Thursday, April 26, 2012

Yankees starting pitching still a big mess


It’s not quite time to panic about the New York Yankees starting rotation, but there is definitely a lot of reason to be concerned.

The really sad news is Michael Pineda’s arm injury, which will keep him out for a full year. What terrible news for the youngster, who was probably so excited to get out of the relative anonymity of Seattle to pitch for the constantly-contending Yankees. And the team was counting on him to be a key member of the rotation. So Brian Cashman’s grand plan must be put on ice. (Just for the record, I still think the trade of Jesus Montero for Pineda was the right move, unless evidence emerges that the Mariners knew about Pineda’s arm problem and the Yankees missed it during the medical exam).

But now I’m officially worried about Phil Hughes. I was looking forward to his outing last night, thinking that he was going to build on some of the positives we saw in his last start. For a couple of innings, it looked promising, despite the monster home run he gave up to Adrian Beltre. Hughes was freezing batters at the plate and inducing ground balls for outs. But everything just fell apart in the third inning and this time it couldn’t be blamed on another Eduardo Nunez error. Hit batters put Hughes in a major jam, one Joe Girardi obviously did not trust him to get out of. To his credit, Hughes said he has not earned that trust, but it was a terribly demoralizing moment for the youngster regardless of his manager’s intentions.

The Yankees have managed a 10-8 record despite their starting pitching problems, which include CC Sabathia, who hasn’t yet pitched like the ace we all know he is. Their bullpen has been carrying them and Derek Jeter, Mr. Turn Back the Clock, is on an unbelievable hitting spree. But sooner or later, the Captain and the relievers are going to need to take days off and someone else needs to step up to carry the team.

Thankfully, Superman, I mean Andy Pettitte, is on his way to save the day. 



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