I was pleasantly surprised to see the Rays pitch to ARod in that spot (with 1st open). Yeah, he's been struggling a little as of late, but the guy is the reigning MVP.

The Rays showed him no respect last night and it cost them the game.

Funny how such simple advice can be a revelation for even one of the game's greatest hitters.

Way to go Jedi Joe! : Pinch-hitters Posada and Cairo drive in two crucial runs, Wright performs well-enough in place of the fan-favored Chacon, Williams makes Joe look good going 3-for-5 and scoring, and Villone, Myers, Farnswacker, and Rivera execute the bullpen blueprint to perfection, surrendering not a single base over the final three innings.

Torre: "Just hit the ball on the good part of the bat."
A-Rod: "Oh - yeah. Thanks Joe. I hadn't thought of that."

Sometimes Joe should make things up when people ask him about what he says to his players. Here's what he should have told us he said.

"I just told him to stop being a wuss and swing the freaking bat. Nobody ever went to the hall of fame with the bat on their shoulders. And none of this dribbler to 3rd base sh*t, either. Hit the ball on the fat part of the bat, or don't come back into the dugout. Mazilli was getting steamed. Besides, I had a reservation for white clam sauce at 11. Let's go!"

What I'd really like to know is what Guidry has been saying to Wang.

BP

Blue Jays seem to have the Sox number or maybe they're just they're better team, only time will tell, but go Jays!!
Even though he threw a lot of breaking balls last night, Farnsworht has been a joy to watch so far.
When kyle gets it up there at 100mph or strikes a batter out it's exciting to watch.
He seemed a little pumped last night, don't know why, but ever batter he struck out he gave a little pump fist to. So far so good.
It's strange seeing Matsui's batting average under 270. hopefully he's not having a down turn.

Is it me or is Al Leiter, Jim Katt, and Ken Singleton disagreeing with everything Michael Kay is spuing? Maybe it's time for Kay to step away.

2 I'm wondering if the pinch hits last night spell the end of the Andy Phillips Experience. Something has to give at some point. I sure hope he starts hitting the ball with authority, for his sake. He seems like a great kid.

BP

Boy, I'm really digging all this Farnsworth love lately. I'm thinking it will last until he gives up a run. Between the blogs and the YES message board, I was defending this guy against attacks from before he even threw a pitch for this team. And after the Oakland series and some other early-season walks, everyone said he was a bust, that they wanted Tom Gordon, "a waste of 17 mil," etc., etc. And now? Now they see him throw a 100-mile-an-hour fastball and strike out Juan Gomez (Johnny Gomes) and Vernon Wells on three sliders and he's their "boy." Hilarious. It's a good thing, though. At least now he's probably not wishing he stayed in Atlanta to close.

I really think that Jays and Red Sox are close. If the Sox get their A games from Schilling, Beckett, Clement, and Wakefield they may get the edge against Halladay, Chacin, Lilly, and Burnett.

If the Sox pitching doesn't hold the opposition though, the offense is going to have a hard time coming back. With Ramirez and Ortiz in the middle of the order, and Nixon and Varitek cleaning up the latter part, they'll score some runs but not like the Jays and certainly not like they have in recent years.

In the meantime, we've yet to see the best of the Yankees, but the bullpen outing last night was a precursor of things to come, I think. Plus A-Rod and Matsui got off the schneid. Looks like Sheff will be back soon, and Pavano too. If Pavano and/or Wright can give us anything we can start to roll.

In the absence of one of those guys pitching well, we'll be inconsistent. What's it gonna be boys?

Slump Busters? Could it be one of these?

http://slump-buster.com

Not to diminish Gordon's dozens of quality innings for NY over the years, but I feel more confident in Lord Farnswacker than I ever felt watching Flash.
I guess it's Farnshammer's whupass intensity that instantly won me over.

After getting the job done, Gordon would point to the sky, thanking the Lord above.
Sir Farnstantinople accomplishes his mission, then screams "Fuck!" into his mitt, as if frustrated that he failed to get the ball to burst into flames.

No comments on how Joe mis-managed the pen? Makes him look like a genius when the players do what they're supposed to do. Good start for Wright. Hope it's the first of many. Villone look efficient. Farns can pitch more than 1 inning? Who knew?
Time to start a little winning streak.

Props to Torre for finally using Villone instead of Sturtze, who must be waived ASAP.

It seems that he is finally starting to recognize that the Farns and Sturtze are not interchangeable.

Wright pitched well against a weak lineup, but I still don't feel comfortable when he pitches.

Why blame Torre when he goes with his best options?

The problem is that he often doesn't, and as a result, deserves to be criticized.

10 To me, the huge surprise was Jaret Wright holding the D-Rays to 2 over 6 and then Torre bringing in someone other than Sturtze in the 7th.

That bench situation was pretty tight at the end, though. If someone went down with an injury I'm not sure what would have happened. What do you guys think about expanding the rosters? Say 27/42?

Ah, but standuptriple 10, last night Joe finally didn't mismanage the pen. Execution had nothing to do with it.

