High and Tight.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

Where is the Uproar for "Price to the 'Pen"?

The constant yammering of talking heads on TV and sports talk radio about how Joba Chamberlain needs to be moved back to the bullpen brings up a question: why is everyone just focused on Joba? I have made it clear in this space a number of times that Chamberlain is best utilized as a starter. His numbers are great for a 22 year old in his second season in the rotation. He's not an ace yet, but if nobody had ever seen him pitch from the bullpen, the locals would be ecstatic about his progress. Unfortunately, idiots like Mike Francesa like to point out how "his ERA is better as a reliever." Well of course it is. When a pitcher only has to throw 20 pitches instead of 80-100, they can let it fly without fear of tiring. Look at Phil Hughes' splits between the rotation and the bullpen this year, and you'll see what I mean. Imagine Roy Halladay's numbers in the 8th inning! Bridge!

Aside from rehashing that old argument, one has to wonder why nobody seems to be making the same (flawed) rationale for David Price of the Rays.

Price was a phenom last season. He was brought up at the very end of 2008 and was used from the bullpen, eventually becoming the closer that brought the Rays to their first World Series. He had a .929 WHIP, a 1.93 ERA, and a 230 ERA+ in the regular season, lowering that to a 0.00 ERA and .857 WHIP in the post season. He was a stud, an unhittable Roy Hobbs type striking out every Whammer he saw.

Of course, the long-term plan for Price (as it should be with any good young pitcher with 3+ quality pitches) was for him to be a starter, so that's where the Rays had him slotted this season. He hasn't done well.

Price is 2-3 with a 5.21 ERA in 38 innings this year and is averaging less than 5 innings per start. Yet there is no outrage from pundits, nobody on Baseball Tonight is screaming about moving him to the bullpen. Steve Phillips, of all people, is advocating patience (Phillips, by the way, was firmly in the "Joba in the 'pen" camp).

Maybe it's just that Chamberlain plays in New York that he gets this kind of scrutiny. Maybe it's the "win now at all costs" mentality. However this is the same mentality that gutted the Yankees' farm system in the 1980s and early 90s, and again in the early 2000s.

Price needs time to develop. He's a huge talent and should be a star in the years to come. Maybe he will be sent down to the minors to work on his pitches and control, maybe not.

I'm just curious why there's no uproar to move a guy who is failing spectacularly as a starter back to the 'pen where he dominated, and there is for a guy who is doing a better than league average job in his role as a starter.

Labels: bullpen, david price, joba chamberlain, pitching rotation, steve phillips, they're still the devil rays

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 10:45 AM 5 comments

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Someone call Ken Tremendous, stat

It was all a tease. It's like I'm a freshman in high school and the cute girl I had a crush on said she'd go to the dance with me.

Then she changed her mind.

While notorious cock-tease Bob Raissman reported that the firing of Joe Morgan and possibly Jon Miller from Sunday Night Baseball was imminent, it turns out he was incorrect.

Instead, ESPN will add Steve fucking Phillips to the broadcast booth. This is the same Steve Phillips who was a complete failure as Mets GM and then was asked by ESPN to hold mock press conferences as the GM for every other club. This is the same Steve Phillips who hates OBP so much that he calls players who walk a lot "selfish." This is the same Steve Phillips who has made it a habit of being wrong on Baseball Tonight for about four years now.

What the hell is ESPN ownership thinking? At the very least just throw in Rick Sutcliffe and a bottle of cheap gin instead.

Also sorry I've been absent most of the last week. I came down with bronchitis, but it seems to be getting better now.

Labels: espn, joe morgan, jon miller, mediots, rick sutcliffe gets drunk on tv, steve phillips

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 12:29 PM 0 comments

Friday, September 21, 2007

Kevin Hench's Douchebaggery Hitting Lupicaesque Levels

Jesus. I just want to warn you, this blog post is going to be a train wreck.

Thanks to reader Steve V. for the submission of this article where Hench goes off on Steve Phillips for saying the Yankees won't make the playoffs. Yes, this is the same Kevin Hench who not only said the exact same thing, but made a huge deal about why it wouldn't happen, and in this article, berates Steve Phillips for making the same prediction two months later.

On Aug. 15, Steve "Kazmir for Zambrano" Phillips announced on television — in his ever-surprising capacity as a paid talking head on the subject of baseball — that neither the Yankees nor the Mets would make the playoffs.

I pinpointed the date by going into my e-mail outbox and tracking down the incredulous missives I fired off after the absurd proclamation.

At the time of Phillips' prognostication — and wouldn't you really trust Bijou Phillips more on these matters at this point? — the Yankees and Mariners were tied for the wild-card lead while the Mets led the Braves and Phillies by four in the loss column.

Though I disagreed with it, I could sort of see his Mets logic. After all, it was Phillips himself who was responsible for the Mets being a starter short and looking to Pedro Martinez's surgically-repaired rotator cuff for help down the stretch.

Do you really want to know how much of an uneducated moron Kevin Hench is? Whether you do or not, I'm going to tell you.

His first sentence - the opening "zing" of the article - mocks Phillips for trading wünderkind Scott Kazmir to Tampa Bay for Victor Zambrano. Here are some easily checkable facts that even a 4th grader writing a book report on Steve Phillips' autobiography would have looked up:

This trade took place at the trading deadline in 2004, on July 30th.
Steve Phillips was fired as General Manager of the New York Metropolitan Baseball Club on June 12, 2004.
Jim Duquette replaced Phillips, and was the one who organized and executed said trade in July.

So... Hench's two major bones to pick with Phillips - who is a douchebag of collossal proportions in his own right - are completely without merit. Hench slams Phillips for making the exact same argument he made even earlier, and then wrongly assumes Phillips made that awful trade.

Once again, can someone - anyone - tell me how these morons keep their jobs? They're so monumentally bad at them, that if they were employed in any other profession they would be fired or in jail by now.

Imagine Dr. Kevin Hench, neurosurgeon, Lt. Kevin Hench, LAPD, Kevin Hench, Attorney-at-Law, Senator Kevin Hench, bookstore clerk Kevin Hench or American Airlines pilot Kevin Hench being as mind-numbingly awful at their profession and the resulting consequences: malpractice, indicted for corruption, disbarred, recalled, fired and dead.

However sportswriter Kevin Hench - the one who exists in our plane of reality - still collects checks from FOX Sports.

The whole world is crazy, my friends. Try and carve out a little piece of sanity for yourselves and don't read sports columns.

Labels: douchebag, kevin hench, steve phillips

posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 2:38 PM 1 comments