Kuzul

On May 1, 1920, the Major Leagues would witness the longest game in the history of the sport. The Brooklyn Robins battled the Boston Braves in a game that would eventually end in a 1-1 tie, due to the fact that it was getting dark out, and stadiums were not built with lights at the time.

The two starting pitchers are names that are not really recognizable now, and they are Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger. The amount of innings to be played that night fell just short of the equivalent of three games, at twenty-six innings. What is even more remarkable is that both starting pitchers finished the game. That’s right! Twenty-six innings pitched by each one of them, and surely they did it proudly, trying to earn their team a win.

Nowadays in baseball, if a pitcher goes six innings we give him a medal, but back then, pitchers were actually expected to finish the game that they started.

This is a feat known as pitching a complete game, a stat that is a rarity today, except for the likes of Roy Halladay, who was probably born in the wrong time frame. People make such a big deal about him because he eats up innings and has led the majors in complete games year after year. But had he played even just thirty years ago, baseball fans and analysts would be saying, “So what?”

This is not a knock on Halladay, more like the highest of compliments. It is truly a shame that this sport does not have more of him. But the fact of the matter is, this league we all love and watch now is watered down baseball, ruined by the owners and general managers by dolling out huge sums of cash to the players, and ruined by the managers for not playing real baseball.

What do we consider a solid season by a starting pitcher in present time? Maybe two hundred innings and ten to fifteen wins. If any pitcher consistently puts up those numbers, they will earn a major contract, be on the all-star team, and be looked at as a top pitcher. But fifty years ago and beyond, those stats were nothing major.

A pitcher today is considered a freak if he goes above and beyond those numbers. So what’s wrong with this situation is that we award them for doing something that was considered normal in the early days of baseball.

Let’s take a look at Christy Mathewson, one of the first inductees into the Baseball Hall-of-Fame. In the 1908 season, he threw thirty-four complete games, while amassing 390.2 innings, all while winning thirty-seven games. Quite remarkable, don’t you think?

Want to know what is even more shocking than that? His arm did not fall of during the season. And Mathewson was not alone; in 1903 he set his career high with thirty-seven complete games and was not even the league leader.

That is the major problem: managers being too protective of their pitchers. Today if a pitcher goes six innings, we pat him on the back saying he did the best he could, and then the men in charge of baseball had to worsen the matter by awarding him a stat; that ridiculous piece of new-age garbage known as the “quality start”.

A quality start is categorized as if a player pitches six or more innings and gives up three runs or less (which makes the ERA 4.50, not a great number in itself), he is awarded that. So now already the pitcher has in my mind that once he gets to the sixth, he can come out of the game. Fifty years ago if a pitcher wanted to come out that early in the game, either he had to be dying or his wife was giving birth.

But this problem did not just evolve on its own, in fact, it all started when closers became a mainstay in baseball.

Saves had always been a stat, but they were rarely used because teams really did not have much of a bullpen back then. As a manager you had your five starters (sometimes teams opted to go with only a four man rotation) and maybe two or three pitchers to have in case of emergency. If those relievers were not available, then you just used a starter to come in and finish the game.

Take a look at pitching stats from the early days of baseball. You will see that most pitchers have saves, but none hardly ever have more than ten. That is because these pitchers were workhorses, and saves were meaningless to them. Getting back to Mathewson, in 1908, he started forty-four games as the team’s ace. But he would also make twelve relief appearances and earn five saves.

Most likely those saves were the kind earned when one pitches the final three innings of a game and the team wins, a situation hardly seen in baseball today.

The Oakland Athletics are really the team to blame, as they started the whole movement of a pitcher pitching solely to close out the game, and that is where the term closer came from. It all started with Rollie Fingers and then Dennis Eckersely, and by the time the latter replaced the former, a league wide hysteria had caught on.

