Late August is the best time to analyze a team’s home stretch, just as things get exciting but still before the NFL’s regular season arrives and makes all else obsolete to most fans. As the pennant race continues to heat up in the late days of August, the American League East division finds itself in a familiar situation as the Yankees and Red Sox battle for first place in the season’s final months. Their play has been nearly dead even outside of the rivalry itself, which the Sox have dominated this season by a count of ten wins to only two for New York. This result would suggest that the Yankees have been better against the rest of the league, and that if they can even play average baseball against Boston for the remainder of the year they have a good chance to finish atop the league’s best division when October comes. With such a tight race, even the smallest decision or an individual game can determine the outcome of this year’s battle for baseball supremacy. As the season progresses, one major problem has been passed down to manager Joe Girardi, but it a good problem to deal with. How he handles this issue may severely help or hurt the Bombers’ chase for an unprecedented 28th championship.
In a league with a standard five man pitching rotation, the Yankees are fortunate enough to have six (or five and a half as I will go on to explain.) Surprising seasons from Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia have kept the Yankees afloat alongside a couple of young studs and an excellent bullpen. While the pitching has been good this year, the gap between ace CC Sabathia and the next five starters is immeasurable. There is complete uncertainty surrounding who is the number two starter for the upcoming playoff run. Most teams seek out a one-two punch at the front end of their rotation, but us Yankee fans are now accustomed to one haymaker followed by a series of surprisingly effective jabs. This immense grey area has revealed the biggest hidden blessing in baseball today. The pitching surplus has led the Yankees to unintentionally create something unheard of in modern sports and in many cases, the world: a performance-based profession. Because only one of the six was safe by the halfway point in the season, the other five have been pitching for their lives. These life or death situations have forced what is, in my opinion, the most overachieving pitching rotation in baseball. I mean that in the best way possible; this competition has been great for the Yankees and they wouldn’t be the same without it.
There is one exception that has been a flaw in this competitive system, and continues to plague a team that can’t afford any cheap losses while chasing such a formidable rival. AJ Burnett started the year as the presumed second starter in the rotation, but continued to work his way down through his many struggles and bad performances. In recent months, Ivan Nova escaped the hot seat by pitching brilliantly and while many have been awaiting the collapses of Garcia and Colon, they simply have not happened. This leaves two questionable pitchers, Burnett and long time prospect Phil Hughes. Hughes went from winning eighteen games as an all star to a terrible start to the 2011 campaign that sent him to the DL for much of the first few months. However, in his last two starts he has pitched twelve innings and given up three runs. One of those appearances was shortened due to rain interrupting a shutout against the White Sox. I view his response to landing on the hot seat as a performance worthy of the Yankees rotation. Burnett, on the other hand, has been a different story. He may not have immunity from Girardi, but he definitely has inconceivable leniency. If I got the opportunity to ask Girardi one question on the matter, it would be just how badly does this guy have to pitch to be the odd man out?
Over his last two starts, Burnett’s “hot seat performance” as we’ll call it for now, included ten and a third innings pitched and eleven runs given up. He was given thirteen runs of support in the first few innings against the same White Sox that Hughes embarrassed, but was unable to even finish the five innings required to secure a statistical win. If this is how he responds under pressure, I am dreading the day if and when he knows he is going to keep his job and grows complacent. To put it plainly, I just don’t like the guy. I don’t even like his attitude; die-hard fans will notice that he even gets worse when faced with any adversity, such as an error or bad call from an umpire. He even committed the cardinal sin of ripping off his jersey during a temper tantrum, an act reserved for the special kind of stupid found in any bad teammate. From 2009 until a few hours ago, I had as many wins in August as a starting pitcher as AJ Burnett. Being that terrible in August is the definition of how to screw up a run to the playoffs. He even did his best to foil tonight’s plans as he surrendered a lead in the 5th inning. Luckily for him, the offense that has spoiled him for years now regained control of the game. His questionable benefit of the doubt has come from two undeserving areas. For one thing, his “stuff” has been said to be among the league’s best. The term “stuff” may be the most overrated aspect of baseball. A 95mph fastball is great until it is sent to major league hitters flat, without any movement, and is then promptly sent over the outfield fence. A curveball with dramatic movement is nice when it does not end up in the dirt or somewhere around the backstop. The other reason he is still around is because of all the numbers I could use to break down AJ Burnett, the one Joe Girardi seems to be most concerned with is $16,500,000. That is the money the Yankees are giving Burnett this season. It is a shot to the egos of both manager and GM Brian Cashman to demote anyone making that many millions.
Now that we have established Burnett’s recent history, I believe Phil Hughes has much more to offer both the Yankee present and future. It is a disservice to the team if Girardi shuffles Hughes between the rotation and bullpen until he is eventually ineffective in both, all to defend what has often proven himself to be a bad investment. Phil Hughes was the most valuable Yankee prospect for years; we refused to trade him away for Johan Santana in his prime. Since when did that same guy get treated like an expendable player to help a much less worthy veteran than an ‘07 Johan? Hughes’ numbers are bloated in a season that he spent injured in the early months; I believe they are not indicative of his ability and what he can bring to the team from this point onward. This makes Burnett’s futility slightly more difficult to define by the numbers. If you are willing to grant me the Hughes exception, Burnett’s ERA is about a full run higher than the next highest on the starting staff. Hughes can still be developed into an elite pitcher, whereas Burnett is sadly at the stage that will likely linger for the remainder of his career.
There is a reason I can rant for days about my team’s fifth starter, a position that is typically insignificant. Many teams don’t even use a fifth starter come playoff time. The reason the Yankees are different is because as mentioned earlier, we do not have two elite guys that can carry us to a championship. Ideally, a second Sabathia would appear and then the rest of the pitchers could really be anybody. The Phillies steamrolled into last season’s NLCS and ran straight into a wall as Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain led the charge of an unlikely champion. In order to compete with those teams that have multiple aces and situational hitters, every pitcher in the rotation has to be at least good. If Girardi goes the way I fear he might and continues to place his stock in Burnett, I feel as if we have one guaranteed loss per week unless we constantly light up the scoreboard. Keeping him around is essentially blind faith in him becoming the pitcher we bought, as opposed to the pitcher we have. It isn’t the worst risk in the world, but it is not one that a championship contender can afford to take, especially when someone more capable is waiting in the wings. Believe it or not, my managerial standpoint doesn’t leave AJ Burnett out completely. He can be used for long relief out of the bullpen and, more importantly, somebody needs to pie the guys in the face that hit the walk-offs.
No comments:
Post a Comment