucks to do so.
Do you think Seattle might have been even better this year against the Yankees in the ALCS if they still had Johnson and A-Rod? They were unquestionably the better team this year, but a bad 10- game stretch to start the playoffs ended their season prematurely. But who knows- A-Rod at short instead of the tuberculosis ridden no-hit/good-glove Carlos Guillen or his replacement Mark McLemore, or the Big Unit still in Seattle pitching games 1 and 5 instead of, say, Aaron Sele- and we're talking about a Seattle-Braves World Series.
posted by hincandenza at 7:27 PM on November 2, 2001
Anyway, I've long felt he has the creepiest fuckin' eyes. Seriously- tell me those aren't the eyes of a born psychopath, especially when he's got that constant creep-o-rama half-smirk on his mug all the time. American [League] Psycho, if you ask me... I'm NOT going to argue about this...
posted by hincandenza at 8:12 PM on November 2, 2001
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No; I think the Angels might, though.
(ducking)
posted by alumshubby at 6:34 AM on November 2, 2001