Small sample sizes produce irrational hope
What I liked about this series is that it gives me hope the that 5 run rule is a thing of the past. In the previous 3 seasons the Yankees won a vast majority of games in which they scored at least 5 runs. This isn’t terribly surprising, but they lost a vast majority of games in which they scored fewer than 5 runs.
Against a stingy Jay’s pitching staff, I was heartened that they won 2 games in which they only managed 3 runs per. The Joba + Mo formula looks really good. Mo hasn’t shown any of the control problems he had early last season, and I worry that the more time we have to get used to seeing JobaMo at the tail end of games, the harder it’s going to be to accept moving Joba back the rotation. I know it’s the right thing to do, but human perception is a funny thing, people tend to want to preserve things that they know work. So this will be worth keeping an eye on.
I don’t know what to think about the trio of other bullpen righties, Hawkins, Bruney and Farnsworth. All three seem to have tantalizing upside, but grave flaws in their approach. I got pretty sour on Bruney last season, so I’m going to be skeptical until I see a couple of months of solid work and no whining.
I suspect Farnsworth is what he is, to sit around and delude myself into thinking that this is the year he finally puts it all together and is lights out….well, that’s just going to lead me to bad places.
Finally, I dig the herky jerky left handed stylings of Billy Traber. I know he has only faced one batter this season, but I think he’s cool. Although, this is sorta the way I felt about Bruney a year or so ago, so I’m sure he’ll end up disappointing me.
But 3 games in, the bullpen has been a bright spot. 1 ER over 8.1, with 8 Ks, and no inherited runners have scored.
Posted by schteeve