All of a sudden managers realized that they did not need their starters pitching every inning. Originally it was not that bad. Closers were there to pitch two, maybe three innings. But then managers got another idea into their heads; the set-up man.

If one situational reliever was not enough, they now had one for the eighth inning, and some even had another one for the seventh. Shortly, “lefty specialists” would become a mainstay in every bullpen, in addition to the above lunacy.

Closers were not all that bad, and in fact, I was fine with them until a few years ago when I realized just how over-hyped they are. Just listen to what people say:

“Not just anyone can be a closer.”

“It takes a special pitcher to close out a game.”

“You need to have a certain mindset to work the ninth inning.”

It has gotten so bad in recent years that closers have started to believe them. They have to have a special song when they run on the field, grow crazy facial hair to be intimidating, and come up with some manipulated version of the sign of the cross to jump around and do upon getting the final out.

When people argue that it takes a special person to be a closer, what about all the “star” closers that get injured every season and some journeyman nobody comes in and pitches lights out?

Take Dustin Hermanson for example, a middle of the pack starter and a below average reliever. After he left San Francisco in 2004 to join the Chicago White Sox, this sub par pitcher became the team’s closer and was lights out, saving thirty-seven games with an ERA of 2.04. The next season? He appeared in six games before being demoted to the minors, where he has never returned from.

Then there is Ryan Franklin, who bounced from the majors to the minors for his entire career, and last season becomes the most feared closer in the game. He even had to grow a crazy goatee to try to scare people. And what happened when the playoffs rolled around? How elite was he then?

The final example of this counter argument saying that anybody can close comes with David Aardsma of the Seattle Mariners. This was a player who played on four different teams in four years, and a guy who could not hit a cow if he was standing on the milking stool. Yet last season, he saves thirty-eight games and this season he finds himself owned by 86% of all fantasy baseball managers.

All of this hype for one inning wonders, and they only pitch one inning because they want to come into the ninth with a nice fresh, clean slate to pitch on. All this build up of closers only being able to pitch one inning has made them mentally unstable to come in during the eighth inning. How many times do we see elite closers come in early with men on base, only two allow them all to score before getting the outs?

And why does a save only have to come in the ninth inning? Tell me, what is more valuable; a closer coming in with nobody on base in the ninth inning and getting three outs, or a reliever coming into the seventh inning with the bases loaded and getting the outs he needed?

Why can’t the save be awarded to the pitcher who actually “saves” the game? It could be a discretionary stat, decided by the official league scorers. But then again, that would not be fair to the closer, because he is getting paid the big bucks to pitch his one, glorious inning.

So now the middle relief pitchers got upset, and Major League Baseball had to instill the biggest travesty this sport has ever seen, with a little stat known as the “hold”.

According to this fantastic stat, if a pitcher enters the game with a lead and exits with the lead, he is awarded the stat. These are two scenarios that can lead to a hold. Please tell me what is wrong with them:

1. Pitcher A enters the game with a 10-0 lead and retires three batters. His team wins the game and he is awarded a hold.

2. Pitcher B enters the game with a 10-0 lead and gives up nine runs. His team holds on for the win and is awarded a hold.

How on earth can baseball award a pitcher for a poor performance? It is because everything has to be individualized, and everyone must have a stat. There have been instances where a pitcher has come into a game, walked a batter, and left being awarded a hold. A pitcher not even recording an out and getting a positive stat?

Managers are even losing games or putting them at risk because of over-reliance on their bullpen. Take yesterday afternoon, for example. The Athletics were leading the Giants 1-0 after eight innings. Gio Gonzales had pitched all eight innings, allowing only two hits and one walk. He only had ninety-five pitches, but was lifted in favor of closer Andrew Bailey, who in his one inning would throw thirty pitches and allow two baserunners.

Although the A’s still won the game, how come Gonzales could not finish it out? Was it because he was approaching 100 pitches?

