Mike Silva's New York Baseball Digest » Blog Archive » Give Robertson a Shot at the Eighth

Give Robertson a Shot at the Eighth


By Mike Silva ~ July 17th, 2010. Filed under: Mike Silva, New York Yankees.

I said earlier in the week it would come down to bullpens in deciding the American League East. The opener of the Rays/Yankees series at the Stadium played exactly to form as the Tampa bullpen could not hold on to a late inning lead. One of the impressive performances was David Robertson in his scoreless eighth inning. Robertson struck out the side as his curveball was on point. If he is going to be successful that pitch needs to be effective.

All week we talked about what to do with Joba Chamberlain. Instead of worrying about “fixing Joba” why not see if Robertson can take over his role. Put Robertson in the eighth inning and Joba in lower leverage situations.

Since June 1st Robertson has given up 5 runs in about 15 innings. Not spectacular, but last year he did strikeout 13 per nine innings. The walks are concerning, but it’s not like Joba is a control freak anyway.

I keep hearing the Yankees want to trade for a reliever. That makes sense, but I am not sure Kevin Gregg, Octavio Dotel, Kerry Wood, or Jason Frasor are any better than what they have. The second half shouldn’t be for experimenting with bullpen roles, but Chamberlain’s performance has made it the case. Let’s see if yesterday was something that David Robertson can build upon.



Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com
Mike Silva
View all posts by Mike Silva
Mikes website

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Post to Delicious Post to Digg Post to Facebook

Tags: , ,

«
»

2 Responses to Give Robertson a Shot at the Eighth

  1. Viper
    July 17th, 2010 at 11:11 am

    The game wasn’t tied when Robertson came in to pitch the 8th. The Rays were up 4-3. Duh.

    And Joba would have pitched the 10th had Swisher not come through in the 9th.

    So your theory about Girardi thinking along with you is dead wrong as usual.

  2. Mike Silva
    July 17th, 2010 at 11:27 am

    Good catch – my mistake, forgot they tied it up in the bottom half of the frame.

    Regardless, time to consider the possibility- no?

Leave a Reply