Pettitte's Return, and the Rotation

The return of Andy Pettitte is pretty exciting if you're a Yankee fan. Since I started watching baseball Andy has won more postseason games than any other pitcher ever. Obviously that stat doesn't mean a lot in terms of comparing him to other players. Andy has been on a lot of good postseason teams in an era with an expanded postseason. However, to a 23 year old Yankee fan, what that record means is having watched him take the mound and get the W 19 times in the playoffs. Andy has an extremely special place in the hearts of Yankee fans. He is right up there with Jeter, Rivera and Posada.

It is simply impossible to be unhappy with Andy's return. It was only a year ago that we were watching the Yankee news expecting him to resign any day, and hoping that we wouldn't get stuck with fat Bartolo and geriatric Freddy in the rotation. Brian Cashman gave an interview on the YES network during the broadcast of the game right after he signed. His version of the story basically goes like this:

This past winter Pettitte heard Cashman doing an interview in which he was asked whether he had contacted Andy about a return. Cashman said no, he felt Andy could still pitch but didn't want to bother him. Pettitte then contacted Cashman to say that he was toying with the idea of a return and had started working out. Cashman supposedly offered him 10-12 million on the spot but Andy said he couldn't commit, and that he understood that Cashman might have to use that money to sign other players. So Andy worked out for a few weeks while Cash went about trading for Pineda and signing Kuroda. Cashman then told Pettite that the money was no longer available and he stopped working out. That is until Andy visited Spring Training as a guest instructor and realized that he wanted to play so bad that he would do so for a 2.5 million dollar minor league contract. So basically Pettite left 10 million dollars on the table because he couldn't commit 6 weeks earlier than he did, which sucks for him. I guess when you already have a ton of money and you live in bumble fuck Deer Park, Texas its probably not such a big deal though.

I don't buy the cliche that can never have too much pitching. I think that's stupid, because the Yankees clearly do at the moment. Obviously things can change quickly. If some guys get hurt or are ineffective the Yankees will be glad that they had too much pitching. However, its going to suck if come May the Yankees move an effective young starter to the bullpen in order to fit Andy into the rotation. I would far prefer to see them option one of Hughes, Nova or Pineda to AAA where they can continue to start every 5 days. I seem to remember Nova going to AAA last year and developing a knockout slider, that was his most effective pitch upon his return to the big leagues. Eventually injuries or ineffectiveness will open up a spot in the rotation, and whichever pitcher went to AAA can return. For Hughes or Pineda, a trip to AAA would allow them to work on their Changeup, which could wind up being constructive.

Moving Nova or Pineda to the bullpen would be really stupid. Those young pitchers need innings to develop into the legit big league rotation stalwarts that we hope they can be. If Hughes sucks and there is a need, it would make sense to move him to the bullpen. However, should the Yankees decide to move Hughes to the bullpen it would be for good. He is only 2 seasons away from free agency and the Yankees are likely to have several pitching prospects that are ready for the majors come 2013. It might appear on the surface that the best value that a player can provide to the big league club is as always as a member of the 25 man roster but that isn't always true. It is important that the Yankees view Nova and Pineda as assets to be developed in the best possible manner. They can then provide value to the team in a number of ways including as trade pieces. Good starters are much more valuable assets than good relievers.

Breaking News: Andy Pettitte Returns

Via Jack Curry Andy Pettitte has signed a 1 year 2.5 million dollar deal. Details to come. Wow.

Update: Pettite expected to spend the rest of the spring getting in shape, and not to be ready for the start of the season. April is a big month for Phil Hughes.
 

Freddy Garcia's Hand, and the Rotation Competition

So most people reading this probably all know that Freddy Garcia was hit by a comebacker in his pitching hand. The Yankees have said that the X-rays are negative, but there was swelling. Hard to say how long Freddy will be out for.

Girardi is still going on about the rotation battle. He has even discussed the fact that Hughes, Nova and Pineda still have minor league options and could be sent to AAA. I don't believe him. I already wrote about the rotation "battle":
4 Guys, 3 Rotation Spots

The idea of sending Pineda or Nova to AAA is absurd. Nova was the Yankees second best pitcher last year, and deserves a shot to continue the improvement that he showed in his excellent first full season. It is also extremely unlikely that the Yankees will send the player that they traded Jay Buhner Jesus Montero for to the minors. The only one that I could reasonably be sent to AAA is Hughes, but that would really only make sense if it was for a particular reason, like working on the change up.