This is the new thing now, pitch counts. When I first started watching baseball in the late 90′s, I don’t remember them being mentioned. Now the hysteria has even gotten so bad as the YES Network now has a pitch count display on the main scoreboard, so that every second in the game you know where your pitcher is.

I don’t see this as counting up pitches, I see it as counting down to how much longer a pitcher has left to go. At the hundred pitch mark, apparently, a pitcher’s arm will just fall off. It is taboo to allow someone to throw much more than than that. Why, I ask? Why?

Take the New York Yankees and last season’s embarrassing treatment of Joba Chamberlain.

Starter, reliever, starter, reliever.

It got so bad that it seemed like almost every month they were changing him around. Then it got worse and they created the “Joba Rules”, which monitored his pitch counts and innings totals. Eighty pitches, and he was done. Getting close to the innings limit? Skip his starts every few weeks and only allow him go four when he does. (Thank God for bullpens!)

Chamberlain is now the set-up man for Mariano Rivera, the spot he should have been in all along. But it is safe to say that the Yankees ruined what was their most promising pitching prospect since perhaps Mariano himself.

Not only that, but he was built like a brick you-know-what. At 6-2, 230 pounds, Chamberlain was not some frail little stick. Let him pitch, or will his arm just fall off? Why couldn’t they let him mirror Tim Lincecum who is big enough to be confused with the bat boy? All he has been able to do in two seasons pitching without a leash is win two Cy Young awards.

He came up from the minors gunning it at 99-101 MPH. How he is lucky if his hardest fluctuates between 94-96. He struggled as a starter last season, and he is struggling now, with an ERA of 4.50. (But that’s okay, cause he has nine holds)

So I ask, what happened to this great game? Starters no longer pitch to help the team win, but they pitch to earn wins themselves. Closers do not pitch to seal the win for their team, they pitch to earn a save. And now relievers do not pitch to help out the team, but to get a hold.

All of this individualized, and all of it for the stats. There is no longer any winning for the team, just winning for personal stats. It will only get worse, and in years to come I wonder how many more will be invented so we can give another mediocre pitcher his own stat.

The way this game has dipped in recent years is embarrassing. What happened to durability in players? In the 1900′s when players were overweight chunks of fat whose only off-season exercise consisted of raising a beer glass to their mouths, they never got injured. Now players have personal trainers and a staff of team doctors and there are more injuries now than ever before. This really is cause for another article, but it adds to how watered down this sport has become.

Give me back the real baseball players we once had.

Give me back my game.

Please visit my blog, “From New York to San Francisco” .

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So, does anyone right now trust the Yankees’ bullpen?

If you’re like me, you are shaking your head saying no. And right now, you have every reason to.

Now, I know the Yankees are 25-13 and just three games behind the Rays for first place in the American League East, and most fans of other teams will tell the Yankees to stop complaining because they could be worse.

Yes, the Yankees could be the Pirates and be completely doomed. But, they’re not.

The Yankees are at 25-13 and probably could have an even better record if it weren’t for the disasters and early failures of the bullpen.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the culprits so far.

The biggest one may be David Robertson. I’ve written about how Robertson might need to go back down to the minors, but so far, he’s still a Major Leaguer.

Robertson is 0-2 with an 8.49 ERA. His ERA was well over 10 last week, but by pitching two scoreless innings against the Twins, he got it down. Last year, Robertson was one of the Yankees best relievers, but that seems so far ago. If he continues to get pounded, they may have no choice but to send him back down.

Chan Ho Park has been another one that has pitched lousy with the Yankees.

He pitched well last season for the Phillies, but we’re also talking about the National League here.

In the games with the Yankees so far, he’s 1-1 with an 8.10 ERA. His ERA is due to getting destroyed by the Red Sox twice. He’s also spent a good month on the disabled list, and after Monday night’s performance against Boston, fans are hoping he’ll go back on really soon.

Park was never great in the American League to begin with. When he got signed to be the Rangers’ starting pitcher several years ago, he was an absolute bust. He was so much a bust that he was transformed from a starter into a reliever.

