why they play the games
As a certain Yankees captain often says, the games aren't played on paper. In other words, you can't predict what's going to happen simply by looking at stats and matchups. If you could, I'm sure last night's Yankees-Mets matchup between Sidney Ponson and Pedro Martinez would have looked very different. Ponson was a recent minor league sign who had been released by the pitching-poor Rangers due to off-field brouhahas. Yet he pitched six shutout innings. Martinez is the pedigreed one, and even if his numbers this year (in limited action due to injuries) haven't been great, the easy money was on him to outpitch Ponson. Yet he gave up six earned runs in 5 2/3 innings.
So the Yankees salvaged the split. Now we'll see Andy Pettitte opposite Johan Santana today. And that's intriguing for reasons beyond the pitching, as the Yankees could have had Santana but decided Pettitte (and their young prospects) were enough.
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Comments (3)
You won't know if the decision to not trade for Santana was correct or not until Hughes and Kennedy come back and pitch. They both are on the DL which for Hughes concerns me in this is the second year in limited play that he has been placed on the DL with no explanation of how the injury was sustained. Andy Pettitte if all issues were the same could match up well with Santana. Andy's older but has game remaining in him. Santana has shown the wear and tear of his prior years plus an increase in home runs plus he hasn't been lights out.
I would prefer to spend on FA when their is no alternative from within. You may ask who is our alternative to Santana from within . Obviously, there is none but the Yankees had to start somewhere with the word no to any crazy,stupid requests from the Twins who apparently took less from the Mets. We have enough of aging FA's in our lineup from one game to the next the the Bus from SW is enroute with replacements. How long will Giambi last or Damon. How long will Matsui be out. The Yankees have done well just to be where they are with the injuries to pitchers and positional players.
Are we really going to bring up the Santana thing again? That ship has sailed, hasn't it? Just like the Mets weren't one "ace" away from putting it all together, either were the Yanks, and we don't need a big contract for a player whose skills will diminish towards the end. Pay attention people, teams like the Indians, D-backs, Rockies, and this year even the Rays have built their teams from within. Let's not rehash this again, please?
Michaelz:
Yes and three of the above mentioned teams are on the train to nowhere w/ the Indians on the verge of losing Sabathia the Rockies Holliday,Fuentes and Taveras and I'm still not convinced the D-backs are a solid ball club .The Rays are so far winning on the strength of their pitching .I'm curious to see how they'll fair come Sept.