The idea of sending a guy with much higher upside (all 3) to the minors to accommodate Freddy Garcia really doesn't make sense. Should Nova or Hughes or even Pineda fail as starters or get hurt Freddy can always come back to the rotation at a later date. It probably wouldn't take that long to get Garcia's repertoire of slow-slower-slowest stretched out mid-season. Why not give the younger, higher upside guys a chance to show that they belong in the rotation.

I hope that this is just Girardi thinking that he is motivating his young starters to do their best. He should be less vocal about it though, because we don't want Michael Pineda hurting himself trying to throw 98 in his third spring start to make Kevin Kernan and the boys at the New York Post happy. Let's all hope that the Yankees won't really judge them by tiny sample size spring performances.

Sorry Johnny, He's Just Not That Into You

According to Johnny Damon he essentially reached out to Brian Cashman and the Yankees and offered to play in New York. He wanted to be a Yankee again so bad that he was willing to accept "whatever [the Yankees] want to pay him."

Brian Cashman supposedly gave him some pretty thin answers about Ibanez being a better fit. That's kind of bullshit because Ibanez sucks at least as much as Damon, and probably more.

I can, however, understand the idea of not wanting to bring Damon back. After all if Ibanez sucks until July the Yankees can always go out and acquire a slugging left handed DH via trade. It's easy enough to cut Ibanez. He isn't getting paid very much and the fans and players have no particular attachment to him. However, cutting Damon mid-season would be much more painful for an organization and a fan base that remembers him playing his heart out for the Yankees and winning a world series here. Even if he did happen to throw like a little girl.

Pineda's Second Start!

Michael Pineda is slated to make his second start in pinstripes today! Obviously the results don't matter. It would be nice to see him throwing gas and fading change ups, but this is the second start of spring training so we all need keep expectations in check. I won't be the least bit surprised if he is sitting at 89-91 mph and has shaky command. Of course that will no doubt spark a fresh series of NY Post articles about how he is fat and lazy. Don't buy it:

Low Hopes for Raul Ibanez

In what I can only imagine was an effort to make Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez not feel so old the Yankees went out and acquired the baseball geriatric Raul Ibanez over the offseason. My initial reaction to this acquisition was that it was stupid. After taking some time to absorb it, and to do a little bit of research, I still think it was pretty stupid.

I am a fan first, so let me make it clear that I am rooting for Ibanez to play great as a Yankee. I'd rather he have a great 2012 season and make me look like a dick than I be right. Unfortunately I don't see it happening.

Here are Ibanez's triple slash and HR numbers for the last three seasons. 

Season triple slash stats:

Season	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR/PA
2009	.272	.347	.552	34/565
2010	.275	.349	.444	16/636
2011	.245	.289	.419	20/575

He has declined considerably in his late 30s. Ibanez's production also appears to have fallen off a cliff in 2011. Perhaps this is due in some part to drawing his lowest percentage of walks in this millenium (5.7%). Maybe its harder to draw walks when you are old.

Of course as a Yankee he is expected to serve as the Left handed portion of a DH platoon. So his numbers from that side of the plate must be much better, right?

 Left Handed triple slash stats:

Season	AVG	OBP	SLG	HR/PA
2009	.267	.342	.517	21/398
2010	.277	.366	.455	12/445
2011	.256	.307	.440	16/437

Eh, maybe a little, but not by much. If he repeats 2011 in 2012 that would be pretty shitty for a DH. It would definitely be worse than Jorge Posada's .269/.348/.466 as a Left handed hitter in 2011. But at least Ibanez can provide the Yankees with genuinely terrible outfield defense as a 40 year old, should the need arise.

*All stats courtesy of fangraphs

Robertson's Injures Foot

David Robertson injured his foot last night moving boxes in his home. Today he was in a walking boot but X-rays were negative. He is scheduled to have an MRI. That blows, but the key here has to be for the best Yankee reliever not named Mo Rivera to rest and heal completely and not rush back. Opening day is exciting but with a 162 game schedule ahead, being back for game 1 is really not that important. It sucks when injuries happen off the field but least he wasn't doing something stupid like punching his locker or playing pick up hoops, or as in Carl Pavano's case driving a car while retarded. 3/8 Update: Diagnosed with a bone bruise. Could be back by opening day. Thats awesome, best possible outcome.

NYY ST Game 5: 3/7

- Hiroki Kuroda looked sharp in his first inning, then got hit around a little after that. There is really very little to see when a vet like that takes the mound for his first spring start. As long as he doesn't get hurt he is your #2 starter.

- I thought Adam Warren looked pretty good. He doesn't get a lot of prospect attention but all he has done since being drafted by the Yankees is win, be consistent and move up the minor league ladder. I have no doubt he will be starting for the Yankees at some point this year.

