LVSoxFan Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 Desperate times call for desperate measures. After talking to a couple of Sox fans this weekend, the consensus was that it made perfect sense to move Vasquez to the pen as long relief and make McCarthy the fifth starter. This was discussed here a couple of weeks ago and some good objections were made, but it's getting late people--I don't think they hold up. Here they are: 1) Javy makes too much money to be a reliever. -At this point, this is irrelevant. Do we want to miss the playoffs because of accounting issues? 2) It would damage his already fragile psyche if you "demoted" him to the pen. -On the contrary, maybe it would do just the oppposite. He wouldn't have that "sixth inning" dangling over him every game. 3) McCarthy's not ready yet to go more than a few innings. -Well, neither obviously is Vasquez! And we're starting him! The other thing that's overlooked here is precedent. We did this very thing last year, with El Duque. And look what he did out of the pen. It's radical, sure, but the reality is that we will not be buying/trading for any starters because a) it's too late and B) there's none available. I think everybody admits we have the talent on paper, so maybe it's just a matter of re-arranging that talent to use it best, considering what we have. We need some sort of a shot, because this team looks tired. ESPECIALLY yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hangar18 Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 Vazquez' shortcomings were discussed weeks ago, and Ozzie hasnt listened neither to the fanbase, nor to reality. Weve lost at least 5 games in the standings since then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchetman Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 when you don't know what to do, do something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCSox Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 When Javy is actually getting ahead of hitters, he's trying to get them to chase stuff way out of the zone and they're laying off. In other words, he's afraid to throw the ball over the plate right now. He's not going to magically turn into El Duque if he's moved into long relief. B-Mac has been pretty mediocre in long relief this season and there's no reason to believe that he's going to do any better in the rotation. It's also unlikely that he's just going to magically re-adjust to pitching every five days. Will he be a better option than Vazquez? Maybe, maybe not. It might be worth a try IF somebody like Riske could move into the long-relief role. I don't have a problem with sending Vazquez to the 'pen, but he's not going to be good for anything more than mop-up duty right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVSoxFan Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 You're right about Javy staying away from the strike zone. It's like everytime he got ahead in the count, he'd start throwing low-and-away crap that nobody was going to swing at. Even Hawk & DJ were getting on him for it. Weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Pasqua's Rec Specs Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 When people realize mark buehrle is the key to sox success and downfall we wont do crap. He should be moved to the bullpen before javy. I feel like im watching a different team than most of you. Hes done it in the past and we have relied on him in the past to be our stopper. Like stated before, we do not have much time to wait for vaz to to turn it around. I thik the same can be said for mark buehrle who is arguably our number one pitcher. Vaz is not the problem with this team. He has never been more than a 500. pitcher, nto saying we cant expect mroe out of him, but he has never done anything to prove other wise. And i will take a guaranteed 5 good innings every time out of him. Cant say the same for mark who cant get out of the 3rg without giving up 7-8 runs. People, i know its hard to point the finger at a fan favorite, but you must realize that he is a huge contributer to the sox struggles. Im not saying javy isnt either, but i knew what we were getting from him when we picked him up, hes never done anything to prove other wise. And im sure someone will respond with "He better pitch better, we are paying him a boat load." Well it is javy's fault that for soem reason he cant get past the beyond the 5th inning, but he never asked for that big of a contract. GM's around baseball were stupid enough to pay the guy all that money when he hasnt proven to be a good pitcher since his days in montreal. And whether people like it or not, in baseball you have #1's and #5's. Thats why you usually have your #1 pitching game 1 of the world series, and #5 game 5. And thats what javy is, a #5. Maybe hes not paid like a number 5, but hes never done anything in the past to who hes better than a number 5. Sorry for the long thread, but you guys are missing the biggest problem here. Mark buehle is just that. Javy's problem can be fixed with some easy tinkering of the pen. I cant say the same for buehrle and i dont know how much longer you can wait around Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retro1983hat Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 Ozzie should be considered a terrible in-game manager if he lets Vasquez go out for the sixth inning in his next start. How many stats and lost games does Ozzie need to show him he can't pitch past five innings. It's not only dumb, but ignorant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygoat Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 QUOTE(WCSox @ Jul 31, 2006 -> 12:04 PM) When Javy is actually getting ahead of hitters, he's trying to get them to chase stuff way out of the zone and they're laying off. In other words, he's afraid to throw the ball over the plate right now. He's not going to magically turn into El Duque if he's moved into long relief. B-Mac has been pretty mediocre in long relief this season and there's no reason to believe that he's going to do any better in the rotation. It's also unlikely that he's just going to magically re-adjust to pitching every five days. Will he be a better option than Vazquez? Maybe, maybe not. It might be worth a try IF somebody like Riske could move into the long-relief role. I don't have a problem with sending Vazquez to the 'pen, but he's not going to be good for anything more than mop-up duty right now. i agree, he is like contreas back when we first got him. He's got to go after hitters for three strikes, not for two strikes and then 4 balls or a floater. Coop has got to pick him up and tell him to pitch and not think about how he has lost like the last 6 games he has pitched Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVSoxFan Posted July 31, 2006 Author Share Posted July 31, 2006 Well Dan's right about Buehrle being the real problem here. No wonder we're paying so much attention to Javy when our usually reliable workhorse has been getting shelled his last five starts and appears to have disappeared completely. I'll agree with Dan without being too white-flag; if the Buehrle problem is not solved, we are doomed this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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