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Why I’m sick of Mike Mussina

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Time after time, some little thing disrupts Mike Mussina’s rhythm, and he feels the need to make excuses for himself. After watching this go on and on since 2001, I’m beyond sick of it.

Yesterday afternoon, during the postgame interviews, Mussina claimed that he had nothing coming out of the bullpen and that he really struggled to make it through his half-assed start against a White Sox club that came into the game batting .220 with a sub-.300 OBP AS A TEAM.

But really, Mussina didn’t like the rain-out and the extra day of rest. It bothered him. For a smart guy – Stanford, crossword puzzles – Mussina sure can’t conquer the mental aspects of the game. He falls apart when someone makes an error; he can’t deal with a disruption to his routine.

Mark Feinsand said it best in his blog recapping 14 hours spent at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago:

Mike Mussina needs to just go out and pitch. I know he’s a huge creature of habit, so being pushed back two extra days is a big problem for him, but after playing as long as he has played, he needs to find a way to get past it and give his team 100 pitches.

I know Feinsand isn’t the only sports reporter who questions Mussina’s fortitude. You have to believe that an accomplished pitcher in his 17th season in the Majors could just suck it up now and then. But more and more, it seems like Moose cannot, and it’s a let down.

One-way ticket to Scranton

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So how about that $47 million investment, Cashman? It was looking all bright and cheery on Saturday, when he appeared in an emergency situation and ended a losing streak. Last night, though was just a reminder that Blower-san* is going to have plenty of outings like this if you keep allowing him to start games. True, there aren’t many alternatives. But there has to be something better than this.

It’s pretty obvious that Igawa won’t succeed in the bigs given his stuff and current approach. His stuff ain’t gettin’ any better, so the only thing he can work on is his approach. Wouldn’t Scranton be a better place to hone that skill? Yeah, you can work on it in the majors, but you’re going to be killing your team every fifth day in the process.

Unfortunately, there are roster issues standing in the way. I would hope Darrell Raner’s start on Sunday is his audition for a second chance. If he throws well — and I’m not talking about results, I’m talking about throwing strikes and getting ahead of hitters — Igawa could then be sent down on Monday to make room for DeSalvo. But, if Rasner flops, it would appear that the Yanks are still stuck with Igawa.

There is, however, an alternative. But it would involve juggling a few spots on the active and 40-man rosters. If Rasner doesn’t look good, you send him down for DeSalvo on Monday. So the rotation looks like this:

Monday – DeSalvo
Tuesday – Pettitte
Wednesday – Mussina
Thursday – Wang
Friday –

There is simply no reason to plug in Igawa there, especially considering that Seattle will be the opponent once again. As I said, if Rasner is good or even okay on Sunday, he could get the nod. If not, why not Tyler Clippard?

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Yanks lose; vultures circle

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The Yanks are now losers of 8 out of their last 9, including a very costly 5 out of 6 losses at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. The team looks anemic at the plate, and the pitching is in shambles. It’s safe to say that the Yanks haven’t looked this bad since the early 1990s. At this point, the Joe Torre Job Watch is official on. Hoping on the bandwagon today is ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Crasnick notes that Torre’s successor to this mess will have a pretty thankless job. I think it might be time for Joe to go.

What do you think? Should the Yanks fire Torre and go with some combination of Mattingly/Girardi/Bowa in an effort to light some fire under this team? Sound off in the comments. We’d love to hear your take on a topic that should dominate headlines until the Yankee ship is righted.

The art of deception, by Josh Beckett

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Since there was no Yankees game yesterday — much to my rain-soaked chagrin — it seems appropriate to rag on the Red Sox, and Josh Beckett specifically.

I had planned to watch the Sox/Royals game last night, but a few tasks kept me from tuning in until the second inning, when it was already 3-0 Sox. Great. But, since Josh Beckett was on the mound, I figured it was still worth a watch. I flipped it off after the third, when Mark Teahen and Mike Sweeney blew a first and second, one out situation. I was disheartened once again in the fourth, after watching the Royals score a run, followed by Beckett finishing off the side.

The Red Sox increasing their lead kept me from flipping back to the game. So, in my ignorance, I believed that Josh Beckett pitched a good game. Boy, was I wrong.

First, he only ended up pitching five innings, leaving things to the bullpen for four. They ended up pitching well, but if they end up pitching four innings a game a couple times a week (and they’ve pitched nine so far in two games), they’re screwed. That’s a lot of strain on a bunch of mediocre or sub-mediocre arms.

The next stat that stands out is his strike total. 94 pitches, 46 strikes. Yes, folks, Josh Beckett threw more balls than strikes last night. That was reflected in his four walks, though he did strike out five and only surrender two hits.

It’s that kind of wildness that has many believing that Beckett is not one of the “aces” that were heralded on ESPN in February and March. He may have walked away looking decent last night, but if you’re walking four in five innings, you’re going to give up a few more runs on most nights.

