Torre, young pitchers don't mix

The father of 21-year-old New York Yankees' pitching phenom Joba Chamberlain wondered out loud the other day if being brought up to help New York's beleaguered bullpen -- and thus being put within reach of Manager Joe Torre's clutches -- would risk the health of his son's arm.

"Yeah, it's exciting, but I guess my concerns at this time are more for the safety of his arm and what this does to his arm," Harlan Chamberlain told Newsday. "So I kind of feel like the jury's out for me right now. His personal welfare from a parent's perspective overshadows the baseball perspective."

Personally, I can't blame Harlan for being concerned. I love Torre and have defended him again and again during the past few seasons when many have been calling for his ouster.

Yet, when you look at this Yankees team, and the direction you see General Manager Brian Cashman trying to take the entire organization, you have to think Torre is not the right guy to lead them beyond this season.

I am glad the Yankees did not overreact and fire Torre when they were playing so badly earlier this season. He has been way too successful to be removed because of one bad stretch, or even one bad season. The Yankees are back in the race, so speculation about Torre has ended for now.

Torre is a master at handling George Steinbrenner and keeping the sharks in the Yankees Tampa offices at bay. With his four World Series rings and laid-back style he is also great at handling a clubhouse filled with high salaried players with egos to match.

So, he's not exactly Clueless Joe. He is a butcher, however, when it comes to mishandling the bullpen. He ruined Paul Quantrill and Tanyon Sturtze by using them so much they broke down, and was en route to doing the same thing to Scott Proctor before the Yankees did Proctor a favor and shipped him to the Dodgers this week. The hard-throwing righty leads major league relievers in innings over the past two seasons, and his inconsistency this season has to be related to his overuse. I doubt he could have held up under the workload much longer.

A couple of years back, journeyman reliever Buddy Groom called out Torre after going a long stretch without being used. Groom basically said that, when it comes to the bullpen there are "Joe's Guys" and "The Other Guys."

Joe's Guys, of course, get used time and time and time again whenever a game may be in doubt. The other guys only get the mop-up innings. Groom was roundly criticized for his comments, but when you look at the past few seasons he wasn't wrong.

It has been said by some that becoming one of Joe's Guys is career suicide because you get abused until you simply have nothing left to give. There is some truth to that. Torre hates to use untested pitchers if there is even the slightest chance his team can win.

Steve Goldman of the New York Sun posted a fabulous article Thursday saying that Torre is simply terrified of the unknown. Kudos to Pete, a good friend of the blog, for pointing it out to me.

Goldman put it this way.

Torre has become spectacularly inflexible in his old age. He is terrified of the new and untested, especially in pitchers, but increasingly in position players as well. Mariano Rivera and Proctor were the only relievers established in the major leagues by Torre during his entire Yankees career. As (Edwar) Ramirez recently learned, if a reliever doesn't have five years experience in the bigs, he will sit and sit until Torre finds the right "situation" to use him. Said situation is usually defined as a game in which the Yankees are leading or trailing by 38 or more runs. Meanwhile, pitchers like Kyle Farnsworth, who are incompetent but have longer resumes, pitch game after game, with Torre blithely telling the press that he really thinks that Farnsworth, apparently still trying to figure out what it is he does well at 31, has finally turned a corner. He said it again on Sunday, just before Farnsworth was lit up by the Orioles.

This is where Chamberlain comes in. Torre has pledged to be careful with him if when the Yankees call him up. He has made similar pledges in the past with other relievers, though, and as soon as the Yankees get into a tight spot those pledges go quickly out the window.

This season, Torre has mangled his bullpen about as badly as he could have. He abused Proctor so badly that you have to feel good for Proctor that the Yankees sent him somewhere else. He continues to put Farnsworth into key situations, despite the ample evidence he can't handle them. He continues to rely on lefty specialist Mike Myers, even though lefties hit better than .300 against him. Meanwhile, the youthful Henn and his 96-mph fastball rot at the end of the bullpen.

Torre virtually refused to use Edwar Ramirez after the Yankees brought up the ballyhooed changeup specialist. After a two-week layoff Ramirez finally got into a blowout game. Predictably, he was awful and got optioned back to AAA.

Torre's track record says Chamberlain and his 98 mph fastball will either become one of "Joe's Guys" and pitch lots of key innings over the past two months, or he will rot while watching Farnsworth and Brian Bruney implode constantly.

Cashman is trying to turn the Yankees into a team that relies more on homegrown young players, particularly its young pitchers.

Chamberlain is a huge part of that change. He, phenom Phil Hughes and the 2006 No. 1 draft pick, Ian Kennedy, are looked at as guys who could be cornerstones of the Yankee rotation for many years to come.

There are also others knocking on the door and looking for an opportunity, like the changeup specialist Ramirez, Russ Ohlendorf, Chris Britton and Henn. Henn, of course, is on the roster but hardly ever gets to pitch. He is currently one of the "other guys."

Would you trust Torre to guide what will likely become a younger, more unproven pitching staff next season? I wouldn't.

This has to be Joe's last stand.

technorati tags: New York Yankees, Joe Torre, MLB, Joba Chamberlain