When You Get A Chance, Please Apologize To The Yankees' Pitching Staff
By Jeff Capellini, CBSNewYork/WFAN.com
NEW YORK (WFAN) -- It seems like every night someone new in pinstripes turns in a superlative performance on the mound. He walks out there and pretends the Yankees have a lineup like the A's or Pirates and pitches as if nothing short of surgeon's touch will do.
Actually, it doesn't seem like that, it's really happening. You keep waiting for this big "I told you so" to come from the crowd or the media and it just doesn't materialize.
Maybe 54 games isn't a fair barometer to fully assess and critique a team's staff. Maybe the bats league-wide are still mired in that all too familiar adjustment period that comes when the temperatures are not conducive to slow-pitch softball scores. I'm not certain, but what I do know is the temperatures have been up there for a while now and the Yankees currently have a 3.52 team ERA. They came into Wednesday fourth in the AL.
And if you tell me you saw this coming I will say even without my lawyer present that I will trust you on any future end-of-the-world predictions you might feel like, you know, just throwing out there.
As much as the diehard fan likes to scream when the Yankees go into even the slightest tailspin there's something going on with this team despite its somewhat lackluster 31-23 record. We all know of the Yankees' prowess for hitting the home run. We've been led to believe they won't win nearly as many games when they are not blasting the cover off the ball. But with the way the Bombers are chucking it from the mound maybe the team and the fans can live with spotty hitting with runners in scoring position. Maybe the Yankees' less-than-robust .253 team average will be enough the rest of the way to get them into October.
Again, your guess is as good as mine.
But before we settle for not having a single player batting above .292, let's imagine what could happen if the offense eventually comes around. Yes, it's true, the Yankees lead the majors with 283 runs, but they've never really given you that indication that this is the unstoppable offense it was expected to be back when we were all making predictions in the offseason and during spring training. Something is definitely missing and it may never come to the fore.
But if it does, and this staff continues to put up zero after zero, the possibilities will truly be endless.
Did you know that the Yankees have used 16 pitchers this season and that 11 of them currently have an ERA below 4.00? To me that's a somewhat mind-blowing statistic. I mean Buddy Carlyle? Lance Pendleton? A.J. Burnett???
Of the five who don't you have Phil Hughes, who has pitched all of three games while in search of his fastball. What if he comes back throwing 94 mph again? Then you have Ivan Nova, who has struggled at times but is certainly not deserving of a demotion. Not yet. The kid has shown what he can do when he's effectively changing speeds and keeping the ball down. Rafael Soriano has disappointed many in the season's first half, but now we know why. The guy's elbow is about to explode. Imagine him coming back and doing what he does best in front of Mariano Rivera. It's another scary proposition.
Boone Logan is also on this list, but you knew pretty much what you were going to get from him. If the kid can't get lefties out the injury to Pedro Feliciano looms that much larger. And as for rookie Amauri Sanit, well, did I mention that Hughes and Soriano are on the DL?
The mere fact that Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia are in the rotation at this point must come as a shock to most everyone in Major League Baseball. The world owes them and GM Brian Cashman an apology because in the high-stakes game of baseball poker, the Yankees bet the house on these two guys and right now look like absolute geniuses.
The funny part is 38-year-old Colon and 34-year-old Garcia deserve to be a hell of a lot better than their combined 7-7 record. Colon has a 3.26 ERA and has pitched at times like it should be two runs less. Garcia, who has a career 4.11 ERA, is currently at 3.34 and if the season ended today it would be his lowest since he went 18-6 with a 3.05 ERA for the 116-win Mariners in 2001.
Oh and by the way, Cliff Lee is currently 4-5 with an ERA approaching 4.00 in the NL for supposedly the team with the best rotation in baseball and the best lineup this side of the Bronx or Boston. I'm just sayin'.
Despite making just 27 starts in the majors since the end of 2007, Colon has pitched at times like it's 2005, the year he won 21 games and the AL Cy Young. He's often been throwing 98 mph and has turned the two-seam fastball into an art form.
Now, if you are a conspiracy theorist, which everyone who hates the Yankees seems to be when the Yankees are part of the discussion, you're likely pointing fingers and saying the burly right-hander's recent renaissance has been tied to what you may consider questionable stem cell surgery on his pitching shoulder. All I can say about that is as long as MLB has no problem with him, neither should you.
Garcia simply throws every piece of junk he can at opposing hitters and it works with shocking efficiency. Gone are the days of this guy going up the ladder in the mid 90s. He's a cerebral pitcher now, one that frustrates hitters because he makes them swing at his pitches. He rarely serves up a main course and when he does he rights the ship by going back to the molasses that ends up being grounded to second or popped to short.
Garcia has also proven to be a long man every fifth day because in the rare event that he's been off he's managed to gut out his starts and save the bullpen, working deep into games while minimizing the damage.
I'm forgetting some people. Oh yeah, CC Sabathia. The big man is getting into his annual groove right now. He started 1-3 in 2009 and ended up with 19 wins. He started 4-3 last year through May and ended up with 21 wins. He started 4-3 this season and ended up 6-3, with a 2.98 ERA to boot, in May. Barring injury? Yeah, you already know what's coming. And let's leave the talk of opt-out clauses in the closet for the time being.
And then, of course, there's Burnett. Look, he's 6-3 with a 3.83 following his stellar seven innings of three-hit ball in the Yankees' 4-2 win in Oakland on Wednesday afternoon. Wouldn't you have signed up for those stats on opening day? The apocalypse hasn't come yet so there's no need to hide under your wooden desk. If the bombs start falling I'm sure there will be ample warning.
The right thing for Cashman to do going forward is to find another starter, even though his current five have been for the most part outstanding, because of the great unknown -- be it an injury, old age, too much youth or, yes, a Burnett implosion. If they can keep this up, and there has been no indication that they won't, the five guys he has now may put the often-criticized general manager in an enviable position, one where he can look for the right arm to supplement what he already has instead of having to grab the nearest Esteban Loaiza or over-the-hill Kevin Brown.
These five guys can afford Cashman the luxury of being selective and can give him the ammunition to take a tougher stance against any team looking to hijack the Yankees' minor league system, which happens on a yearly basis once June turns into July.
We don't know what these Yankees truly are yet, but as each day goes by it is becoming more and more apparent that the joke of a back end of the rotation that many thought they had is actually a group of guys pulling a bag over everyone's head and lighting their sneakers on fire.
Embrace the horror everyone, these Yankees can pitch.
Read more columns by Jeff Capellini.
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