The more you watch baseball and the more you mature as a person, the less you are inclined to blithely dismiss the people who play the game in a glib, pejorative fashion. For example, it would have been shallow and unfair of me to have thought, in 2011, “My god, Chris Capuano and Chris Young are two of the most boring people I’ve ever seen pitch for the Mets.”
But I kind of thought so anyway. I was just a callow lad of 48 back then.
At the wised-up age of 49, I see the Chrises for what they are: calm veteran presences who have persevered through injury and recovery, using their wiles and wits to retire batters because their arms will never be what they were when they younger, yet their guts and guile more than make up for it. Sure they’re incredibly low-key and almost never said anything particularly interesting for public consumption when they were teammates — with Young going out for the season early and Capuano muddling through the schedule in a state of mostly mediocrity — but each is pitching at the top of his craft presently. We certainly are lucky to have Chris Young adding gravitas to our rotation; watching him outduel Chris Capuano, who is excelling in his post-Met incarnation, was a real treat Thursday night.
And I’m sure the only reason I kept nodding off on them was the West Coast start time.
And suddenly all is right with the world
Hi Greg,
When Chris Young was first signed by Sandy Alderson I admitted it was a good risk based on Young’s past performance. My only hesitation was automatically handing him a slot in the starting rotation instead of letting him battle it out in spring training due to the question of not only how effective he could be after coming back from multiple years of injury but whether those injuries would come back and bite him once more.
That concern proved legit and it was for that reason that Dillio Gee was called up.
But I’m glad that, a year later, it seems to be working out. This time there was no risk more than a minor league contract because Young was not automatically being counted upon as a starter – he was called up to fill a spot in the rotation instead, one vacated by Pelfrey and after rookie call ups couldn’t close the void.
The only question is fatigue setting in too quickly and suddenly as we saw against the Yankees and his starts before. Last night was a good sign for even though they are in a major batting slump, the Dodgers are still major league hitters and could have teed off on a tiring Young in an instant.
If Young comes back, this is a real bolster to the starting rotation along with Parnell starting to show he might have it as a closer.
The first West Coast trip post-no-hitter and it feels so good! No more “what if I fall asleep and tonight’s the night?” anxiety!