The Impact of the Rainout

It’s very clear, from the media reaction today, that the weather postponement of last night’s game will have the classic positive/negative/no effect on the Yankees chances to advance to the World Series.  Apparently, nothing encourages random, baseless speculation like a rainout, folks!  So let’s look at what people are saying and throw our own hats into the ring, shall we?

On the negative side of the ledger, we have John Paul Morosi, for Fox Sports, writing that the rainout benefits the Angels because it allows them to start Lackey in Game 7, a notion which Peter Abraham also agrees with, here.   Richard Griffin (thestar.com) feels that pushing Sabathia back a day could throw off his rhythm.  CC is a guy who seems to thrive on short rest, so there could be something to that.

Arguing the other side of things is Joe Lemire for CNNSI, who says that the rainout could help the Yankee pen.  He says that Hughes is particularly tough on two days rest, noting that in, “24 appearances with two or more days’ rest, he gave up one earned run in 29 2/3 innings, a 0.30 ERA.”  He also states that Mariano has gotten a lot of work so far, and a rested Mo is always a good thing.  Of course, the Angels pen has gotten a lot more work than the Yanks’, so wouldn’t that help them even more? You could argue that the back of the Yankee pen is better, so more rest favors the Yankees, but it’s a close one.

Anthony DiComo, from MLB.com, on the other hand, totally steals MY thunder with the copout take of: it will benefit some and hurt others (well, it’s a copout when HE uses it – when I write it, it’s balanced and enlightened).  He says the time off may help Swisher snap out of his slump, but throw off Pettitte and CC.  To muddle things even further, DiComo uses quotes from players, saying that Pettitte stated how frustrating it was, not getting to start last night.  Hey, DiComo, didn’t you read my intro – you’re supposed to write BASELESS speculation, enough of this “journalism” garbage.

DiComo continues his annoyingly reasonable tone by quoting Joe Girardi, who says,

“Each guy is different,” Girardi said. “It could be helpful. It could be hurtful. You are really not going to know. One thing you know is certain guys react different to different circumstances. And that’s the one thing that, as a manager, you can’t really predict. I don’t know if it helps our guys, hurts our guys. Only time will tell.”

What Girardi does know, however, is that he has a veteran core to his team and that those players are unlikely to be affected by this unexpected rest.

“Our guys know how to handle it,” Girardi said. “The interesting thing is we’ve had a lot of rain in New York this year. So we’ve been through this a lot.”

Way to suck the fun out of the room, DiComo.  This isn’t the old days, where journalists generally tried to write responsible, well supported articles with genuine scope and perspective, you know.  Please delete this and write a nice, lopsided polemic, preferably with foam dripping out of it’s mouth.  You’re making my job much more difficult, sir.  What do you guys think is the biggest advantage of the rainout?  Lackey starting game 7 (if necessary)?  CC and Andy getting thrown off their schedule?  Mo and Hughesie getting some extra rest?