TBAGS and Eddy Ram

I guess the best way to start out is to give a little background on my baseball fandom. First, I am, I suppose, what one might call a seamhead. I don't care how a player fits in in the clubhouse or what his "stuff" looks like--only objective statistics are what matter in the game of baseball.

I would now like to introduce you to what I (borrowed from the esteemed Max Kellerman) call TBAGS--Typical Baseball Analayst Guys. They are your standard ESPN announcer (Joe Morgan) who frankly have no idea what the fuck they are talking about and spew nonsense about how hard a player works or how he helps change the clubhouse atmosphere. All of that stuff is meaningless, these TBAGs just spew the standard sports paper crap w/o even thinking about what they are saying.

There is a wildly popular Yankees Blog out there--I'm not going to say that the writer is a TBAG, because I frequently check it, but he's pretty darn close. The blog is amazing for quick lineup posts, or inside information that only a nerdy sports journalist is privy too. When he starts to analyze the team set up and roster calls, however, is when he oversteps his bounds as the lowly beat writer.

Since, this is a site named Fire Joe Girardi, I am going to post my views on the things that Joe G is being hotly criticized for and just give my take on them....

The Bullpen
With the season less than a week old, pretty much the only thing that Joe Girardi is being criticized for is the bullpen--both its makeup and its use.

Everybody's favorite TBAG argues that tonight's game (15-5 whipping by the Rays) is the exact reason that the team needs to carry what they call a "long man." To me, that seems completely unreasonable and is seemingly useless. Why on earth would you waste a valuable roster spot (there are only 25 remember) to have somebody on the team who's entire purpose is to pitch when the starter gets injured or when you are down by so many runs you can't reasonably come back. Is it really worth it to the Yankees to have Brett Tomko sit on his fucking ass in the bullpen and only come in when the game is essentially already out of hand? The Yankees can just do what they did today and piece together the rest of the game after Wang got crushed and move on from there. There is absolutely NO need to have a roster spot taken by Brett Tomko (who, first of all sucks) just so he can sit on his ass and collect a paycheck. Johnathan Albaladejo isn't very good himself, but he can get a few guys out when needed and he throws hard. He certainly is more valuable than somebody who's designed to only come in when the game is out of hand.

Joe Girardi's Use of the Bullpen
This isn't even really worth arguing right now, but people have been criticizing Joe for his management of the 'pen in the game they blew against the Royals. Not bringing out Mo for the 8th inning was the correct move--to early in the season for that. My question is why not just leave Marte out there? You are paying him $13 million to do something, and that should be more than just being a lefty specialist. So what if Billy Butler had a .956 OPS against lefties, pitch him carefully and get him out or walk him and face the next guy. Too much mixing and matching and you are left with Phil Cokeface on the mound. That never ends well.

And frankly, I'm tired of TBAG making fun of Edwar Ramirez. The guy last season gave up less than a hit per inning and had more than a strikeout per inning. How does it get better than that as a reliever? Yes, because of the changeup he's going to give up a few monstrous home runs, but how on earth is he not a bigger part of the bullpen? Come on, Joe. Get him in there.