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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Murray Chass on Baseball: Poor Planning Produces Poor Results

Hey, any “self-proclaimed statistics aficionados” out there? Murray needs help.

As much as the Yankees miss Wang, they would have missed him a lot less if they had Santana. Mike Mussina’s surprising performance would have been more of a luxury than a necessity. The injuries to Hughes and Kennedy and their inability to win even one game between them would not have been so devastating.

Nor would the Yankees have needed to make the bizarre mid-season move of converting young, hard-throwing Chamberlain from the bullpen to the starting rotation. There’s another area in which the brain trust messed up.

Again it was Hank Steinbrenner who pronounced before spring training began that Chamberlain would be a starter this season. Again it was Cashman who overruled the new boss and said Chamberlain would start this season where he finished last season — in the bullpen—only to be forced by circumstances to change in mid-stream.

Someone once advised against changing horses in mid-stream. The Yankees’ problem is they bet on the wrong horses, and their poor judgment is making it extremely difficult for them to win or place.

Repoz Posted: August 20, 2008 at 09:18 AM | 18 comment(s)
Related News: General, NY Mets, NY Yankees

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1. JRVJ (formerly Delta Socrates) Posted: August 20, 2008 at 09:33 AM (#2909911)

The Santana trade is not looking that good for the Yankees right now (especially if it was centered on Kennedy and Melky), but you know what, that's life.

The question is whether Hughes (originally mentioned), IPK and Melky turn out to be anything special (IPK and Melky have had bad seasons, but I wouldn't count them out yet).

As to Joba, Murray is an imbecile - Joba was in the pen at first because he has an innings limit, and the only way he was going to increase his innings is start at some point BUT NOT AT THE START OF THE SEASON.

2. Fancy Pants Handle Posted: August 20, 2008 at 09:37 AM (#2909917)

Murray Chass: Poor Intelligence Produces Poor Articles

3. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory) Posted: August 20, 2008 at 09:46 AM (#2909927)

As much as the Yankees miss Wang, they would have missed him a lot less if they had Santana.

They should have All-Stars on the bench, dammit! CC Sabathia for long relief! Manny Ramirez in AAA, just in case!!!!!1111

4. RB in NYC (Now with Christmas Spirit!) Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:10 AM (#2909942)

After last night's Bad News Bears-like debacle, I'm pretty sure any Santana trade wouldn't have made any difference to this year's team. They're just lousy.

5. aleskel Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:10 AM (#2909944)

Someone once advised against changing horses in mid-stream. The Yankees’ problem is they bet on the wrong horses, and their poor judgment is making it extremely difficult for them to win or place.

"suck on that metaphor, stat geeks!"

6. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad) Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:13 AM (#2909945)

"Someone once advised against changing horses in mid-stream. The Yankees’ problem is they bet on the wrong horses, and their poor judgment is making it extremely difficult for them to win or place."

What kind of racetrack does Murray visit, where they have a river running through it?

7. Repoz Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:21 AM (#2909950)

What kind of racetrack does Murray visit, where they have a river running through it?

Gulfstream.

8. jwb Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:32 AM (#2909959)

It's unusual to see a blogger sucking up to management like this.

9. Edmundo, survivor of 7 right-sourcings Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:37 AM (#2909965)

"Someone once advised against changing horses in mid-stream. The Yankees’ problem is they bet on the wrong horses, and their poor judgment is making it extremely difficult for them to win or place."
With this writing, it's hard to separate the wit from the Chass.

10. Sheer Tim Foli Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:38 AM (#2909967)

Nor would the Yankees have needed to make the bizarre mid-season move of converting young, hard-throwing Chamberlain from the bullpen to the starting rotation. There’s another area in which the brain trust messed up.

You know I hate the Yankees and Joba as much as any fan from an AL city should but I don't understand why the club is taking so much heat for this from their own press.

I've read all of the arguments against why people don't like the move but I don't recall seeing these arguments before.

Of the myriad of examples of clubs promoting their young talent to the rotation has anyone used these arguments to complain about the promotion. Did any other team or pitcher get this grief when a young twirler was given a shot at starting forsaking the coveted setup man role?

11. Cowboy Popup Posted: August 20, 2008 at 10:42 AM (#2909976)

You know I hate the Yankees and Joba as much as any fan from an AL city should but I don't understand why the club is taking so much heat for this from their own press.

They're getting grief from the press because the press loved Joba in the 8th. And they argued he should stay there and the Yanks ignored them and the press looks like a bunch of idiots now because of how good he was. But they are sticking to their guns and will probably keep their heels dug in until he goes to an All-Star game or win a Cy Young.

12. Monsieur Valentin Posted: August 20, 2008 at 11:13 AM (#2910022)

What kind of racetrack does Murray visit, where they have a river running through it?

The Yankees' season was cut
by the world's great flood

13. JRVJ (formerly Delta Socrates) Posted: August 20, 2008 at 11:20 AM (#2910034)

Chass is an imbecile. Other writers, to the extent that they are coming back to this meme, are probably coming back to it because Joba's injured (kind of hard to bithc about this when Joba is healthy).

14. Joe C isn't Posted: August 20, 2008 at 11:29 AM (#2910047)

Murray Chass on Baseball: "I'm indignant and curmudgeonly about something!"

15. 1k5v3L Posted: August 20, 2008 at 11:50 AM (#2910075)

Murray gives us his latest "5P" framework of uber-sabermetric analysis

16. 1k5v3L Posted: August 20, 2008 at 11:51 AM (#2910077)

As much as the Yankees miss Wang

17. Chase Utley, America's Favorite Robot (Joey Belle) Posted: August 20, 2008 at 05:11 PM (#2910569)

As much as the Yankees miss Wang

Wang jokes are the new market inefficiency.

18. pkb33 Posted: August 20, 2008 at 08:44 PM (#2910912)

1. Murray Chass sucks.

2. He stumbled onto one truth here, which is that eventually people will realize that Brian Cashman makes far, far more questionable decisions than people seem to acknowledge. This was blamed on Torre for a while, but no more is that an option.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Murray Chass on Baseball: Poor Planning Produces Poor Results

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