[8] Shhh…

Hunter struck out 68 in 128 innings (4.78 K/9), while walking 33 (2.25 BB/9), and allowing 21 home runs (1.48 HR/9). Though his ERA was just 3.73, SIERA says it should have been 4.78. He’s also a righty, so no advantage in YS2.0.

As bad as AJ was this year, he struck out 145 in 186.7 innings (6.99 K/9), while walking 78 (3.76 BB/9), and allowing 25 home runs (1.21 HR/9). Though his ERA was 5.26, SIERA says it should have been 4.42.

Sorry Hank, I understand your worries, but I just don’t see Game 4 an automatic loss. AJ can absolutely outpitch Hunter.

(I’m not sure I see Game 3 as an automatic loss either, because at some point, Lee is going to come out and the Rangers bullpen is going to come in (we hope).)

Conceding a game would be to mess our entire rotation up so other guys wind up pitching on short rest besides Sabathia … and we would do that why? To throw burnett against lee because burnett is going to “lose anyway.” *THAT* is conceding a game. And even more worrisome about that action is the yankees would be sending the message “we cant beat lee anyway so this is a throw away game” which would have serious consequences for when Lee pitches in game *7*. Just pause for a second and thing about what “conceding” game 3 before they get on the field will do for the teams mentality and ability to win a game 7.

Likewise that scenario means Andy is pitching on short rest in game 7… and avoiding that was the whole point why burnett is here to begin with. If you are going to pitch with Burntt in game 3, you might as well just not pitch Burnett at all and let Andy and Hughes go on short rest. The reason Burnett is here is precisely because Girardi doesnt think Andy and Hughes… one for health reasons the other for age reasons… can go on 3 days rest. And frankly I agree with him.

How many times have we seen pitchers blow up cause their rest schedule was messed with? CC is valuable precisely because he is one of those rare exceptions.

So yeah. For all of the above reasons I can not think of a *worse* move we could possibly make than to pitch burnett in game three. To sum up my argument is that it:

1) Is conceding we lost the game which you never want to do.
2) Is conceding we can’t beat Lee which likely costs us the series.
3) Significantly casts into doubt our ability to win a game 7 which would be a rested Lee (whom Girardi just declared the yanks couldn’t beat in game 3) versus a short rest Andy.
4) Just have to repeat this… you NEVER “concede a game” in the playoffs. EVER!!!!!

I will point out a few final thoughts for the complainers/worriers/

1) Andy is not as good a pitcher as Lee. But as we have seen countless times if he has his stuff he is perfectly capable of going toe to toe with the best in the game. We have seen that from 96 on down to last weeks NLDS. Sure odds probably favor Lee. But none of us should count out either Andy’s ability to match Lee *OR* our hitters ability to ‘get to’ ace SP. I mean come on. How many times have the yankees run a star SP’s pitch count up and got him out of the game?

2) While I grant their fourth starter is no where near as weak as Burnett… Texas still has to start one.

3) Burnett.. while it is unlikely… is *capable* of pitching a shutout game.

4) Most importantly of all this is a 7 game series and this is a 25 man team. Or to be blunt. I doubt Burnett is going to be the reason we lose the series though he could contribute to it.

5) I refuse.. unlike many fans ive seen lately… I REFUSE to accept that Lee is some sort of unbeatable pitching god. In fact… if we want our yankees to win the WS this year at some point they are going to have to show they can beat a Lee or a Halladay. If we can’t we don’t deserve to be world champions. I have every confidence that if Andy can keep us close to Texas the Yankees have decent odds of winning those games.

Sorry for the long rant but the “concede a game” mentality always steams me up.

But hey, it’s Friday and there’s a Yankee game on!

Nice timing on the date night! This is the ALCS so it’s time to get serious!

I feel like Charlie Brown insisting that Lucy won’t pull the football at the kick-off. Good Grief!!