1. In today’s Post I wrote this column about the how there is almost a horse race going on involving the Yankees rotation behind CC Sabathia. Who is up? Who is down? You really shouldn’t make decisions start to start. It is the kind of narrow window that causes an over-inflation of the value of any particular start. It is the ultimate in letting small sample size dictate thought process.
However, the reality is that there is not much season left and there is plenty of intrigue – and concern – about how this Yankees rotation is going to set up for the remainder of this season and, they hope, the playoffs.
In the last 15 Yankees games started by someone other than Sabathia, the Yankees have received fewer than five innings from their starter seven times. That has made it a blessing for the Yankees to be carrying three long relievers recently with Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre and rotation exile Javier Vazquez. And the Yankees will get further reinforcements when rosters can expand on Wednesday. I would think that Jonathan Albaladejo and Romulu Sanchez will both get summoned relatively quickly to deepen the pen.
Still the short starts underscore the troubles within the rotation and why there is such volatility with every positive or negative showing.
Clearly last night was a positive for Javier Vazquez, who in relief had good life and precision on his fastball over 4 2-3 innings. That enabled him to win for the 10th time this season. That gave Vazquez double-digit victories for the 11th straight year. That is the longest current streak. The next longest is 10 by Sabathia and the White Sox’s Mark Buehrle.
2. The biggest culprit of the blow-up start by a Yankee – or anyone in the majors this year – is A.J. Burnett. As I also detailed in the column, Burnett has permitted six earned runs or more in nine starts this year, which is three more than the rest of the Yankees staff combined and three more than anyone else in the majors. Boston’s Josh Beckett and Cleveland’s Justin Masterson have each done it six times.
Burnett has had this occur 14 times over the past two seasons, which also is three more times than anyone else. Scott Kazmir’s 11 are the second most.
Think about it: In Burnett’s 59 Yankees starts, he has permitted six or more earned runs 14 times (The Yankees are 1-13 in those games). That means Burnett is blown out in nearly one out of every four starts: Fourteen times in 59 starts represents 23.7 percent of Burnett’s starts in which Burnett has all but given the Yankees no chance to win.
And to think the Yankees have three more years – declining years at that – to live with Burnett.
The Yankees want to convince themselves that they can still figure out a way to harness the Burnett who can overpower with high-end stuff. But that is not going to happen. He is a heartbreaker. With that great stuff, he is just 21-20 with a 4.52 ERA in two seasons with the Yankees. So Burnett is one game over .500 with the team that has by far the majors’ best record over the past two years.
The more he pitches, the more Burnett reminds me of Hideki Irabu. It is easy to place Irabu in a joke bin and forget that his stuff was good enough to win AL Pitcher of the Month twice in his three Yankees seasons. But from 1997-99, another period when the Yankees had the best record in the majors, Irabu went 29-20 with a 4.80 ERA. He was never able to bring consistency to above-average stuff. Remind you of anyone?
3. Mark Teixeira did not hit well over the first five weeks last year while Alex Rodriguez was recuperating from hip surgery. Did that keep him from winning the MVP? Probably not. That was probably more about Joe Mauer’s greatness. Teixeira finished second in the MVP vote. But if you were looking for blemishes on a tremendous first year as a Yankee, it was those first few weeks as he failed to have big shoulders at a point in the schedule when the Yankees needed him to have just that. He did not take off last season until A-Rod returned to the lineup to bat right behind Teixeira.
In the 25 games Teixeira played last year before A-Rod’s return, he hit .198 with five homers and 15 RBIs. This season, however, he has excelled without Rodriguez, making it a little easier for the Yankees to survive without their cleanup hitter. Of course, he is benefitting from having a strong MVP candidate, Robinson Cano, hitting behind him when Rodriguez is absent. Still, Teixeira’s value is particularly accentuated when A-Rod has been gone.
In the 20 games this year in which Teixeira has played and A-Rod has not, Teixeira is hitting .358 (24-for-67) with four homers, six doubles,10 RBIs, 10 walks and 22 runs. Teixeira endured another slow start even with Rodriguez around. But he again has been a gigantic asset for the Yankees.
