Why they are All Wrong in New York and Seattle with Joba and Morrow

Out here on the left coast, there is a baseball team floundering worse than anyone ever thought was possible. On the right coast, another team who is the definition of mediocrity. Both teams have inflated payrolls and both are messing up a good thing.

When I say Seattle Mariners most would think of Safeco Field, Ichiro Suzuki, the magical playoff run in 1995 and their record setting year of 2001 with 116 wins in the regular season. The two playoff runs have something in common, the New York Yankees.

When I say New York Yankees you have a long list of memories and history, from Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Maris, the Scooter, Berra, and current players like Jeter and Rivera. But if you take away A-Rod (which is a big if) the New York Yankees are the Seattle Mariners. They both have made errors in building teams this year and both are committing horrible sins in this writers opinion.

Baseball is a game that is broken down into four parts really. Offense, Defense, Starting Pitching, and Relief Pitching. To be successful, you have to excel in three of those areas. To be mediocre you have to be good in two. The only way to win a baseball game is to have more runs after 27 outs. Your focus should be to get 27 outs.

Rewind for a minute back to the playoff runs of those New York Yankees in the late 90's. The bullpen featured Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, Grahme Lloyd (to get one out on a lefty) and Mariano Rivera. As a Yankee fan, and as a Yankee hater, you knew that if you didn't have the lead going into the 7th, you were in trouble. If you heard Enter Sandman play back then, you knew it was lights out as Rivera was coming in. Basically, with those four players, the Yankees had shortened the amount of outs they needed to get with Defense and Starting Pitching to about 20.

Look at the good to great teams in baseball over the past few years. Dominant bullpens who shut you down when the game matters. How many times do you see a starter (out here in Seattle, its King Felix) who gets no run support and is doomed to lose a game 2-0? Why wouldn't you use a talent like that to get you more victories?

A starter in today's game with pitch counts and 4 days rest will get about 35 starts, tops. A quality reliever though will factor into 50+ games. You look at match-ups and if everything else is equal, the quality bullpen will win out over the quality starters.

So, why are the Yankees moving Joba Chamberlain and the Mariners thinking of moving Brandon Morrow?

It would seem to me that if you have a guy who is lights out, who can hold down the lead, or keep you in contention to the point where you've changed the balance of the game to where you have 27 outs to win, where as the other team now really only has a crack at 21-24 outs, it seems to make sense.

Joba won't be dominant in his starts. He won't throw 98 and blow people away. He can't with his arm, and this era of pitch counts. The Yankees lost a game this week because Kyle Farnsworth couldn't hold the lead in the 8th, the bridge inning to your closer.

The Mariners are thinking of doing the same move with Morrow, a guy who overpowered and dominated Manny Ramirez in a match-up during the latest Seattle slide. In fact, it got the city pumped up, a lone bright spot in this season of disgrace.

(As a side note: It is June in Seattle right now, the high will be 53 degrees and the baseball team sucks, there is no more depressing city in America right now)

The reason you make this move is to cover-up mistakes made by your front office and coaching staff. For the Yankees, it was betting on Ian Hughes and Phil Kennedy to be saviors. For the Mariners, its to cover up Miguel Batista, Jarred Washburn, and Chuck Armstrong's general inability to hire the right people. About the only thing the M's do right is draft relievers out of college.

If baseball is about winning, you have to put your best players in the best position to win games. I think for both of these clubs the season is lost, but next year when you see Joba and Brandon both starting and getting 13 wins, just remember how many more games their teams could have won if they were bridges.

And remember to look for both teams at or near the bottom of their divisions.