Park belongs in the National League, but for right now, the Yankees are stuck with him.

Now, the next one has been one of the most talked about topics from the winter. From reliever to starter and back to reliever, Joba Chamberlain has had his ups and downs.

But lately, Joba sucks.

Before Saturday, Joba was at a 2.16 ERA with a 1-1 record.

On Sunday, Joba couldn’t get the outs needed in the eighth inning and helped start the Twins’ rally, while watching his ERA go up to a 3.63 and a 1-2 record in the process.

On Tuesday night, with the Yankees up 5-1, Joba came into the game and gave up the lead and allowed the Red Sox to go from looking dead to alive and back in the game at 5-5. Joba’s ERA is now at a 4.91 after his last two outings.

From a 2.16 and pitching well to 4.91 and looking like he can’t get anyone out is where Joba has gone to. He’s supposed to be the setup man to get the games to the best closer in baseball, but right now, he couldn’t get little leaguers out.

Joba needs to get his stuff together because he could lose that setup job really quick if he continues giving away leads and games.

Speaking of the best closer in all of baseball, Mariano Rivera hasn’t been too sharp the last few days.

On Sunday, after Joba allowed a couple of runners, Rivera gave up his first ever grand slam to Jason Kubel and allowed the Twins to win 6-3. It was the first blown save for Rivera in 2010.

On Tuesday, Rivera looked like he would cut through the Red Sox order in the ninth, but Marcus Thames dropping a routine pop up and Jeremy Hermida’s RBI hit made it a 7-5 lead. The Yankees got it to 7-6, but fell just short of a comeback.

Now, because Rivera is the best closer ever and lately has been suffering from a hurting side and hasn’t been pitching much, he kind of gets a free pass because we know Mo will bounce right back.

But Robertson, Park, and Chamberlain do not get a free pass, so they take a ton of the blame.

Now, a big part of the relievers struggling is that Alfredo Aceves, one of the better relievers for the Yankees, is on the disabled list. Aceves can go multiple innings and takes a lot of strain off the Yankee bullpen, and his presence right now is missed. Aceves needs to get back to the bullpen ASAP.

Now, Joe Girardi could give opportunities more to Mark Melancon and Boone Logan with Damaso Marte as the lefty specalist.

The Yankees could also go outside the team to find relief options, and two of them who were former Yankees just recently became available again.

First is Chad Gaudin, who started out in Spring Training with the Yankees, was released and picked up by the Oakland A’s, who just released him a couple of days ago since they barely used him.

Gaudin pitched very well for the Yankees in both starting and relieving roles, and if the Yankees need another arm, they know Gaudin can be reliable.

The other is Brian Bruney, who was pitching for the Nationals this year but just got released due to struggles.

Now, Bruney was also inconsistent with the Yankees at times, but he’s also had some success being in the Yankees’ bullpen and could give the Yankees another hard-throwing reliever who could be looking for a second chance.

The Yankees need to do something quick, because what happened Tuesday night with the bullpen blowing CC Sabathia’s gritty performance against Boston cannot keep happening.

The Yankees’ rotation of Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes, and Javier Vazquez are all a combined 20-5, which is outstanding. That leaves the rest of the bullpen at 3-8, which isn’t so great.

Whether the Yankees need to bring back some older arms, bring up new people from the minors, or go out and make a few trades, the Yankees need to fix up that bullpen and fix it fast.

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Last night’s loss to the Boston Red Sox has to leave a bad taste in the Yankees mouths. With a 5-0 lead after seven innings and Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera lurking in the bullpen, the Yankees likely thought this game was over and they would sweep the short two game series.

Think again. For the second straight night, the Yankees bullpen blew a fairly comfortable lead against the Red Sox. It was not just on the pitchers however. There is plenty of blame that can be tossed around after this game.

