On the Yankees beat

Well, let's be honest here. They lost confidence in him last year because he stank. He wasn't even striking people out, the one thing he did well the previous year. So even though Torre is death to relievers, it's understandable why he lost confidence.

However, it's funny how now that Torre is gone the relievers are finally opening up and revealing what we knew all along: it was next to impossible to succeed in Torre's bullpen, because they knew if they failed once, they were dead to him. They were so nervous going out there that they tried to be too perfect, ended up failing, and then had to sit aside for a week -- at which point they would be sent back into a critical situation, rusty, and fail again. It the the Torre Self-Fulfilling Prophecy cycle.

It's kind of odd for Farnsworth to come out and say now that he could have pitched back-to-back days, etc. If he felt so strongly, he should have gone to Torre and Gator and made it known. They were clearly babying him; he could have stopped that.

It's music to my ears that Eiland is giving him actual mechanical help! WOW! A pitching coach who watches video and understands mechanics. Who would have thunk it! Gator was a great pitcher but a joke as a pitching coach (basically all he ever said was "keep the ball down" -- wow, thanks, skip, now all my problems are solved!) and it's nice to know we have someone who can actually help his pitchers now.

I wouldn't go calling Dave Eiland a prophet just yet, his number one starter just got hammered and yes, I know it's early.

If Farnsworth could go to the media now and say he could have pitched two days in a row last season, why didn't he do it then? This guy is an excuse maker and he will suck this year as he always has and Dave Eiland will have nothing to do with it.

Having what might appear in 'normal' life an almost pathological degree of self-confidence seems common in athletes on the elite level. They KNOW they can do it, and most of the time that helps them when they get out there.

Where it doesn't help them is in hearing other people. Farnsworth and Bruney have been well known for resisting coaching, and not just here. Maybe, just maybe, being in the last year of his contract will open Farnsworth's ears a bit. If not, the best coaching in the world can't help him.

As for Eiland, he's completely unproven at this level of play and with veteran pitchers, but we can hope.

baileywalk - good stuff my friend!

Let hope a change of scenery, without actually going anywhere, helps farnsie out. Oh, sorry Kyle.

I think he prefers "Kylie" instead of "Farnsie".

You mean like Kyle Minogue? I would love to see her out on the mound, or the dugout, or the bullpen, or the stands...or...well you get the point.

Honestly though, when Girardi got hired I was optimistic he would straighten out Kyle due to their prior history on the Cubs. That was one of the 1st topics he covered in November. Lets be honest, Kyle has skills, but his head keeps getting in the way. Baseball is such a mental game. Its like when a hitter goes into a long slump. He’s gotta get his confidence back and take it to the hitters like he did in Detroit and Atlanta when he was LIGHTS OUT. One of the problems he had the last two years has been his flyball rate.

48% in Atl
53% in Det
67% in NY both years.

He’s still going to walk some guys, but if he can get his K rate up and get more groundball outs, he may have a bounce back year. If he can give us a line of

3.50 ERA…65 IP….70 K….50% flyball rate…1.25 WHIP

We will be set in our pen.

Oh yeah. Eiland is a great pitching coach because..........we employ him. Just like all the young stinkbombs are stars because you said so. You are all so hilarious. You think that just puttin that ugly uniform on somehow transpose a garbage into gold. Eiland.....oh yeah the same Eiland that was in the minors bringing alonf such stars as.......Darrell Rasner....Ty Clippard......Chase Wright.....Sean Henn.......Karstens...Ramirez....on and on and on.

What a resume he has. No wonder the major league staff is a joke....the pitching coach is the Joker himself.

Pace yourself Say Hey... it's not even mid March yet

Is Farnsworth out of his flippin' mind?????????

The entire Yankee Universe lost confidence in him. Personally, whenever I even saw him up in the pen during a close game I started getting a nervous tic. The guy WAS HORRIBLE nearly every time he took the mound. If it wasn't his control, it was the homerun ball and everything inbetween. And what does he do in his first inning of spring relief??? He gives up the long ball. He just needs to STFU and concentrate on pitching a little bit better.

See, now Farnsworth should be doing what Joba did. Say nothing! Both have nothing accomplished to allow them to be vocal, so both should take the same path and be humble. But the problem with a guy like Farnsworth is that he thinks he HAS accomplished something. All the disfunction he has shown he will blame on factors other than himself. I can't remember how many times I heard that when the call went to the pen, HE said he couldn't go. He is a mental case. A screw up who never takes responsibility for his own failings.

What do Eiland and Girardi have in their bag of tricks that corrects that trait? It ain't watching film.

I know its still early in spring training but......its difficult to see many bright spots at this point. Now it very well could turn around in 2 weeks so I wouldn't panic.....but still there isn't much to hang your hat on so far.

Nothing to hang you hat on??

