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August 3, 2005


Leit's out
by SG

Al Leiter's Yankee tenure continues to disappoint after his great game against Boston. Unfortunately, because of that one game, he may get a lot longer leash than he deserves. All the good feelings generated by his start against Boston are now being dismantled by his subsequent performances.

The Yankees are desperate for starters right now, but someone like Leiter is too risky to continue to count on. If your starter can't get you out of the third inning, it can be a disaster. Not just for that game, but for the rest of the series. Thankfully, Scott Proctor did a great job in pitching 4 innings yesterday to preserve most of the pen. Unfortunately, the Yankee offense could not climb out of the hole dug by Leiter and Joe Torre, who seemed to be oblivious to the fact that Leiter had nothing and kept him in at least one batter too long.

Afterwards, Kim Jones asked, "Is something like that fixable for his next start?"

Torre's responsed? "He's a veteran."

This scares me, because it indicates that they are going to continue running Leiter out there. An other piece of evidence of this is the skipping of Aaron Small with the off day. Small's been better than Leiter, although the odds of either one being good are not great. Yet, they skipped him because of Leiter's "veteran-ness."

I thank Al Leiter for his start against Boston. It was one of the most unexpected and satisfying wins of the season. I just don't want all the good feelings of that win to evaporate if he continues to pitch poorly and tax the bullpen. Let's hope that Brian Cashman does what he needs to do, because we know Joe Torre won't.