Joba Chamberlain

Joba entered the game to start the eighth inning after starter CC Sabathia battled through seven scoreless innings of work. With a 5-0 lead, Chamberlain promptly gave up four runs on four hits to allow the Red Sox to get back in the game. Three of the four runs were earned. He did not strike out a single batter in his inning of work. Five run lead or not, Joba needs to pitch better than this. He needs to learn to treat each game like its a one run game.

Marcus Thames

Yes he had the game winning hit the night before, but last night Thames was one of the big reasons the Yankees lost. Playing right field because the team is short on outfielders right now and Nick Swisher remains day-to-day with an injury. With Mariano Rivera on the mound in the ninth inning, Thames and second baseman Robinson Cano converged on a short fly ball. Thames called off Cano, but while doing so he took his eye off the ball. When he looked back up, the ball was in his lap. The error cost the Yankees and allowed the inning to continue.

Continue this story and see who else can be blamed, visit Double G Sports.

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I don’t like admitting that I’m wrong.

I put admission of error somewhere between getting a Novocaine-free root canal and being the Jim J. Bullock center square of a human centipede.

But right is right, and it’s starting to look like that’s exactly what the Yankees were when it came to their handling of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain.

Wednesday night against the Tigers was another big night for the farm system’s golden boys. Hughes was brilliant over seven shutout innings, and Chamberlain was throwing gas in the eighth for another scoreless inning of relief.

Hughes is now 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA, and is suddenly a legitimate ace counterpart to CC Sabathia. Chamberlain, meanwhile, has a 2.30 ERA and hasn’t allowed a run in his last seven appearances, effectively filling the eighth-inning role that Hughes thrived in last season.

Much has been made of how the Yankees handled both young pitchers.

Some argued that the team asked for too much, too soon from Hughes, who was the second youngest player in the American League when he was called up in April 2007.

Hughes battled injury and vision issues his first two seasons in the Bronx, leading many fans to believe the right-hander was heading down Brien Taylor Boulevard, the one-way thoroughfare for all-hype, no-results prospects.

Fans were even more frustrated when GM Brian Cashman refused to part with Hughes in a trade that would bring Johan Santana from the Twins in December 2007. The idea of a Yankees organization that didn’t sacrifice prospects for established veterans was completely foreign to a fanbase weened on 30 years of Steinbrenner rule.

Chamberlain has been an even bigger lightning rod of controversy. He came out of nowhere in August 2007, becoming a phenomenon with his blazing fastball, sharp slider and animated strikeout celebrations.

Despite his fantastic (non-midge related) success out of the bullpen, the Yankees were intent on giving Chamberlain an opportunity as a starter. They looked at the beefy kid from Nebraska and had visions of a young Roger Clemens under their control for seven years.

Unfortunately, it just didn’t take. The “Joba Rules”—first instituted in ’07 to keep Joe Torre from Proctor-ing the young prospect’s arm—was deemed the culprit when Chamberlain wasn’t immediately the same intimidator as a starter as he was out of the bullpen.

But by 2009, it started to become clear that it wasn’t the Joba Rules that were holding Chamberlain back, but his own mind-set. He struggled to find consistency as a starter, unable to find his top velocity, and unable to control the pace of the game. By the time the postseason rolled around, Chamberlain was back in the ‘pen.

The Yankees gave Chamberlain one last shot as a starter in spring training, essentially pitting him against Hughes for the fifth spot in the rotation. It was a no-contest. Chamberlain seemed disinterested in the battle, and Hughes won nearly by default.

That brings us to today. Hughes and Chamberlain are both Yankees, they’re both healthy, and they’re both succeeding in the roles they were meant to be in. Hughes, the starter and ace-in-training, Chamberlain the reliever and closer-in-training.

There’s a parallel universe where Hughes the Minnesota Twin is shutting down the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2010 ALDS and Chamberlain is sitting in the waiting room of Dr. James Andrews with an icepack on his shoulder.

