Octavio Dotel is up, finally, and the Yankees seem willing to use him in somewhat big spots. For weeks Joe Torre has been saying he has to deal with Dotel "with kid gloves," essentially to baby him since he is coming off Tommy John surgery.
But Torre said today he would be open to using him in the seventh inning if the situation called for it. But don't look for Dotel to come in during an inning. It's far more likely you'll see him start an inning and not pitch on back-to-back days.
Should be interesting to see what he brings with him. He said his gun readings were consistently at 94 in his last game for Triple-A Columbus, but that's him talking. The Yankees setup duo of Kyle Farnsworth and Scott Proctor have worked well of late when not being asked to throw two or three straight days. It's hard to ask Dotel -- more than 14 months removed from his last game -- to jump right in and be an eighth inning guy, but if he can take some of the stress of those guys it's a real plus.
Especially when you consider it wasn't long ago when it seemed Dotel wasn't going to be here at all. Even he had those thoughts, he admitted today, throughout the ups and downs of rehab. But with six weeks left, he could still be worth the investment.
Comments (5)
Dotel has the physical ability to pitch at this level if moniotored properly providing for rest in between outings but mentally not game tuff at this time.
More importantly, first and second no one out, Cano is hitting. My call sac bunt move runners into scoring position. If, successful this moves Roberts out of DP depth and toward first. Bernie's hard hit goes for a single and two runs. At least we're not out of the inning. Joe vacillates with his thinking. Small ball was perfect at that moment. Its 20/20 but this was my thought. The inning is still in progress. On another note to the boo-birds don't boo A-rod when the other 8 guys are coming up short way to often as well.
Now, Brian and Joe are thinking about bringing up someone to start a game because Ponson doesn't do well against Ortiz and Manie. This is hoping for lightning in a bottle. The kid needed to get his feet wet not be thrown into the fire without some protection of big league experience.
Dotel will be "fresh meat" to "Clueless Joe." The handling him with "kid gloves" is well intentioned, but Torre just can't help himself. He will over-use this reliever, just as he has every other relief pitcher on the staff.
joe torre is a savage. our pen is young and wil be fine. we have enough depth on our offense where we will always be in every game no matter what happens with pitching. and we are gonna win the world series, but not today, so save the whining about torre making bad decisions.
I would not call it whining. I call it another opinion that looks better than one more in the loss column.
i will say this as poor as his control was today he should not have taken wright out after that few innings knowing that our pen is gonna have to work way more than usual in this 5 gamer