A Few Quick Thoughts On The Yankee Bullpen

It's depressing, but here are a few thoughts:

-Mark Melancon should not be used in the rain. He's been used in the rain twice and he's sucked.

-Dave Robertson should be used more. He's not as bad as some of the rest of the bums out there.

-JA is unbelievably inconsistent but I think will be fine if they give him low pressure situations in the 6th inning. Which doesn't say much for his long-term prospects as a pitcher

-Jose Veras is terrible. Charles Barkley would agree in that description. Nick Swisher would be a much better option than him at this point.

-Anthony Claggett has a worse ERA than Wang. Wow. His ERA+ is 11.

-Edwar Ramirez throws a "Bugs Bunny changeup" and that's about the end of his usefulness

-Phil Coke is really good when used correctly but has been used from every role from long man to lefty specialist to set up man to middle relief. Give the guy a role. I see him as a Mike Stanton-esque player. Use him accordingly

-Damasco Marte shows why you don't give guys who can't pitch in 3 months here a 3 year extension in the down market. Oh wait... no...that's just logic. Regardless, they need to get him healthy and pitching only against lefties. Oh...and don't send him to the fucking WBC next time.

-Brian Bruney = (AJ Burnett - 3 years ago)/relief. Tremendous talent, needs to be harnessed, can't throw through the wall or else walks too many guys and gets injured, needs to work on staying healthy, but dominant when he is. If Coke is supposed to be Stanton, Bruney is Nelson (complete with the look)

-Alfredo Aceves is the longman they've needed for weeks. But this guy has been a starter his whole life so let's see if he can transition. I envisioned him in the offseason as a Ramiro Mendoza-like player who can pitch long relief, spot start and pitch middle relief once in a while. Is that too much to ask from Aceves? Maybe.

-Mariano Rivera will be fine. But my biggest question is why Joe Girardi reads all these books on statistics but doesn't know how to use Mo? Last night they needed someone to come in to hold a lead. He hadn't pitched since April 30th. You're telling me he can't come in to get outs because they don't have the lead? You have got to be kidding me.

-And anyone who decided last night was a great reason to put Joba in the 'pen doesn't really understand baseball (excuse me for being harsh, but it's just the way I feel). The guy struck out 12 out of the 17 outs he got. He couldn't locate at the beginning but once he got it going, he dominated. So, definitely, let's take a guy like that and pitch him 2 or 3 games a week. What a waste that would be. The theoretical assumption is that if Wang is healthy and pitching well, Hughes pitchers well and Pettitte, Burnett and Sabathia pitch to form, then Joba is cleared to pitch in the bullpen. Well none of those were true this week. And Joba is still our best starter. So let's, by all means, take him out of the rotation so he can pitch 3 or 4 innings a week (for leads we're not likely to have since we don't have starters without him). Until Wang comes back, let's, by all means, just have Igawa fill Joba's spot.

People, if your sink is leaking, you don't break up your fine china and duct tape it to the hole, you call a fucking plumber. If you have a problem in your bullpen, fix it instead of wasting away your best pitcher. The truth is that if they reach October, he'll be there anyways because of innings limits. But until then, the guy is 23 and striking out 12 Red Sox. Do you know the last Yankee pitcher to strike out at least 12 Red Sox players in a game? Mike Mussina in 2001 (with 13 Ks) when he threw his near perfect game. That was in 9 innings. Joba got 12 in 5.2 innings. To quote Peter Abraham (remember, I didn't say it): Anybody who wants to waste this kid in the bullpen is clinically stupid.