How about

Damon hitting .333
Abreu hitting .538
Duncan hitting .636 and slugging 1.455 while doing a decent job learning at 1st.
Cano smoking the ball at .700
Ensberg hitting .400
Giambi hitting .400 and jacking a 3 run homer off of one of the best LHP's in the league in Cole Hamels
Melky hitting .375
Jeter hitting .375
Arod with a 1.300 OPS hitting .333
Future catcher Cervelli hitting .333
Karstens with 3 shutout innings, 2 K's
Albeladejo striking out 4 in 2 2/3 innings with no walks
A young LHP in Patterson throwing 3 perfect innings with 2 K's
Farny looking decent
Henn with 3 K's in 2 In
Ohlendorf with 2 scorless innings + 2 K
Melancon with a perfect inning to preserve a save
Hawkins, Hughes, Jackson, McCutchen with all perfect innings
IPK with 2 decent innings
No injuries so far in camp
Hell even Igawa is getting into it with 2 perfect innings + 2 K's

Now I could give a rats @ss about the above stats, but to say you dont have anything to hang your hat on so far??? I could hang several hats, a cane and a coat on this ST so far.

I guess you are forever a pessimist Nudge, thats why I love you.

you = your...I did it again..

DRU,

So do you think that the veterans proving they can make it to the big club is progress? Wasn't this the spring of the kids? With the exception of Duncan...who I expect to make the club and play his way to the bench...the youth has underperformed as has the pitching which was the other concern.

Were you concerned about A-Rod, Jeter, Giambi, Abreu etc to the point that ST would sooth your concerns? I know your smarter than that DRU.

Sure its nice to see Giambi ( coming off a miserable year ), jack a HR off of Hamels. Sure its nice to see Abreu in shape and ready to roll this early instead of July. Sure its nice to see Cano, Melk and Damon also off to nice starts after being so miserable in the early part of last year. If we were just a .500 team at the end of April last year, we would have won the division. So yeah, its good to see them all off to nice starts.

Also, “I know you can read better than that” Nudge since I DID include the young guys...I guess the following players dont qualify???

- Duncan hitting .636 and slugging 1.455 while doing a decent job learning at 1st.
- Future catcher Cervelli hitting .333
- Albeladejo striking out 4 in 2 2/3 innings with no walks
- A young LHP in Patterson throwing 3 perfect innings with 2 K's
- Henn with 3 K's in 2 In
- Ohlendorf with 2 scorless innings + 2 K
- Melancon with a perfect inning to preserve a save
- Hawkins, Hughes, Jackson, McCutchen with all perfect innings
- IPK with 2 decent innings
- No injuries so far in camp
- Hell even Igawa is getting into it with 2 perfect innings + 2 K's

What would have been successful ST so far in your eyes? If EVERYONE started off throwing 0's up and batting a thousand??? I would rather Wang, Moose and Andy work the kinks out since they are the vets. Also seeing Joba give up a HR doesn’t bother me one bit. That wont be the last one he gives up all year. You are a hard man to please Nudge.

Gee, I wonder why they lost confidence in poor Farnsworth?

What a mystery. Ray Charles could see it.

If you check the Newsday archives on line, you can see Farnsworth not only pitched poorly, but he was VERY RUDE to Ken Davidoff for a short interview. They should not keep players who are media-unfriendly in the media capital of the world.

Yes, many of the journalists are ultra left wing, having come from ultra left wing journalism schools steeped in political correctness and Marxism, (See the column on why a certain Newsday sports writer claimed he was unable to address Sheff's comments about Torre) but there is never any excuse to act that way.

If Farnsworth had any class, he would give back a lot of the money he was paid. So would Igawa. Cashman would have resigned in disgrace long, long ago for his horrendous moves; handing the division to Boston by getting Irabu, Igawa, Brown, Pavano, Vasquez and Farnsworth instead of Beckett, AJ Burnett, Oki, Mice K and Schilling.

Moreover, he had no backup C for half the season last year and relied on Igawa and Pavano in April, when we could have signed Lilly. We lost the division in the first six weeks of the season. This should be objective reality to any even semi normal person.

The team looks good so far. Maybe they can get into the playoffs and try to get past the first round.

By 2010 maybe they can win another World Series. Cashman wil be gone by then. So will the rest of the dead wood: Godzilla, Damon, Giambi, Farnsworth, Moose and hopefully Igawa.

Ant, I agree that the Yanks should have signed Lilly over Igawa. Ted proved that he could pitch effectively in the AL East, he always pitched well against the Sox too. He would have been a solid back of the rotation lefty until 2010. He had a career year in 07, he lowered his walk and hit rates, while posting his best K/9. I think some of that has to do with the weak NL Central, but still, he has a couple decent years left in the tank and would have been a good innings eater in place of Moose ( not that Ive 100% given up on he old Moose just yet ).