Yes, the pitchers did what they were supposed to do, but Joe put the right guys in for a change. The problem isn't when Sturtze or Proctor screws up, though that's not good - the problem is that Torre shouldn't be putting them into close games in the first place. Last night, for a change, he didn't.

Even if they hadn't executed, at least Torre finally used the right sequence of pitchers.

Glad to see Wright give up only 2 runs, but that's two starts in a row where's he thrown just as many balls as strikes. I hope his 2 games of 2 runs given up doesn't lead to him pitching against the Sox in the Bronx next week.

I'm giving Wright the benefit of the doubt because he managed to get through the top of the Rays lineup, which has some bruisers, pretty effectively.

Still, it's the Rays.

Last night's game was vintage 1998 Torre when almost every move he made was the right call.

He managed the pen perfectly, and got runs out of two pinch hitters, and seemed to give A-Rod a very helpful bit of last second advice. Great game, Joe.

13, I suppose they would have had to have sent a pitcher in to play a position. Might not have worked out that badly, seeing as many pitchers shag flies during batting practice, and all of them have to practice fielding grounders and liners and covering first in order to field their normal position. Would have been ugly at the plate, though, but no worse than Flarehty was last year.

17 eh, with our bench who knows we might find a great pinch hitter in Tanyon Sturtze! Then we can complain when he's brought into a tie game in the 8th to bat.

3 "What I'd really like to know is what Guidry has been saying to Wang."

I dunno, but with Guidry's cajun accent and Wang not speaking a heck of a lot of English, I'd love to be a fly on the dugout wall.

9 "After getting the job done, Gordon would point to the sky, thanking the Lord above. Sir Farnstantinople accomplishes his mission, then screams "Fuck!" into his mitt, as if frustrated that he failed to get the ball to burst into flames. "

ROFL - thanks for the laugh this morning, that was great!

11 Villone doesn't make me sweat the way that Sturtze does, agreed.

15 Wright's 5-1 lifetime against Tampa - they're a decent hitting team, but I'd like to see Jaret against LA or Chicago before I declare him the #5 starter.

10, no one is complaining because the moves made were correct. I think had we lost the game people would not be griping about the bullpen moves. One thing that still worries me though, if the Yankees hadn't taken the lead in the 10th, would Mo have been sent out there or would it have been Tanyon?

Yeah right. If Myers had given up back to back doubles (which isn't too unlikely) everbody would be on here with thier "Myers has no business being in tight ballgames" & "Torre can't manage a bullpen".

Wanna know how I know Torre can manage a bullpen? Because there aren't enough flag poles at Yankee Stadium to fly all the pennats he's won.

The question remains: If the Yankees had failed to score in 10th, whom would Torre have turned to? Rivera or Proctor?

I guess I can start saying "I told ya so" to the Farnsworth doubters. He is showing the same intimidating dominance that he demonstrated last year here in Detroit. I never had that same confidence in Gordon, who was always living "close to the edge," especially last year. A Gordon 1-2-3 8th inning was a strikeout and two warning track shots. By October, those warning track shots would make it over the fence. Enjoy him, Mr. Gillick.

21 I disagree here. After the boston game not a person faulted Torre for bringing in Myers to face Ortiz. I believe all the comments were to the effect of, "He made the right move and it didn't work, can't fault him there."

Everyone, including myself faulted Torre for bringing in Sturtze (and some faulted him for leaving Small out too long or yanking Wang too quickly). I actually faulted him before Sturtze gave up the hit, no matter what happened, it was the wrong move.

I can't speak for everyone here, but I don't fault Torre (or anyone else) for making the best decision possible and it not working out. However, I will fault him for making a poor decision even when it does work out. One batter, inning or even game is a very small sample size, but you can still maximize your chances of winning.

5 Phillips smoked the ball twice last night - two "at 'em" balls.

21 let me also add that my faulting Torre's bullpen or bench moves doesn't mean I don't think he's a great manager. With the Yankees probably the most important thing is keeping the team on the right tack, managing egos and dealing with the media and the Boss. There is no question that Torre is phenomenal at all of these things and is roundly liked by most of his players.

All I'm suggesting is that some other coach or someone they hire be adept at things like statisitical analysis and tactics. If they can spend nearly 200 million in payroll, I think they can afford to hire one good sabremetrician (Boston has a few) to suggest tactics and then those suggestions should be listened to.

If you were entering a horse in the Kentucky Derby, what would you name it (baseball related)? Max of eighteen letters/spaces.

I'd go with one of these:

DFA Sturtze
TellJoeBerniesDone
CountTheRings
TieGameOnRoadUseMo
IHaveACrankyUnit
The$40M Ass Bruise
DieMichaelKayDie
TheresNo Z InSusan
Melky>Bubba
EnterSandman
OBP4Life
YourAttentionPlease

>

I really enjoy listening to Leiter's commentary - you can tell he enjoys talking about pitching and he certainly gives a shot of personality to that trio (no offense to Kitty & Ken).

27 I agree completely about the personality Leiter brings to the table. I also love how he guesses the pitches during at-bats. Although, I'm sure that is going to get annoying over the course of the season.