Maybe They Should've Brought In Nick Swisher Instead

• Indians 10-Yankees 2:

When the Yankees acquired Damaso Marte with the idea of him being a "crossover lefty" to pitch to batters from both sides of the plate, I doubt they meant that he'd get shelled equally by each. Grady Sizemore has been vulnerable to lefties his entire career, but in all fairness, at age 26 he's entering his prime years and could be learning to handle them much better to take the next step into superstar/MVP contention; Victor Martinez's numbers against lefties are righties (he's a switch-hitter) have been similar also.
That being said, Marte's line from yesterday was so hideous that all the talk of the Yankees "figuring out how to use him", which were supposedly the problems from last season and the genesis of his struggles, don't look like they've been resolved. The Indians lineup was too good to continue to slump as it has since the start of the season, but there's no excuse for the way Marte pitched yesterday, nor is there one for a nine-run inning.
I criticized the Yankees decision to decline Marte's contract option during the winter. It was for $6 million as I recall and the Yankees decided instead to re-sign Marte to a 3-year extension worth nearly $12 million. In the long term, it might've been a sound business decision, but Marte is 34-years-old , has only been involved in high-pressure situations once in his career (with the White Sox in 2005) and struggled to throw strikes in the playoffs----stats. There's every possibility that he simply can't handle pitching in such a high-pressure atmosphere as for the Yankees. It would've cost them more money over the one year to exercise Marte's option, but at least he: A) would've been singing for his supper and impending free agency; and B) he'd be gone after the year if he pitched like this. The Yankees are stuck with him because no one's taking that contract now and he's signed through 2011.

• Viewer Mail 4.17.2009

Jane Heller at Confessions of a She-Fan writes RE Xavier Nady and Nick Swisher:

Supposedly, Nady is trying rest and rehab to avoid surgery. I sure hope it works and he's not lost for the season. Just wrote up today's post about the home opener. What a disaster that game was.


I, too, wondered if using Swisher would cause possible injury. I certainly hope not!

Historically, I've found that when guys try rest and rehab for a severe injury, all they do is waste time they could've spent rehabbing after surgery. It happened with Jorge Posada last year; they'd be better off getting it done now if it's as bad as they're implying.

With Swisher, I doubt we'll see Joe Girardi pull something like that again. Sometimes I get the impression that Girardi's like a smart kid who's given control of a really successful business and does some really stupid things with it occasionally, mostly without thinking. Last year I suggested that the Yankees needed a smart, veteran bench coach who had some managerial experience, but had no designs on managing again so as not to be a threat to the young and occasionally defensive manager. Tony Pena ain't it. Girardi's lack of managerial experience shows itself far too often for my taste----and I'm a Mets fan!!!

Jeff at Red State Blue State posts three comments:

I feel ya on the MLBlogs issues. Getting a bit too much... throw in my issues with MLB.TV (I mean, they boast of the NextDef plug-in giving me HD but I have yet to actually see a game in HD because the damn thing doesn't work and we're well into week 2 already). *Ahem*... as for Motte, from what I read, TLR and Dunc want to put him in in a non-pressure situation first to get him the work. When lefties are a comin', we'll be seeing lots of Dennys "Big Sweat" Reyes. Franklin has the experience. And Perez could get a call-up any day. I was shaking in my boots last night as Franklin gave up a two-out single and Arizona fans actually made some noise, but it was all for naught. You're right, Prince. If anyone knows how to manage a closer-by-committee, it's LaRussa. The big challenge will be this week against the Cubs. So far I am pleasantly surprised. When it comes to Swisher, like I told Jane, I can't take him seriously anyway, unless he has a beer in his hand.

Carpenter is becoming the Cardinals' version of Mark Prior. Meanwhile, the bullpen continues to rear its ugly head. Last night's game made me vomit, twice. In other news: You're right. It ain't fair, Prince, but I don't think you're a schmuck. Manny, now Manny is a schmuck. Great hitter. Big schmuck. Why is balance so hard to find in the universe these days?

I'm going to wrigley today to see if the Redbirds are for real or not. If you never hear from me again it's because I opened my big mouth -- again -- and got pummeled underneath the bleachers -- again. And no sweat on the Padres; I have faith they'll tailspin soon as you predicted.

The one thing I do not understand about MLBlogs is why they put up with this shit. An entity that big and lucrative for the website designer should be working night and day to make sure it runs correctly. I'm not an advocate for screaming and yelling for no reason, but why isn't anyone on the phone screaming and yelling at their web designer to get the thing working correctly. A swath of viral negatives can really affect one's business far worse than a couple of positives.

With Tony La Russa and Dave Duncan, it's probably hell on their stomachs not to have a closer they can trust, but at the end of the day, they're also probably getting some satisfaction out of finding a way to deal with the problem so creatively.

I wouldn't stick Carpenter in with Prior. At least Carpenter recovered from some of his injuries and fulfilled a bit of his potential; plus, he's just got one of those bodies that breaks down; not much you can do at this point except pitch him when he feels good and sit him when he's hurt while not expecting too much.

As for the stuff at Wrigley: People actually take swings at you? Good grief. This is the problem with a free society: there's no IQ or common sense test to let people out of their house; to swill beer; to interact with others, etc.

Joe at Statistician Magician writes RE the Rays right field platoon of Matt Joyce and Gabe Kapler:

The platoon should be given more time though before a decision should be made as to whether or not they want to try something different.

I didn't actually suggest that they try something different; I just wondered if they saw what they had and regretted what they'd done. Kapler can't be expected to provide much of anything; Joyce is young and inexpensive in terms of dollars, but I wouldn't have traded an arm like Edwin Jackson for him. Whether or not they try something different at this point is irrelevant; they've got what they got. Kapler's won't be part of the regular outfield rotation for much longer either because he'll get hurt or won't start hitting and he ain't worth the $1 million plus they're paying him.

• The issue with my website:

Here's the thing: I've left the batcave for a couple weeks for unspecified reasons and there's some kinda problem that keeps popping up with the following message:

Temporary Interruption
An error has interrupted communication between your browser and the web site server. Internal errors can have many causes.

Click here to continue working.

Because of this interruption, you may have to log in again, or repeat your last action.

The consensus is that it's the internet connection, but it's been working fine so far. Dunno if it's something I did or downloaded or whatever. If anyone's computer savvy and has any suggestions that might help, I'm all ears. It could be a couple of days or it could be until the end of the month, but I'll be posting here in the interim as I try to fix the problems without flinging my computer out the window.