If Beckett doesn’t improve significantly on this wildness (he surely won’t throw 51 percent of his pitches for balls every night), he’s going to run into a familiar problem: taters. Wildness can mean leaving pitches out of the zone and issuing a lot of walks, but it can also mean missing in the zone. And when you miss out over the plate, guys are going to take you deep, especially hitters in the AL East.

Of course, it is the first start of the season, and I may be jumping the gun a bit. However, it’s not like he pitched lights out last year and had an off game yesterday. In fact, yesterday seemed like a mere extension of last season. Here’s to hoping it’s another long one for Beckett and the Sox.

Photo: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Josh Phelps can help this team

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You might have read this already, you might not have (and you might not have the subscription that is required to do so), but Baseball Prospectus ran an article back in December on the career of Josh Phelps. Instead of just glossing over the numbers, Marc Normandin tries to put them into context and tries to explain why Phelps was disappointing at times on the major league level.

For instance, he was a terrible disappointment for Toronto in 2004, but he sported an ungodly low he .276 average on balls in play, which is in stark contrast to his expected level of .317 (based on the percentage of line drives he hit). Then you have 2005 with Tampa, when Sweet Lou handed him a mere 177 plate appearances. His 2006 season in AAA for the Tigers looked stellar, as he posted .308/.370/.532 averages. In addition, he walked in 7.2 percent of his plate appearances, hit a line drive in a little over 20 percent, and got his groundball percentage down to around 40.

He obviously has the skills to succeed, but has faced a few unlucky breaks — injuries included. I don’t think that Phelps is beyond repair by any sense. In fact, if he can translate some of the skills he displayed in AAA to the major league level and stay healthy, he’ll contribute far more to the 2007 Yankees than Andy Phillips and Doug Mientkiewicz.

Then again, I may be over-arguing here. Does anyone really think that Phillips or Mientkiewicz can make a meaningful contribution? And please, spare me the Pete Abraham “Minky will save an error a week.” That’s a load of anecdotal horse shit.

Another option at catcher — no, it’s not Javy Lopez

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The CourierPost ran an article this morning regarding backup catcher Chris Coste’s status on the Phillies roster. He says that lack of playing time has him worried about his spot on the roster. According to the article, “The Phillies view Coste as a third-string catcher and right-handed pinch-hitter.” In my experience, it’s rare to see a team carry a third-string catcher, so yeah, I think Coste’s worries are legitimate.

This led to Steve (who also gets the hat tip for this link) speculating about a possible trade for Coste. To that I say: not a bad idea. I’m not basing that on .328/.376/.505 line in 198 at bats last season; that’s far too small a sample size. But over his storied minor league career, he holds a .805 OPS. If he can be had for a spare reliever — though that’s not a certainty, given Phillie’s reluctance to deal with the Yankees recently (you want Jason Michaels? Our opening bid is Chien-Ming Wang) — I say go for it. Coste should provide a better bat than the pitcher-esque skills of Todd Pratt and Wil Nieves.

I’m just having a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of Philly jettisoning this guy. He’s had a solid minor league career and played well once finally called to the majors. And now his backup job — once again, backing up Rod Barajas, who very well may hit worse than Coste — is in jeopardy? Carlos Ruiz (who I blindly assume is the leading backup candidate) is going to be that much better? I just don’t see it.

If Pat Gillick is looking to shed Coste for a middle reliever, Cash should jump on it; he’ll looks to be an upgrade over our backup catchers from years past.

Photo: Kathy Willens/AP

The proof is in the pickups

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A comment over at YF vs SF got me thinking, how much of the Yanks projected 25-man roster is homegrown, and ditto the Sawx. Based on a quick glance at their respective sites, I came up with the following:

Yanks
7 homegrown (Jeter, Mo, Cano, Wang, Posada, Phillips, Melky)
5 traded for
12 free agent signings
1 misc (Josh Phelps, Rule V draft)

Sux
5 homegrown (Hansen, Delcarmen, Pedroia, Papelbon, Lester)
10 traded for
9 free agent signings
1 misc (Kyle Snyder, waiver pickup)

Any Japanese imports were considered free agent signings, not homegrown players (each team had 2 apiece). I had to make some assumptions about the last pieces of the bullpen, so I figured that Villone and Britton would make it for the Yanks, and Delcarmen and Hansen would round out the Sox ‘pen, which increased the amount of homegrown Sox players by 66.7%. I also gave the Sox credit for John Lester, which I consider pretty generous.

I’m a bit shocked that only 5 current Yanks were traded for (Britton, Abreu, A-Rod, Nieves, and Proctor), but the 12 FAs doesn’t strike me as unusual.

So what does this tell me? The Yanks produce stars, the Sox produce mostly borderline major leaguers. There, my logic is flawless.