Do you think he stands a better chance to get hurt when throwing every day out of the pen (because there will be many days he warms up and never actually pitches) or on a program where he only throws every 2-3 days?
Because innings are innings, for the most part. The first through seventh innings are just as important as the eighth and ninth in determining who wins the game. In fact, they tend to be more important because there are approximately twice as many innings to cover. This is why, when given the choice of having a player of a certain talent level pitch 150-200 innings or having that player pitch 70 innings, the 150+ innings are more valuable. And the injury risk is overstated. His injuries in college and the minors were mostly muscle strains, nothing pitching related. I think he also had a knee injury in college, too.
The "experts" think there is less of a chance of him getting hurt in the pen. Personally, I don't know. One of the reasons they say he is prone to injury is because he relies way too much on his fastball and not enough on his junk. That has him overthrowing later in games he starts and inning where he lets people get on base. That will only change when he gets confidence in his other pitches.
Good article by Olney on what a fraud Torre is. http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blo.../blog/index?entryID=3863381&name=olney_buster "The book is in Torre's name. Says right there on the cover. By Joe Torre and Tom Verducci. In the four seasons Torre managed Rodriguez, he would never have come out in the dugout for his daily session with reporters and revealed that teammates called Rodriguez "A-Fraud," and if any reporter had asked him whether it was true that teammates compared A-Rod to the character in the movie "Single White Female," they would have gotten The Stare. But he has gone beyond his own code of conduct with his book. In spring 2003, David Wells and a ghostwriter published a book, "Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball," and Torre was furious, angry that Wells had aired some of the Yankees' dirty laundry in the pages. Wells tried to distance himself from some of the words in the book, saying they belonged to the writer, but the Yankees' manager would not accept that. After a meeting with the pitcher, Torre said this to reporters: ''We talked to him about a lot of things today. I just sensed he was bothered by it. Not by what we said, but by how it came out. How much of it is actually what he said and how much isn't exactly what he said, I don't know. "But there's no question: It has his name on it, and he has to be accountable for it.'' Torre, Cashman and George Steinbrenner held Wells accountable -- in the end, he was fined $100,000 by the organization. Now it is Torre's responsibility to be fully accountable for the words in the book that has his name on it, and he must stand behind those words. If he hides behind Verducci and the suggestion that the ugly anecdotes aren't his, the explanation will have echoes of "I didn't knowingly take steroids." If he embraces the words as his own, he also should acknowledge he has been, at the very least, extraordinarily hypocritical. A-Rod tells others he's not bothered by Torre's words, John Harper writes. Torre's revenge hit the wrong targets, writes Wallace Matthews."
He'll definitely get more comfortable and rely on other pitches besides his fastball with time. I can understand the thinking about overthrowing, but I'd be more nervous that he'd do it out of the pen, pitching 3, 4, 5 days in a row. If he has a long work day during a start they can adjust his off-day workload to compensate, if need be. -------------------- As for Torregate, whatever. If he said what has been claimed, F him. If not, whatever. Either way ARod probably doesn't care because at the end of the day, Alex is playing for the Yankees and has a legit shot to win it all every year, and Joe is managing the Dodgers. Last laugh goes to Alex.
A-Rod actually laughed the whole thing off and this was my favorite part of it. "A-Rod also told people that nothing Torre could say would be more revealing of how he felt about his player than the act of batting him eighth in the lineup in Game 4 of the 2006 playoff series with the Tigers. "Alex was really hurt by that," one friend of A-Rod's said Monday. "He believed that Torre did that to embarrass him and he knew then what Torre thought of him. "So anything that comes out now wouldn't compare to that. He's just surprised that Torre would talk about these kinds of things because he always told the players the clubhouse and the bond with teammates was sacred, and not to be broken this way."" Pretty much what Olney was saying too. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/b...urce_by_batting_arod_8th_in_playoffs_j-2.html
Of course. But I don't think he loses the same sleep you or I would under the media scrutiny, thanks to that paycheck. Heh, true enough. I actually sort of feel bad for Torre on that one. I was very in favor of dropping ARod in the lineup when Torre did it. I thought it was a very gutsy move at the time. I really can't speak poorly about it in hindsight. (Though I'm not a "player's manager" like Joe.)
Torre should have named the book Gran TorreNo. And held a gun on the cover. I am actually interested in reading the book now. Thus, he has succeeded.
Huh. You might be the first person (who is not an out and out A-Rod hater) I've heard say it. I thought that was one of the worst moves he's ever made. If he's a player's manager, he should know his players better than that. And I still don't see how you justify batting one of the best hitters in the game eighth, in the playoffs no less. (Note: Let me preemptively post the obvious A-Rod hating response. Yeah yeah yeah, A-Rod sucks in the postseason... blah blah blah... I don't care about small sample sizes... blah blah blah.)
Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, I'm the type of person that teaches via punishment. Negative reinforcement. It's the way I learned, and I've always carried it forward. Good thing I'm not a teacher, right? Yes, given the type of manager/person he supposedly is, I agree with you. That move reeks of an Ozzie Guillen. Honestly, I think he bowed to the media/angry fan pressure. As I said, the reason I don't get down on him for it is because I called for it at the time too. And I thought it showed real balls to basically tell the entire team "See? No one is untouchable." It backfired though, and is probably a contributing reason to Torre's end of tenure. And you're absolutely right. At some point, the Yankees are going to be in the playoffs and ARod is going to "break out" and have great series one after another, and his numbers will even out. But even then his detractors will find a problem with him. Just like those who despise Cashman find ways to rip him no matter what he does. (And he's been brilliant this offseason. I don't want to hear any of that "It's easy when you play with Yankeeopoly money" bullshit. The guy makes moves no one even expects.)
C'mon, moves nobody expected? Where? Everyone expected him to throw gobs of money at the big names, and he did it.
Go ahead and tell me you had any idea that the Yankees were the team that sent your front office home empty handed in the Teixeira sweepstakes. And no one thought Andy was coming back at all just 4 days ago. Of the 4 free agents he brought in, that's 50% that were surprises.
I was surprised but could not be happier. Everyone here knows I wanted Pettitte back and Texiera. To get both makes me very happy. Sabathia and Burnett are great too, but Tex is definitely the icing on the cake. I guess Andy can be a cherry on top? I dunno.
Everyone not a Yankee fan knew Andy was going back, no chance he was going elsewhere. And as far as Teix, the Yankees saying they were not even going to bother, raised alarms. When Teix sent the BoSox brass home, and Loudmouth Henry said the money was just not there, it narrowed it down to a handful of teams, the Yankees being the obvious leader. Not to say Cashman didn't play his cards right, he put up an impressive smokescreen with the Swisher acquisition, but he didn't do anything unexpected of him. He did what most anyone could do with a bottomless coin purse, he just did it with more pizazz!
I would say everyone new he would be with the Yankees or with no one but he may also have retired. He has come close to that for the last 5 years.
Torre had every right to move him and should have done so more. ARod was awful in postseason and killed us time after time after time. The fact that he "laughs it off" is typical ARod. He just doesn't know how to deal w/ pressure. Most big time players would get pissed and get some motivation from all the failures but he accepts them and laughs them off. paycheck combined w/ his awful play in big spots. If he came through when it mattered no one would even mention his salary.
