Watching the Yankees lose last night was one of those games that not only made me physically ill, but also lead me into a video game marathon into the night until the demons were exercised. Two hours later, I stayed up analyzing everything that annoyed me and ended up asleep around 5 a.m. I like to call this "Game 4 Procedure." I won't tell you which game four of which I speak.
It wasn't so much the whole, blowing a 4-0 lead, then the starter getting injured, blowing an 8-4 lead because the bullpen collectively lost their arms due to a lack of candy bars in the clubhouse in Baltimore, or even getting a 9-8 lead that should have been more in extra innings only to see it get blown by the same pitcher who destroyed last night's game and then losing in walk-off fashion while still failing to win an extra innings game this season. It wasn't that A-Rod seems to be back to his clutch 2006 form or that Matsui is the only one who can be counted on even for a productive out in a big spot. Really, all of that is not what bothers me the most. It's that the plan the Yankees have in place for the future, which mind you, is a very smart one and eventually will pay dividends, is literally going through the worst possible scenario.
You could not be an executioner with a Yankees voodoo doll and orchestrate a worse path for this whole "next generation of the franchise" thing to shape up. Ian Kennedy suffered the same injury he had last year that shut him down for the season, Phil Hughes is hurt for the third year in a row. Neither one will be pitching for awhile. All of a sudden, that whole youth movement thing just ran like a drunken college girl through a minefield with David Beckham's face on each mine.
Kennedy and Hughes are not only going to be ineffective and actually put a damper on this team until July, but they have no shot of extending their innings for the season, which means those two will have an innings cap in 2009 also. Joba already was going to have an innings cap. So now you have to consider the fact that even if Andy Pettitte comes back because he wants to pitch a year in the new stadium, that is still three-fifths of the rotation as it stands now (Chamberlain, Hughes, Kennedy) which will need an innings cap. And then Pettitte and Wang; again. It's OK to endure mediocrity and then impressive runs to the post-season as long as you know your team is improving. These injuries, while unavoidable, hinder that experience. New York may now have to tip its hand and make a trade for a starter, at the very least they better stockpile some emergency, "Freddy Garcia" arms a la Colon on Boston. Mike Mussina is not pitching the season without injury; it's not possible.
I mean even if you wanted to say Hughes was not going to pitch like an ace right off the bat and he would be more like a mid-4 ERA pitcher that he was for most of last season and not what he was when he finished, nobody saw Kennedy and Hughes combining for zero wins and a 3-12 team record. Nobody. Not even Curt Schilling and his blog. At some point, expectations just turn into bad luck. The Yankees, though I never like to play this card, are running into bad luck. And now it's starting to effect the entire franchise far beyond the onfield product for 2008.
Speaking of the present, Tampa Bay (of the blowout variety) and Boston (in walk-off fashion) also lost last night, so this loss doesn't mean a heck of a lot. However, this only further advances trolldom fans into thinking the Yankees can only beat the Mariners, and more importantly, all of a sudden, there are about five roster spots for the taking.
1. LaTroy Hawkins - Is there anybody in any league of professional baseball who is more like Luis Vizcaino? We just saw Hawkins throw perfect baseball for nearly a month and now in a two-game span he turns a close and winnable game into a blowout loss and then blows a lead in the 11th inning of a combined 22 run, 9 home run, 5 error, performance and loses the game after a rain delay, two innings of Rivera and a bullpen who finally looked to be settled down. It makes no sense! How could you be so good for a prolonged period of time and then just spit it up back to back games like that? Directly effecting and essentially losing two winnable games is a quick way to force Brian Cashman's face into a phone receiver.
2. Ross Ohlendorf - If you have ever seen him pitch you know he has the stuff. Two nasty pitches, and a complimentary third pitch. We know he's been used incorrectly all season, but he has also given up five home runs in the last seven seconds. He is the perfect example of talent unseasoned. All of a sudden we're not talking seventh inning, we're talking Scranton and the 43rd return of Chris Britton.
3. Morgan Ensberg - They gave him back to back big at-bats in blowout games against the Mariners in the spot of Alex Rodriguez and he mercilessly failed at both of them. We haven't seen him since. Wilson Betemit is off the DL. Jason Lane is actually displaying HIS power and he can also play the outfield where Melky Cabrera has been rendered invisible offensively. Putting two and two together was one of the first math equations I ever figured out.
4. Shelley Duncan - Yes, I think it's fair to say the honeymoon is over. A hit in every 10 at-bats will do that to a guy, even if that hit is almost always a home run. The problem is we have a better version of that , he plays equal defense and he's being paid a lot more, plus he has started to hit a lot better and Duncan hasn't. This makes Duncan expendable and with the history of not making it to the major leagues while in his prime against him, Shelley might be forearm bashing in a dugout in Tulsa before long.
5. Wilson Betemit - The guy gets a single and a home run every so often and rewards himself with eight free vacations in the batter's box and back to the dugout afterwards. He actually can no longer be trusted on defense. No, I'm serious, there have been talks about Betemit playing defense with a backstop. A guy who can't hit and can't field either becomes the reverse Ankiel or goes to the Expos. And since the Expos don't exist anymore, he takes a pay cut and goes to the Marlins. And since the Marlins are actually good right now, he gets designated for assignment.
Are Jason Lane and Brett Gardner the solutions? Probably not. We don't know how Gardner will perform especially since there is no way he would play every day with Giambi, Damon and Matsui on the roster and Lane is as big of a risk as Ensberg was. Both have had their best days behind them and both are there simply for the off chance they get a career spark in a new setting. It didn't work for Ensberg, so you can't expect it to work for Lane either. This is all the bad news. The good news is Posada was 3-for-6 in a simulated rehab game and only has three or so more before he can come back and play, barring any setbacks. That's one more black hole patched up in the lineup.
The problem is when nine runs doesn't win you a baseball game. That's why last night's loss is different from the others. In hindsight and without injury, Kennedy could probably go five last night. He only gave up back-to-back long balls, settled down after bad defense to escape the inning, then pitched a clean third. Without injury that game goes to Edwar, Farnsworth and Rivera and it's over. Yankees win 8-5 or something. But that didn't happen and now it's a blessing that Joba pitches today because there is definitely no need for anybody to pitch except Pettitte and Chamberlain, which is good because Hawkins, Ramirez, Rivera, Ohlendorf and Farnsworth would all figure to be unavailable. The Yankees need to grab the victory today and then come out fighting and actually beat their own divison for once against the Blue Jays.
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