Friday, March 07, 2008

Don't shoot the messenger.

"I always have confidence in myself. But it's tough when you do lose the confidence from your manager to maybe prepare yourself, day in and day out when you have no clue about anything," said Farnsworth, who allowed 108 runners to reach base via hit or walk in 60 innings last season and was 2-1 with a swollen 4.80 ERA in 64 games. "It happened a few times last year."

Eh.

Farnsworth is overpaid and disappointing, but his career ERA is 4.37 and most of that time was in the NL.

Of course Farnsworth's performance is not primarily Torre's fault, and nobody can take Farnsworth seriously. But the only reason we don't take him seriously is because he's a below-average pitcher. Torre is still the worst bullpen manager in the major leagues.


"Definitely, all across the board, communication with the manager, everything," Farnsworth said when asked if the atmosphere has improved under Girardi. "What they said last year about I couldn't go back-to-back days, which was news to me, when it was brought to me. I said, 'What are you guys talking about?' Communication is key for everything."

I'll bet that's exactly what happened. Farnsworth may be a dolt and a bad MLB pitcher. But his criticisms of Torre are probably right on.


"I don't think he has had the type of year he can have," Girardi said. "I think he will benefit from the third year in New York."

Not if Farnsworth keeps blaming others for his failures, he won't.

If Farnsworth pitches well, then he won't have failures, and then he won't need to blame anybody.

If Farnsworth doesn't pitch well, then it doesn't really matter who he blames.

According to Professor George A. King III, PhD, the key to pitching in the major leagues is the development of an internal locus of control.

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