10/16/2006 2:15 PM ET
Mailbag: Wang a better Game 4 option?
Yankees beat reporter Mark Feinsand answers fans' questions
By Mark Feinsand / MLB.com
NEW YORK -- Here we are, back together again for another exciting offseason
of Yankees mailbag. It's good to see y'all again.
As you can imagine, the mailbox has been overflowing with e-mails since the
Yankees' early postseason exit. Many of you have offered your suggestions for
what the team needs to do this winter, while some of you, um, vented your
frustrations.
Oh yeah, I also received four or five (hundred) e-mails about A-Rod.
However, I'm going to save the third baseman for a future mailbag. Maybe next
week can be "A-Rod Mailbag" and we'll address everything you would like to
discuss about the two-time MVP.
This week, we'll try to tackle some other topics, from the playoff
disappointment to the upcoming Hot Stove season. As always, send your e-mails
to yankeesmailbag@aol.com and come back every Monday for the latest edition.
Why didn't Chien-Ming Wang start Game 4 over Jaret Wright against the Tigers
on three days' rest? I understand that they would have needed someone for
Game 5, but as it turned out, their best pitcher was in New York when they
were eliminated, and Game 5 was never an issue. Why put your season on
Wright's shoulders?
-- Roland B., New York
I have been asked this several times since the end of the Division Series,
and while my answer is unpopular among Yankees fans, here it is: I would have
done the same thing as Joe Torre.
Yes, if you don't win Game 4, your season is over. But Wang is not the kind
of pitcher who would thrive on short rest, so why take that chance? And even
if you get through Game 4, who starts Game 5?
That's right -- Jaret Wright.
So if you don't want Wright pitching Game 4, would you want him in Game 5?
Due to the Game 2 rainout, Mike Mussina would not have been an option to
start Game 5, because he would have been pitching on two days' rest. That
wasn't going to happen.
Game 5 would have been left to Wright, so you're in the same spot. Why not
roll the dice with Wright in Game 4, leaving Wang at full strength for Game
5? Say what you want about Wright, but he pitched very well down the stretch.
I don't think Torre is having any trouble sleeping over his decision to hold
Wang back for a possible Game 5. Nor should he.
Why did they let Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield come back this year when
the team had such a great season after they were hurt? I think it hurt the
chemistry of the team with the young players who were taken out of the
lineup. They should have kept the team the same in the playoffs as the second
half of the season.
-- Ron S., Syracuse
This is another great second-guess, and on this one, I agree with half of
your argument.
Matsui had a few weeks to get himself back in playing shape before the
postseason, so putting him back in the lineup made perfect sense to me. He is
a professional hitter, and adding him to the lineup didn't hurt the chemistry
at all.
When healthy, Sheffield is one of the fiercest bats in the game, so I
understand why the Yankees wanted him in the lineup. The first base
experiment was a disaster, though, and I think anyone who watched the last
two to three weeks knows that.
Here's the thing, though; if the Yankees had kept Matsui and Sheffield on the
bench, let Melky Cabrera start in left and either Andy Phillips or Craig
Wilson play first (Jason Giambi's bad wrist wouldn't let him play first every
day) -- and the Yankees offense looked as bad as it did against Detroit --
people would have been calling for Torre's head because he didn't play the
two sluggers.
I probably would have tried to force Giambi through as the first baseman and
used Matsui as the DH. If Giambi really couldn't play first, though, then I
understand why Torre tried to do what he did. In the end, the Tigers'
pitching would have won out either way.
Do you think that pitching will finally be the priority this offseason?
Enough of the offense, please! It's time to go back to the good ol' days
where pitching was the main reason the Yankees won all those championships.
-- Roy C., Queens, N.Y.
Yes, the Yankees have added plenty of offense over the past few years. During
the past five winters, they have brought in Giambi (2002), Matsui (2003),
Sheffield (2004) and Johnny Damon (2006) as free agents and traded for
Rodriguez (2004).
But let's not forget that they have also done their part to solidify the
pitching staff, adding guys like Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Wright, Kevin
Brown, Javier Vazquez, Jose Contreras, Steve Karsay, Tom Gordon and Kyle
Farnsworth -- just to name a few.
Now, were these all good signings? Clearly, they were not. However, when the
Yankees acquired each one of these pitchers, it was believed at the time that
they would make the team better. In some cases, significantly better.
Johnson was coming off yet another dominant season in Arizona when the
Yankees got him, and he's won 17 games in each of his two years in New York.
Unfortunately, his postseason starts have been bad. That's life.
There were six or seven other teams hoping to give Pavano the same $40
million that he took from the Yankees, so how can you kill the Yanks for
signing him? When he signed, I know that many Yankees fans were excited that
they went out and got a 28-year-old pitcher with tons of upside. Had he been
healthy the past two years, who knows how different things might have been --
but he wasn't healthy.
I can go on and on, making cases for each of these pitchers and why they
should have been better in the Bronx. But they weren't. So to say that the
Yankees haven't prioritized pitching is unfair. The moves just haven't worked
out very well. They'll try again this winter.
How did you react when you found out about the horrible Cory Lidle news? What
will you remember most about Cory?
-- Craig R., Long Island, N.Y.
I reacted the same way that I imagine the rest of New York did when I heard
that a plane had hit a building on the Upper East Side. Thoughts of 9/11 came
rushing to my head, and the fact that my family lives in that area made it
even more frightening.
Once I saw the reports on TV and knew my family was OK, I returned to work
and listened in on the latest news from the other room. About an hour later,
one of my friends IM'd me to tell me that they thought it was Cory's plane,
and the story took a whole new direction.
I didn't know Cory that well. We talked a bunch of times, passed some time in
the clubhouse chatting about this or that -- baseball, poker, movies. The
kind of stuff guys chat about when they have a couple of hours to hang
around.
Hearing that Cory was in that plane left a bit of an empty feeling in my gut.
I wouldn't say I was as close with him as some of my friends who covered him
in Oakland or Philly, but it still hit me hard.
This is a strange business, one in which people come in and out of your life
on a yearly -- if not monthly -- basis. It's hard to consider players your
friends, because you have a job to do, which is why you're there. Considering
the frequency with which players get traded or sign with other teams, we are
routinely getting to know new guys every year.
I may not have known Cory well, but I liked what I knew of him. He'll be
missed.
Mark Feinsand is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the
approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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