Saturday, April 30, 2005

Stottlemyre

Good article at Futility Infielder on Mel Stottlemyre's ability to, well, be a pitching coach. Looks like, with the help of Jay Jaffe, Allan Barra just wrote an article on it in the NY Sun (subscription required, which is great, since that'd be another obnoxious NY sportswriter we'd feel compelled to read). The statistics are pretty damning. Also, the description of the Yankees bullpen is fairly entertaining:
...the rarely healthy Steve Karsay, the enigmatic Tanyon Sturtze (whose positive ledger rests on a 20-inning spree spread out between last September and early April that may well qualify as an out-of-body experience), the shellshocked Tom Gordon (who hasn't looked the same since David Ortiz got through with him), and the overcooked Mike Stanton...
Of course, I'd rather be talking about the Sox, but what to say? Between injuries and impending suspensions and spotty hitting, it seems like there's nothing to say -- just bite your lip and wait for...I dunno, June?

(Man, what is it with these SaturdayYankee day-games and night Sox-games? Is this done on purpose? I want to watch now! I mean, don't get me wrong -- watching Wang is interesting and all, but still.)
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3 comments:

  1. Earl4/30/2005 4:14 PM

    Okay, really now. Wang performs really well (man I'll never get tired of that joke). So Torre brings in Flush Gordon, who promptly (and predictably) gives up a homer, tying the game up. Whoops, and there's a double. Now an IBB. Why bring in Gordon? Obviously I shouldn't complain -- this is the Yankees -- but it's just So. Very. Stupid.

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  2. X4/30/2005 5:21 PM

    Interesting article on Stottlemyre. Remember a while back, Matt and I had a running debate on the subject. It was about the time the Yanks decided to bring him back this year - I don't think it was on the blog but I probably have it in my email - too lazy to look.

    My opinion was that Mel has not been very good - citing many of the examples as that article and, frankly, even a few others.

    And who really knows if Mel was EVER really good. In his Mets prime he had Doc Gooden at his best, Viola, Cone, Saberhagen, Sid - these are some unbelievable pitchers. And in the Bronx Watson and later Cashman never had problems brining in good pitchers. Many of who got worse.

    Now part of it is the nature of free agency - you pay for past performance, but really name one pitcher that went to NY and got better. I have only been thinking about it for the past couple minutes, but I really can't think of any - Tanyon Sturtze for half of last year - does that even count? Maybe John Wettlend 10 years ago. But he was good in Montreal. Jeff Nelson? Mike Stanton (he had a couple okay seasons before he got there).

    I really can not think of anyone.

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  3. X4/30/2005 7:25 PM

    Okay, the ones I can think of are David Wells and Jimmy Key. Although both had some success prior to arriving in NY and those were 10 years ago.

    And I guess we'd have to count Steve Howe.

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