-Clay Rapada pitched another hitless 1.1 innings with 2 Ks. I think he has a good shot at being the second lefty out of the pen in that last spot. Of course if that happens the Yankees will probably immediately resign him for the 4 million/year they gave Damaso Marte and Pedro Feliciano, at which point he will blow out his shoulder.

- I didn't get to watch the whole game but I did see the Joe Girardi in game interview. He mentioned Zoilo Almonte as a young player he is excited about.


- Teixeira didn't play (Swisher at first) but Girardi said its a regular day off and its not related to him jamming his thumb in Tuesdays game.

- Andruw Jones gave Hiroki Kuroda #18 for free. He didn't even get Kuroda to set up a college fund for one of his kids like Andrew McCutchen got from AJ Burnett.

NYY Spring Training Game Posts

Every March I find myself watching spring training games. I get pumped about the first one, and that raging pinstriped erection lasts about 1/2 an inning.

Watching some AA pitcher strike out Lance Nix's little brother in a game that doesn't matter gets old fast. However there is some information that can be gleaned from these games. For example, Hughes hitting 93 yesterday was exciting, after he failed to get out of the 80s last spring.

Spring training competitions for playing time and roster spots will be reserved for the other 29 teams, as the Yankees have most of those decisions made already. Of course there is the epic rotation battle, which is actually a bunch of bullshit (4 guys, 3 rotation spots). Really for the Yankees its going to come down to the last man in the bullpen as the only spring competition, barring injury.

I'm not going to post box scores every day, there are a million other places to go for that. I will instead give some notes and interpretations when I see the games and/or something stands out.

Michael Pineda's Bullshit Weight Issue

Kevin Kernan's Article About Pineda: Mentions Overweight 3 Times

Kevin Kernan is retarded. If I hear one more time How Pineda came into camp overweight and plans to lose some weight I might lose my fucking mind. The guy came in at 280 and said he had to lose 10lbs. Pineda is 6'7" and 10lbs constitutes less than 3.6% of his body weight. This guy isn't a fucking anorexic high school cheerleader. 10 lbs is a non-issue for an enormous professional athlete.  In fact, he has already lost 8 lbs since pitchers and catchers began. Yet idiots like Kernan need to set up the narrative that he is lazy, in case he isn't an ace in his second MLB season. That way they can write about how they knew it all along. Thats just shitty, irresponsible reporting.

Rivera Will Let Everyone Know This Summer

Mariano Rivera shocked Yankee fans recently when he told reporters that he knows what his decision will be regarding retirement after this season. It seemed pretty obvious at the time that he was leaning towards retirement, which is unfortunate. Today he said that he will probably let everyone know before the All Star break.
Any Yankee fan knows that Mo has been practically ageless. He has put up some of his best seasons from age 38-41, laughing in the face of baseball mortality. He told the Yankees that he wanted to retire after the 2005 season to become an evangelical minister, so I guess its really just been a matter of time.

Mariano's actions are as close to being completely above reproach as any athletes can be. This obviously isn't Tiki Barber acting like a jackass and detracting from the team in his prime. Mo is 42 now, and even though he could probably keep playing, it looks like he really wants to be a minister and help others. That is fine, but I'd like to ask him this question:

How many people can he affect as a minister in a given year?

I'm sure its a lot, which is great for him. However, I doubt that he could possibly do more for others as a minister than the 15 million dollars the Yankees are willing to pay him for his 70 innings of baseball could do. So why not play for as long as he can, and use that money to help others. Come on Rivera, don't be selfish.

Minka Kelly Has Lost Her Mind

Minka Kelly getting to know Wilmer Valderrama

If you don't know who Wilmer Valderrama is that's ok, neither did I up until like 10 minutes ago. Its fucking Fez from that 70s show. Apparently Fez thinks its acceptable to try to bang Derek Jeter's girl while the Captain is in Tampa trying to get himself ready to win championship #6. I can't really blame him though, Minka Kelly is a piece and he needs to get his. Maybe he is a Red Sox fan trying to stick it to Jeter.

On the other hand what the fuck is Minka Kelly thinking... she can't be serious. Going from the bi-racial angel legend of a Yankees shortstop to Fez seems like a pretty obvious downgrade. On the one hand a five time world champion, hall of fame lock, Mr. 3000, Captain of both the Yankees and team USA. On the other hand, fucking Fez.

Lin Should Have Taken ARod Up On That

www.nypost.com/p/news/local/rod_lin_can_bunk_with_me_Lne8PRvaovIVBBYF7u79nJ

The NY Post and pretty much every other media outlet reported this thing about ARod offering Lin a place to crash a week ago. Look, I understand that Alex Rodriguez is the player that everyone loves to hate and that Jeremy Lin has squeaky clean reputation.

