Monday, October 27, 2008

Pitching vs Offense

When talking about what Yankees off-season priority is, most people like to discuss why Yankees miss playoff this season first. Some people believe the injuries to Wang and Joba(pitching) basically kill our season. Others believe the terrible hitting in RISP is the reason. These all lead to debate what Yankees off-season priority is.

For me, it's a no-brainer. We need to upgrade our pitching. It's amazing for me to hear people say, "Well, even without Wang and Joba, we have lower staff ERA than 2007 season. Rasner and Ponson pitch well enough to win if we have 2007 run production. It's terrible offense kill our season."

In my opinion, Pitching affects offense while offense affects pitching. When pitchers know they are not going to get run support, they feel they can't make any mistake and then want to pitch to corner all the time.

On the other hand, when hitters know they have Wang or Joba on the mound, they don't feel they need to score a lot of runs in order to win a ball game. There is huge different confident level Wang or Joba can bring to team instead of Ponson or Rasner. Not to mention the chances for Wang or Joba to win low-scoring games are much better than Ponson or Rasner.

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