Friday, April 25, 2008

LEARNING FROM HIS MISTAKES

Last night The Skipper faced the same decision which ultimately got him fired in Florida.
When Joe let Josh Johnson come back after a rain delay which ended up landing Johnson on the DL and later getting Elbow surgery. You could have bet your bottom dollar that Joe wasn't going to let Philly Phranchise back into a game with a rain delay that lasted over 40 minutes.
Girardy has let that incident change the way he managed already twice in the early stages of the season. One that I have already pointed out is when IPK was the scheduled starter but because of the threat of rain Bruney started instead and last night as well.
Sometimes you must lose the battle in order to win the war. I give major props to Girardy for the decision he made.
The Yankees ended up taking 2 out of 3 and I am satisfied with that.
Joba proved to the world that he is human. Its like when Mo gives up a run , everybody says" is Mariano finished?". For all those that said that Joba is best suited for the pen because in his second inning of work he was hittable are just not smart. Joba is a starter and that's final.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

FASTEST TO 50 SINCE THE DOC AND THE GATOR

I would like to take this moment to welcome myself back from my brief hiatus from the blogging community.
Instead of doing what I promised in the previous post by recapping the last few series's and adding my two cents in I will just skip to the present day.

Last night Chien-Ming Wang literally battled his way through a game where his slider was just not working and he had to get by with his other pitches. This start in my eyes was a confidence booster in the eyes of myself and probably every supporter of the men in pinstripes. We have seen in the past that when one of Wang's pitches aren't working, he gets disoriented and ends up in the showers before the fifth inning. Last night Chien-Ming struck out five and wiggled himself out of some major jams. By giving up just 3 runs and surrendering 10 hits over six I think its safe to say he came out as unscathed as possible.
Wang probably treated Abreu to a steak dinner after last nights game after Abreu kind of was responsible for the W. Bobby hit an opposite field grand salami which put the yanks ahead for good .
Later Joba saved Traber and Bruney's butt's by doing what he does best. Joba didn't really make a good case for Hank last night to be a starter because I dont think any Yankee over the last 7-8 years besides for Mo and maybe Gordon could have done that. To top things off Damon hit a three run shot to officially cap off a Home run happy game where the Yanks were afraid of the loss of A-rods bat.

Lets take a look at the Accomplishments that Wang has achieved in his young and very successful career. By earning the win in last nights match-up not only did Wang improve his record to a sterling 4 and 0. Chien has won his 50th career win in only 85 career starts . This is an astonishing feat. He is the fastest to that plateau since Doc Gooden who did it in 85 with the Mets in just 82 starts. This feat was also done by former Yankee great and Wang's former pitching coach Ron Guidry.

I dont know why Wang doesn't get the credit that he is due. Maybe its the language barrier or maybe its because every one sees Wang as a regular season pitcher only. But I dont think that's the case because it never stopped people from loving A-Rod.
The media and the public for some reason don't see that he has more wins than every pitcher in the game over the last three seasons. He also leads the majors in that time span in allowing fewest Home Runs per Nine innings. Wang is also amongst the league leaders in ground ball outs.
I love this guy, Even before he introduced this new change-up to his repertoire which should start giving him a decent strike out total and shut up some critics. Along with being an innings eater he also is a damn good defensive pitcher and should be earning himself a gold glove some time in the near future.
I would also like to point out to you that Wang actually pitched a very solid game in the playoffs. In 2005 vs the Angels , Wang through 6 2/3 innings yielded just one earned run. The Yankees ended up losing that game and the series.
All I'm saying is its about time Wang gets the respect he deserves.