XM MLB Chat: George Vecsey on Sunday's Yankee pitch count game v Royals

(New York Times): "When the ascetic-looking gent with No. 42 on his back enters the game, maybe it doesn’t matter how the Yankees arrived at this propitious moment.

...On Sunday, the best relief pitcher in history needed all of seven pitches to conduct business, and the Yankees win, thuuuuuuuh Yankees win, by a score of 6-3 over Kansas City.

“You can’t help but say, wow,” said Joba Chamberlain, who used to be in this line of work until the Yankees swerved into this unorthodox on-the-job training.

Nothing Chamberlain did Sunday suggests that the Yankees are really on the right path in retooling Chamberlain from potent eighth-inning reliever to not-quite-ready-for-five-innings starter.

Johnny Damon was not wrong last week when he blurted out the question of whether this conversion was necessary. But at least Chamberlain lasted 6 outs and 16 pitches more than he did in his first start, last Tuesday, going 4 1/3 innings and 78 pitches in steamy Yankee Stadium on Sunday, before being removed by a resolute Joe Girardi, who was operating on a pitch count of 80.

Chamberlain, 22, does not appear close to being a dominant major league starter, but that is the goal of this strange delayed spring training the Yankees are holding, under very public scrutiny.

Chamberlain showed a good fastball at times, no surprise, mixed in with an occasional sharp curve, a decent slider and even a rudimentary changeup.

But he was not as overpowering as he usually is in the eighth inning, when he blows down the opposition while the folks in the audio room cue up Metallica.

When Joba walked the second hitter in the fifth, he was replaced by Dan Giese, who had pitched well in long relief last Tuesday. His training session over,....

The message boards do tell everybody in the ballpark what the pitching coaches and managers track obsessively. Broadcasters cluck with dismay when a pitcher goes over 20 pitches in the first inning, sensing imminent doom. Some batters may take a pitch or swat a foul just to wear down the pitcher, although Girardi thinks that tactic is overrated.

More to the point, the pitch count has become a psychological barrier for starters —
a visible sign of failure accumulating pitch by pitch:
“Another foul ball. Yikes, how will I get out of this inning?”

This extended spring training makes sense only if one remembers that these are the Yankees and anything can happen.

George Steinbrenner was known for his impatience — vilifying some hapless young pitcher who had a bad inning — and George had the cable swag to back up his whims.

...George’s older son, Hank, is now calling the shots from the family compound in Florida. Pardon the cynicism, but this decision appears to have been made in Tampa, leaving Girardi and General Manager Brian Cashman to deal with it."...

(On Johnny Damon's comments that the bullpen was better with Chamberlain in it, Mr. Vecsey notes:)

(NY Times): "Damon, currently batting .328, did not back off his comments, although Girardi did not agree. Hank Steinbrenner didn’t agree either; he told The Daily News about Damon, “Let’s be honest here, he’s not Branch Rickey.”