The reaction appears to have been mostly that ARod is an idiot and that Lin didn't even think about his offer but I say fuck that. ARod might be a clown but anything that brings you closer to this:

Is a great idea in my book. Plus no way that any shit hole that David Lee lived in before he got his payday from Golden State could possibly compare to ARod's apartment. Which is of course, I imagine, a strip club in a floating palace among the clouds that Scott Boras convinced the Yankees to build after he opted out in 2007.

4 Guys, 3 Rotation Spots

According to Joe Girardi there are currently 3 spots open in the Yankees rotation. That is probably a bunch of bullshit but I will pretend that its true and proceed to compare the distinguished candidates. They will be listed in order of player that I am most emotionally invested in how likely they are to make the rotation.

Michael Pineda (age 23):
Pineda throws absolute gas. His fastball averaged 94.2mph in his 2011 rookie season, which is very fast. He also throws a knockout slider. He started his rookie campaign incredibly well, garnering a decent amount of attention, especially for a player from the baseball purgatory Seattle Mariners. He was less impressive after the all star break but I think this was likely due to youth and inexperience. The underlying performance was fairly consistent as he struck out more than a batter per inning while walking less than 3 per 9 innings.

The truth of the matter is that there is a 0% chance that he doesn't make the rotation, because the Yankees traded Jesus Montero for him in the off season. As any Yankee fan knows, Jesus Montero probably wouldn't have amounted to much as a Yankee. However, now that he has been traded he will end up being the fucking Venezuelan Babe Ruth and will make the Yankees look stupid. Anyway, Pineda should be just fine as he works on a third pitch this spring and assumes his all but guaranteed rotation spot.

Ivan Nova (25):
After 30 or so decent innings at the end of 2010 Ivan Nova managed to get himself a rotation spot last year and really made the most of it. He started the season pitching decently enough to keep the 2nd best offense in the AL in games, but had to relinquish his rotation slot when Phil Hughes came back from his bout with retarded arm syndrome. Nova could have cried about it like a little bitch, but instead he went down to AAA and spent almost a month there developing a slider. Upon his return from AAA, he used that very slider (statistically his best pitch after July) to power a 7 game win streak and finish out the season 8-0. Nova earned himself Rookie of the Year consideration and the #2 starter role in the playoffs, so he is also pretty much guaranteed a rotation spot.

Phil Hughes (25):
Hughes was the top pitching prospect in baseball in like 2007, which is pretty much his greatest claim to fame. It is also the reason that Yankees fans have an incredible fascination with him, even though he has been mostly disappointing in pinstripes. In between a myriad of injuries and stints of shitty pitching Hughes has done just enough in the big leagues to keep fans and Yankee brass hoping that he will turn into the ace they envisioned. Hopefully he can be like the shutdown reliever he was in 2009 or the decent starter he was in 2010.  I have nightmares about the Hughes who showed up to camp in 2011, looking like he spent the off season having Captain Crunch eating competitions with CC Sabathia, and proceeded to whip 85 mph fastballs down the middle until he got shut down in April.

The case for Hughes in the rotation is still fairly strong. He spent the last off season working out at Athletes Performance Institute and supposedly was already hitting 93mph in his first spring start. At the end of the day there can't much harm in running him out there for starts early in the season. Even if he isn't great he will be backed by a deep bullpen and strong offense. Worst case he is sucky again, and the Yankees can send him to the bullpen, while calling up a AAA arm or giving the job to Freddy. This is very likely to happen, as Brian Cashman has already said that Hughes looks to him like a bust that he should have traded for Cliff Lee top of the rotation starter early in camp.


Freddy Garcia (Old):
Freddy is pretty old and his repertoire basically consists of slow, slow and slower. I mean his fastball in 2011 averaged 86.9mph, which is just 0.3 mph more than CC Sabathia's change up. That's pretty slow. Freddy's overall performance showed that there is a lot more to pitching than velocity. He could probably make a decent 5th starter and keep the Yankees in games for 5-6 inning while allowing their offense to go to work. Freddy is owed 4 million guaranteed dollars by the Yankees, and has made it clear that he doesn't mind hanging out in the bullpen while Phil Hughes gets another shot at the rotation. That's pretty smooth of him, since he doesn't really have a choice and Brian Cashman is already B'ing his L' over Phil Hughes.


Projected Rotation:
Sabathia-Kuroda-Nova-Pineda-Hughes

1,000,000th Yankees Blog on the web

Although this is roughly the one millionth Yankees blog on the internet I'll try to make it one of the few worth reading. I watch all of the games and follow Yankees news very closely. This blog will consist of breaking news and my take on all things Yankee.