Thankfully, the two young right-handers took the fork down a different path. And while you can argue that the organization took a circuitous route to get to the right place, you can’t deny they got there in the end.

Dan Hanzus writes the Yankees blog River & Sunset and can be reached via e-mail at dhanzus@gmail.com. Follow Dan on Twitter at danhanzus .

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This spring, as the Yankees decided to toss Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen (where he belongs) I kept hearing people being critical of Chamberlain for all the wrong reasons. I heard this phrase over and over again. Over-hyped punk.

Overhyped… That might be true with the “Joba Rules” etc. but can we really blame the kid for that? He’s not the one who decided that he needed to be brought through this disastrous babying system.

He didn’t push the Yankees organization into creating a situation where every single thing he did, didn’t do, or stopped doing because of a pitch count was broadcast on ESPN. All Joba did was come on the scene a few years ago, dominate a three month stretch of season, and then do what he was told (or try to). So to call him over-hyped as a jab to him is uncalled for.

If he is over-hyped then what can be said of Clay Buchholz? Other than his no-hitter what has he done that deserves to be handled with kid gloves when compared to Chamberlain? If you listened to everyone the last couple of springs he is part of the reason why the Red Sox allegedly have a deeper, more stable rotation than the Yankees.

At the start of the seaosn Joba’s career numbers were far better than Buchholz’s.  More  IP, a greater K/9 ratio, lower BB/9, an ERA over a run lower, and unlike the Red Sox starter a winning record for his career.

We won’t mention the fact that the “kid” Buchholz is one and half years older than Chamberlain and had a full extra season in the minors to develop at a more reasonable pace before coming up. People need to think about the fact that Joba has been up in the bigs for how long? At this point in his career Papelbon was JUST ARRIVING in the show.

In addition, I fail to see how this whole situation makes Chamberlain a punk. The guy has listened to everything he’s been told to do without creating a stink. The Yankees told him to pitch three innings and get out whether he gave up five runs or had a no-hitter going… he did it.

They told him they were pulling him out of the rotation and into the bullpen for the playoffs… he did it. They told him that Hughes was to be the fifth starter and he’d be in the bullpen… he did it. So far I’ve heard nothing but positive, team-first quotes from Chamberlain about this (and judging by his publicity so far, we would have known if he said boo).

I also challenge any pitcher or athlete to succeed in a situation like the one Chamberlain went through last year. His role was constantly changing. He could pitch a whole game, then he couldn’t. He could pitch on regular rest, then he had to wait nine days between starts (good luck staying in mid-season form that way). Everything he did along the way was scrutinized under the finest microscope, something that would have utterly destroyed the confidence of lesser men.

In the few times that we saw him allowed to develop some sort of continuity as a starter, he experienced at least a little success, including a three game stretch in late July where he had three wins, giving up a total of two runs in a span of 21.2 innings with 19 strikeouts and only eight hits against the Rays, A’s, and Tigers. (It should be noted that his first nine day rest was immediately after the third game, totally breaking his rhythm). Consistency is what makes athletes what they are.

When Joba was off the leash as a reliever, however, he was electric. While it may be asking a bit much for him to repeat that kind of dominance (24 IP allowing a total of 18 base runners while striking out 34 is a mind boggling introduction to Major League baseball), he has the stuff and the make-up to be one of the best in the game.

The last couple of nights we have seen him ably handle the closing duties thanks to a “stiff left side” of Mariano Rivera’s.  Now the chatter is all about how “this should have been his career path from the beginning”, as if somehow Joba had some kind of say in the matter last year.

Give the kid a break and realize that it’s the Yankees organization that chose this way to handle things, not him. All he has done is quietly go about his business every step of the way, not complaining about it once.

In an era where we seem to look for any opportunity to criticize the selfish “me first” mentality of athletes it’s amazing people don’t climb over top of one another to toss praise on this young man.

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