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.
No comments:
Post a Comment