I touched on this a little bit in the comments section the
site on an article written by my friend and co-owner (in that order) Bryan Van
Dusen but I wanted to elaborate a little more in detail, also known as ramble a
bit, here in an official post so all can see. It really blows my mind that
people are legitimately angry with Chase Whitley right now because he hid an
injury and tried to stay on the field to help the Yankees win. Was it a bone
head move? Absolutely, but in today’s game and in today’s era and with today’s
team the way it is structured it’s hard to be mad at the guy for what he did.
Keep reading and I’ll explain it to you.
First and foremost in an era where players just simply ask
for days off just because, because they want to ensure they will be healthy and
productive because they are 130 games away from free agency, because they have
the batting title lead and want to win the award, etc. etc. etc. you’re going
to knock on a guy and question his intelligence and even go as far as to
compare him to Carl Pavano because he wanted to stay in the game and pitch
through it? More importantly Whitley thought he could pitch through it and stay
on the field the more the games went on and the more the weather outside heated
up and frankly he had a lot of positives to base that line of thinking off of,
again keep reading.
Whitley was bombed at the beginning of his last start as the
Baltimore Orioles went all Bronx Bombers on the young right hander early and
often in the contest. In the first four innings Whitley allowed four runs on a trio of home runs from Jimmy Paredes, Chris Davis and Alejandra De Aza of the Orioles before settling down. We can only presume at this time
that the injury caused his bad showing in the Bronx last week but if you look
at the box score inning by inning you may see a shocking revelation. Whitley
got better, sharper and more dominant as the game went on. Whitley finished
with 5.2 innings pitched on that afternoon and really saved the bullpen as much
as he could on that specific afternoon. If Whitley had left the contest after
all the home runs and not looked more like himself for parts of four innings then yes,
he’s an idiot. He’s not only putting himself in danger but he is a detriment to
the team but that’s not how it went down.
Whitley put the team first and while it may have cost him a
chunk of his season, or hell even his career, I am hardly mad at him for making
the decision. It’s his elbow and it’s his career and again if he thought he
could pitch through it and still be effective then my hat is tipped to him for
trying to gut it out. It wasn’t the smartest decision in the world but the
great Mariano Rivera did the same exact thing at the end of his final season
and never said a word until after he was retired. The difference between it
being a good decision and “showing heart” and “being a true Yankee” and being
an idiot is if the risky decision pays off in the end.
My anger towards Chase is fading (less so towards Jorge), but it was still dumb and that angers me a bit.
ReplyDelete