Update: I forgot the days of the week.
So here in second-guess land apparently Joe Girardi should go back in time because AJ Burnett having a Bad AJ start means Chad Gaudin should have gotten the ball.
Briefly and in bullet-point(ish, as I still talk too much) format:
- Chad Gaudin has pitched 2.1 innings since September 28th. One of which came in the ALCS. In the theoretical land we are living in where AJ Burnett would have pitched spectacularly in Game 6 because of full rest (or extra day, even, but let’s not think about the last time he pitched on an extra day rest) Gaudin “starting” would have really meant a bullpen game. In the World Series. Even if he shrugged off his woes against LHB the first time through, his arm surely would be tired and die. Since he hasn’t pitched in forever (and with good reason).
- Chad Gaudin has awful platoon splits, almost as bad as Sergio Mitre’s. For extra emphasis here are his career splits again:
Vs RHB – .249/.318/.409
Vs LHB – .293/.389/.433
As a whole, lefties hit him as though they are a bit better than Johnny Damon. Since there are very few lefty batters out there who hit as well or better than Damon, this is a bit of a problem. How do you think guys like Howard, Utley, Victorino, Ibanez would hit him? (The answer is: To the moon.) - There is no way to guarantee Good AJ will be the one who shows up. Now I don’t assume that everyone crying about AJ on short rest has actually ever watched AJ Burnett pitch a whole bunch and they probably just don’t know better. So to get this out of the way: he is like Two-Face in pitcher form and you never know which version is going to be on the mound until the game starts. By then it’s too late. And it has nothing to do with rest. It has to do with him being erratic and having to pitch from the stretch from the get-go and losing his mechanics because of that immediately. And in general, being AJ Burnett. If there was a way to know you were getting good AJ and not “holy hell that was awful” AJ don’t you think someone would have utilized it?
So no even with the horrid effort AJ put forth he was not the wrong decision. Because people seem to be forgetting that it’s really likely that Gaudin would have given the same or worse results and extra rest doesn’t mean extra good AJ.
And before wrapping this up I would just like to take a second to curse Phil Coke again. Curse you, Phil Coke.
There’s no pleasing people. Those who wanted Gaudin in Game 5 probably would’ve advocated for Sergio Mitre in Game 6 — despite not even being on the roster — so then we could have a “fresh” Burnett AND Pettitte to back a certain-to-be-tired CC up in Game 7.
Well-said, on everything. Hopefully we nail this down tomorrow with Andy at home. Fingers crossed.