The suggestion was, before the interview, that Wedge wanted to see what Furbush could do at 97 pitches in a pressure situation and that Furbush failed so now he knows. When Wedge came out and said he didn't want Izturis to turn around, he looked dumb to the public; you see that as a smoke screen to saying he didn't have faith in Willhemsen, I see it as a smoke screen to Furbush failing a test.
Up to that point, Furbush had had a great game, 7 innings and a handful of hits without a walk, the wheels started to come off in inning 8 and I think Wedge did want to see what he had left, but when it didn't work out, Wedge, knowing his job was safe, didn't hesitate to say, "No kid, not your fault, you're old manager had the wrong splits in mind."
Furbush has been handed the label of tweener, a lot of people think he should just be shelved in the bullpen, and he knows this. He's got a lot of mental stress for a guy pitching in a losing season because he knows that every time he pitches, it's an audition to keep the job he has right now. So when Furbush had his first Good pitching performance in a week, Wedge didn't want to hang a failure around Furbush's neck for his 8th inning implosion and took as much of the blame as he could by saying it was about Izturis and not about Furbush.
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=== Charlie and the Loss Factory... er, the #28 Hitter Rule ===
The M's lost 3-1 to the Angels on Sept. 7th. We saw the furor over Eric Wedge saying that he didn't want to turn Maicer Izturis around at the plate -- didn't want Izturis batting LH (against Tom Wilhelmsen) in a game situation.
An uproar resulted when the fans, led by Baker, immediately realized that Izturis doesn't hit better lefty.
However, the basic problemo was that the manager can't come back into the clubhouse and say "I was ready to change, but I suddenly grokked that my Independent League Reject was going to royally foul up if I brought him into the game against the rodent Angels in such a big situation."
Out of baseball etiquette, simple human decency or whatever, you say "I didn't want to turn Izturis around." You don't say "Tom Wilhelmsen is a running joke as of this moment and I didn't like the vibe I got."
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Of course, this means that you should have got somebody else up .... still, guys. It's a manager's job to have premonitions about fiery plane crashes, and to steer his ballclub clear of them.
Wedge got up to the precipice and realized he didn't like Wilhelmsen right there. Fine.
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But Craig Wright taught us: Never, never, never let you pitcher throw to batter #28. Maicer Izturis was batter #28. One more for the case file.
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Losing Doug Fister is always going to hurt me.
He brings real beauty, real aesthetics and joy, real craftsmanship and courage, to a baseball team. He's unusual and he's got upside and hope attached. Doug Fister is a wonderful baseball player.
Still, Charlie Furbush is a raw, unpolished 7-K lefty with very real talent. He can legitimately strike out batters with three different pitches, and with his lousy pitching motion, he's got all sorts of room for improvement.
Zduriencik gave up quality -- more quality, IMHO, than he appears to have realized that he gave up. But he did get back 3-4 players who could conceivably be part of the M's next pennant. If I were him, I'd give Casper Wells all kinds of chances in 2011-2012.
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BABVA,
Dr D
Comments
I hope that Wedge doesn't have that much Piniella in him, though it's certainly possible.
Furbush is a young pitcher, real raw, and if Wedge is sorting him into "gutless" vs "has cajones" piles already, that's very unfortunate.