Late-Inning Thunder Powers Yankee Win

It'd be a really bad call to bring in Edwar in the 7th - the kid is a rookie with a few IP's in the bigs. Yanks are down 1-0. The odds of Edwar unravelling are fairly high, and before you know it the Yanks are down a few more runs. Would they still have the same come-back in them if they were down 3 or 4 runs? Maybe, maybe not. But Joe would then get grilled (probably from you too) for bringing in Edwar in the 7th. Proctor was the right move - just look at the final score.

Proctor should've been held back for the eighth, and he shouldn't have been used for 2 yesterday. Joe is burning him out, again. That's twice this season. The last time, Proctor only got a rest because he was suspended.

Maybe that was a good situation to bring Edwar in, maybe it wasn't. We have no idea because Joe refuses to give him a shot. Why is he on the team if Joe won't use him in ANY situation?

I wrote about this earlier today, when Joe does finally bring him back into a game (probably the double header on Saturday) it'll be more than 3 weeks since he last pitched. He's going to be rusty, and probably walk a couple of guys. Why isn't he in AAA, pitching every day, if Joe isn't going to use him? Vizcaino has pitched in 5 of the last 6 games, Proctor threw 35 pitches yesterday, and 20 more today.

My point is that Joe doesn't need to be killing this bullpen, or maybe he doesn't. He's got a guy out there who may be capable of eating some of these innings, but he won't go to him. It's going to cost the team when Proctor is throwing 89MPH fastballs come September.

And I don't criticize Joe for choosing youth, he just rarely does it.

I do agree that Edwar hasn't been given a chance and I hear ya about abusing Proctor. It's just that you don't bring Ed in a 1 run game, and as you said, he hasn't pitched in a while and would be rusty. It just wasn't the situation. At this point, Joe probably won't bring him in even to eat late innings if the Yanks are down 4-5 because every game means so much and the line-up sure has a chance to recover from such deficits in late innings as they've shown before. But in situations where we're leading by 4-5 - yeah, absolutely Joe should bring him in, and when he doesn't, I criticize him too. And look, how can you not pitch Viz and Proctor when they've been better than others in the pen lately and these are the games where we HAVE to secure a win to have any chance down the line? It's a tough decision. Either way Joe goes, there'll be folks to crucify his decisions. I do that too at times, but sometimes you just have to give him the benefit of the doubt. He works with what he's got. These games in July are a do-or-die and we have to do. If it means over-using some arms, well that may be only practical choice as going with inexperience or lack of command or whatever other guys in the pen are afflicted with may cost them July, August, and then probably the season.

Unfortunately, I get these painful visions of 2005 where we exhausted everyone in the second-half run-up and then folded in the first round. I sure hope this won't be the case this time around.

I meant "4-5 runs" there.

I hear ya. My point is just that there have been opportunities to use the kid, and if he had used him, maybe he would have the confidence in him to use him in close games. Maybe the kid would've spit the bit, if that's the case, at least we'd know and we could take a shot with someone else, instead of having a guy on the 25-man who never gets in games. Maybe Joba Chamberlain.

Anyway, take these notes to Joe with a grain of salt. I'm not one of the "Fire Joe" Yankee fans out there. I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn't mean some of his methods don't bug me to no end. That's what the notes are all about.