He looks like that douche that Method and Redman called Dick Butkus in How High (awesome movie by the way). Fucking Buddy Lee look-a-like he bothers the hell out of me.
If we're going to blame Wang then we have to blame Burnett too. 80 mil for this fuckin scrub. He has electric stuff so it's clearly all mental with him. The last two night's games were over by the 3rd inning thanks to these two. Wang can't live solely off a shitty slider anymore. Give Hughes the spot in the rotation. He's a lot younger and will be in the majors a lot longer than Wang I hate to say. The Yankees better go pick up another outfielder. Watching Damon and Swisher reminds me of a little league game. More Damon than Swish. Damon puts his glove so far above his head when he catches the ball he looks like this is his first pop fly. And we're not talking about the light getting in his eyes because these are night games. I mean atrocious outfielding. I don't want to lose Damon's bat but teams consistently capitalize off his lack of arm and lack of field coverage. Papelbon ain't all that. You could see the sigh of relief on his face last night because he thought Jorge got him on the last at-bat. I thought it was going off the wall as well but it came up short. His routine on the mound is comical. Those exagerrated deep breaths he takes like he's meditating, Lame. Too many histrionics for me and many fans.
Not necessarily. With Burnett, it's more his mechanics, They get out of whack and wreak havoc with his command. Now, that CAN be a mental... if you let the game speed up on you and can't adjust. But Girardi took the blame for Burnett a bit, saying that the extra rest probably affected him. This doesn't mean it's forgivable, but it is probably true. It's such a stressful and unnatural motion (pitching in general, that is) that works within such a small margin of error (the strike zone, good strikes vs. meatballs, etc.) that the slightest change in position or timing can really screw everything up. I'm pretty sure what we saw with Burnett had more to do with the extra rest than some lack of mental fortitude.
His mechanics have very little to do with his command and presence on the mound. That is ALL mental in nature. If he was throwing wild pitches all over then I could see it being a mechanics issue. The extra rest thing is a copout by Girardi and typical overanalyzing of Burnett's breakdown on the mound. Burnett just seems to lose focus when he's out there especially against better comp. It seems like a lack of confidence. He even brushes off Posada when he comes out to settle him down. He needs to realize that he's a Yankee now and everything is going to be under a microscope but that's ok. Once he gets over this mentally, his great stuff will shine through. Now Wang is ALL mechanics. He can't place the ball and if his ball doesn't sink and go down he's out of the league soon.
You've never met Robb Nen. He had mechanics issues which got him in a similar place as Burnett. Once he worked thru the issues, he was as in control as ever.
Nor do I care to meet Robb Nen. First of all he was a reliever, HUGE difference. He's not going out there 7 innings a night. Burnett was as in control as ever last year when he had nearly a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Did he suddenly lose it? You don't lose your stuff that quickly. The difference is pitching on a big stage. Florida and Toronto are hardly big stages lol. Once he settles down mentally his stuff will be great again. He's still adjusting to the big stage as a Yankee. It's difficult for almost every pitcher who comes here. The Yanks kind of have a track record of pitchers who have GREAT mechanics and when they get to the Bronx it all of a sudden disappears. It's all in the mind. I suppose you think Sabathia's mechanics are off too? He is pitching deep into games yet giving up a fair amounf of runs as well. It takes pitchers awhile to get acclimated to NY. They don't suddenly forget how to pitch. I think most would say Randy Johnson, Kevin Brown, Pavano, Mike Mussina all had pretty good mechanics lol. Actually better than pretty good. Well they all struggled in the last 7 years in NY. They were all mental midgets who could never win the big game for us.
A lot of this could have been avoided if they didn't shuffle the rotation. Girardi is to blame for that. I agree with what Alio said, deal Wang and let another team straighten him out. This is the story of the Yankees, he'll go elsewhere and be a phenom...but won't do shit in NY.
Hes already had two 19-win seasons in NY. Not only that but hes been an absolute inning-eating monster. We have to chill and give him a couple more starts to find his mechanics guys....
OoooOOOOoooooh. Presence! A term that only gets applied after the fact, based on who wins or loses. Have you ever pitched? Do you even know what it's like to try to get the ball over the plate? Tiny flaws in mechanics cause huge problems. Why do you think Joba's velocity has fluctuated between 90-97 this year? Mechanics. Why do you think Hughes can't throw his curve for a strike one day, and then puts it where he wants the next? Mechanics. Why do you think Burnett's fastball was either a ten inches off the plate or ten inches inside? Mechanics! You think that's where he wanted to throw it, but he was just too much of a pussy or something? Ugh.
See with Wang I can buy the mechanics thing since he's one mentally strong dude. Yet our patience is wearing thin with him. 0-6 with a 21.00 ERA as a starter. He's on very thin ice due to his shitty mechanics. He's already proven he can handle NY. Yet this still remains to be seen with the newbies who are in their first go around in the big city.
