2 Roads Diverged in a Wood--they took 1

I've read 2 accounts so far of Joba Chamberlain's appearance tonight in the game v Tampa Bay (Yanks won 12-4). They both admitted he gave up 1 hit and 1 long fly ball that was caught. 1 account revealed the fly ball was caught valiantly at the wall by Melky. In your higher stakes situations, a long fly ball like that could be a sac fly, advancing or scoring a runner. Neither account mentioned Chamberlain was charged with a Wild Pitch. In some of your higher stakes situations, Wild Pitches can lose games via runners advancing, assuming you have 1 or more persons on base. I looked up Joba's GO/AO ratio and it's .95 (17/19). Mo's is 1.96 (87/48), and is consistent with his career average as a ground ball pitcher. Obviously, Joba is great and a necessity as a bridge to Rivera. (Rivera has been himself and a bridge to himself many times even this year).

• If Mo had a 9th inning situation with a 1 run lead, gave up a hit, a long fly ball to the wall, and a Wild Pitch, many media outlets would've described his outing as "shaky," or "worrisome." Worst of all, they would've said, "HE WASN'T 1-2-3...." I'm pretty sure no one will say Joba was "shaky" tonight. Lucky guy.

*The "1-2-3" stat is being pushed by ubiquitous ESPN/MLB merchant/celebrities for the purpose of re-defining a pitcher's ability- in particular what is called a "closer." They want you to look at the "total save stat" (BUT REGULAR SEASON ONLY, NOT POST SEASON), and save 'CONVERSIONS.' These stats ignore MULTI INNING APPEARANCES, ENTERING WITH RUNNERS ON BASE, WHETHER THE PITCHER CAME IN WITH A 1, 2, or 3 run lead, TIE GAME SITUATIONS, AND, OF COURSE, THE BIG GAME WIN. AND WHETHER THE PITCHER WAS WORKING 3 DAYS IN A ROW, 3 OUT OF 4 DAYS, SAVING 6 1-RUN GAMES IN A 2 WEEK PERIOD IN A DEADLOCKED PENNANT RACE, ETC.

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