Purgatory

Mike Myers exists in a strange purgatory, neither damned by his limitations nor delivered by his abilities. He is condemned to baseball’s netherworld, where most of the attention he gets is a bit unflattering.

“Facing one batter a game is good work if you can get it.”

“The Yankees are carrying 11-and-a-half pitchers.”

And, of course, they tag him with the cutesy title: LOOGY. For the record, that’s (L)eft-handed (O)ne (O)ut (G)u(Y).

But Myers is taking an unusually heavy beating this spring. It seems that every time you open a newspaper, turn on a radio or read a blog he is being blamed for something.

Since he often pitches to just one left-handed batter, there are those who think the Yankees would be better off with:
A: Bernie Williams.
B: Brian Bruney.
C: Kevin Thompson.
D: Anyone, but Mike Myers.

Many are leaning toward D since the Phillies knocked Myers around yesterday. But there are a few things to consider:
A: Myers has proven over 11 Major League seasons that he can handle tough lefties.
B: This is Spring Training and he is facing mostly right-handed hitters.
C: All the great numbers that Yankee right-handed relievers have against left-handed hitters were not compiled against David Ortiz.
D: Carl Crawford, J.D. Drew, Lyle Overbay, Nick Markakis, Aubrey Huff, Jay Gibbons, Travis Hafner, Grady Sizemore, David Dellucci, Sean Casey, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teahen, Garret Anderson, Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Eric Chavez, Mark Kotsay, Ichiro Suzuki, Raul Ibanez, Hank Blalock, Frank Catalanotto, Jim Thome…

There are 28 days to toss around numbers and theories because with Opening Day on the line, Myers will throw a 2-2 slider that will twist Carl Crawford in a knot.

Just another day in purgatory.