Scott Proctor just walked Jorge Julio on five pitches. Julio is 0 for 1 in his career. That was his second walk this year. That’s pathetic baseball.
Proctor knows how to buy himself a break
Scott Proctor had a 5.13 ERA in April, mostly the product of zero-inning, three-run performance against the Red Sox on April 22. Proctor had pitched in the previous two games, allowing no runs in 1.2 IP. He was beginning to be overused, as is Joe Torre’s wont. So on May 6, he threw behind Yuniesky Betancort, earning himself a four-game suspension. Proctor had a 1.50 ERA in May — and that was completely the product of his meltdown last Sunday.
His location has been off lately — he’s been missing spots like crazy. And it’s not unfathomable to think that he just missed on an inside pitch to Youk last night. But Scott has definitely bought himself at least four games again. The All-Star break will buy him another rest.
Maybe we’ll see a completely effective Proctor this season?
Everyday Scotty
The Yankees have played 11 games. Scott Proctor has appeared in 8 of them, including four in a row and is now on pace to appear in over 110 games this season. Last Wednesday, Joe and I had this conversation about Scotty. We were joking. But, um, yeah.
Ben: It’s Wednesday. That means Scott Proctor pitches!
Joe: And you know what Joe Torre’s thinkin’.
Joe: “Well, tomorrow is an off day, so I can use him Friday, too!”
Ben: So true.
Joe: And if he uses him Saturday, it’s okay, because it’s only two days in a row.
Ben: And Monday’s an off day.
Joe: Sunday it is.
Yanks win; Proctor struggles
Short post from me tonight on the game. We’ll have the WPA graph in the morning. Good work all around tonight. Alex Rodriguez is in the Zone with a big, fat capital Z. It’s something special when a player of his caliber enters this other-wordly hitting zone. I would think that no one will pitch to him soon.
Nice to see Andy Pettitte step up tonight. His success tonight and the Yanks’ overall play leads me to believe that the bad, cold weather had something to do with the Yanks’ lethargic opening week. Baseball is a warm weather sport. No team should play in 35-degree weather or the snow. Just as Indian fans.
Finally, a quick note about one of my favorite relievers. I’ve always loved Scott Proctor’s Stuff. His mid- to upper-90s fastball and complimentary breaking pitches made me a believer, and last year, he delivered on the goods. He also appeared in over half of the Yankees’ games and threw a career-high 102.1 innings.
But tonight, he threw 11 of his 17 pitches out the strike zone. He was pulled after 0.2 innings of work in what was then a seven-run game. On the short season, he has just 4.1 innings under his belt — small sample size, I know — but has given up four hits and three earned runs. His K:BB ratio, nearly 3:1 last year, is actually 1:2 this year. I just hope he wasn’t ran into the ground last year.