Someone clearly underestimates the mental aspect of pitching and pitching in NY. Wait until they go somewhere else and shine. Did their mechanics all of a sudden reappear when they left NY?? That's what I thought. Too many examples of this being the case. See Carl Pavano this year for the Indians. OMG, what a miraculous turnaround. He must have discovered his mechanics after all these years where he lost them in NY according to your illogic. Mechanics is a bs argument when they're not producing at a high level.
I'm not underestimating it at all. First of all, he wasn't pitching in New York. He was pitching in Boston. Secondly, if it's playing for the Yankees that is causing these problems, why was Burnett able to pitch well for us in five starts despite this apparent pressure? And why was he getting into trouble in his other starts. Let me show you. In the games where he's pitched well: 2.29 BB/9 3.20 ERA In the games where he's pitched poorly: 5.74 BB/9 6.37 ERA Do you see a pattern here? Why do you think it varies? I mean, he was pitching for the Yankees in all of those games. He just had the "presence" one game and not the next? Come on. It comes down to ability to locate his pitches. When he can, he's very good to practically unhittable. When he can't, he gets in trouble. The problem is that he's erratic (and always has been to one degree or another). This isn't rocket science. It's biomechanics. Great example, dude. Carl Pavano's ERA with the Yankees - 5.00 Carl Pavano's ERA with the Indians - 5.40 He didn't discover shit. He was hurt. Or maybe not. But he didn't discover anything. He pitched shitty for us (when he pitched) and he's pitching shitty for Cleveland. I'll bet that you've never pitched a day in your life.
Pavano's issue was never performance in New York, it was health. The guy spent 90% of his contract on the DL and when he DID pitch he was either coming off injury or about to be injured agan. The other guys you mentioned earlier were all well past their prime when the Yankees got them, so it's reasonable to expect them to struggle a bit more. There is a reason why pitchers seem to lose their mechanics when coming to New York and gain them when they leave has nothing to do with pressure, it's because the Yankees have had some pretty shitty pitching coaches for a while now. They're the ones who are supposed to spot and fix mechanical flaws, and the Yankees have had some pretty inept guys in that role lately.
JetsNation, I can attest as a former pitcher, mechanics plays a role in how well you pitch. For me, at least, I was more comfortable pitching with poor mechanics but I always hit the outside corner. I would slide to the far right of the rubber to counter act this, but it was a short term remedy. I was less comfortable pitching with "perfect" mechanics because it didn't feel natural to me. I think in Burnett's case he changed his style of pitching so I would assume it required a change in mechanics because he wanted to underemphasis his fastball (from 98 down to 94) and accentuate his off-speed/breaking stuff. Wang's whole approach is set up from the splitter, and right now it's not breaking. Physically he cannot get his legs working under him to enable him to get on top of the ball to make it split down. Also, the team has stated Wang is fine, therefore it may take him months to get over the ligament tear psychologically. Once the psychology falls into place, the physical mechanics come too. I tore my ACL and meniscus in my left knee, 8 years ago. To this day, when playing sports that is still in the back of my mind. I'm sure Wang still thinks about it. EDIT: I typed this post at work, it was horrible so I reposted it.
There's no possible way you have ever pitched above Little League and actually think that mechanics don't affect performance.
Now that's funny. Guess what? If you don't pitch for 3 or 4 years and you're always hurt then by default your performance sucks. Noone says oh this guy is good but for the last 4 years he's been hurt so it's incomplete. If he comes in with high acclaim and a big contract as he did and then is hurt for 4 years that means that he didn't perform due to injury. So yes his performance or lack thereof was AWFUl. There's no way around it. Pavano was a complete bust with the Yanks. Take the glasses off. Now your second point about over the hill guys. What r u talking about? We signed Randy Johnson to one of the biggest contracts ever. Why because he was over the hill? Wrong. Because he came in with the reputation as one of the most dominant shutdown pitchers in the game. Same with Kevin Brown and the others I mentioned. You act as if we pulled all of these All Stars off waivers LOL. Now your final point may be the weakest. Oh so the Yankees have no clue how to handle their pitchers and because they don't know how to coach these All Stars when they get to NY they suddenly lose all of their abilities that got them to that point. It's all the pitching coaches fault that Randy Johnson couldn't win a meaningful game for us or that kevin Brown is punching walls. Blame it all on the pitching coaches for the Yankees. Even though these guys come in with the biggest reputations in the entire sport. But you really can't expect them to pitch well unless the pitching coach is really good. At least come up with some substantive material. What kind of logic is that?
Way to put words in people's mouths. I'm specifically talking about Wang and Burnett. I never said mechanics in general don't matter. Stop generalizing and stick to what I wrote. But keep rotating the storyline as we go. There's no way you can possibly be a baseball fan if you don't think playing for the Yankees and pitching in NY is a completely different animal mentally and psychologically than any other town. It's the same as pitching for the Royals right? I'll come back here a year or two from now when Greinke is pitching for the Yankees and struggling because he's not in the heartland anymore. Then I want to hear you tell me that it's all his mechanics and that his mechanics were also shitty back in KC when he was dominating LOL. You can't have it both ways. That will be the height of eating your words.
