Andy Pettitte

Two threads providing endless entertainment. I love it.

 

At this point in their careers, A.J. Burnett is an upgrade over Andy Pettitte. There is an injury risk, of course, but he was significantly better than Pettitte this past season.

 

And the Yankees still have question marks at second base, left field and catcher, and a gaping hole in center. The bullpen, other than Rivera, is also a little shaky.

 

They aren't done yet. And imagine how many holes they would have if they didn't spend all that money.

Even if they were to stop here, take a look at those question marks. At second base, Cano is coming off of a very disappointing season, but he does have a career .303 batting average and it would be no shock to see him bounce back and produce. I'm not a big fan of the guy, but it's not like he hasn't shown the ability to hit at this level.

Johnny Damon will probably play left field, with Matsui at DH. Damon isn't what he was, but he did bat .303 with 17 home runs, 71 RBI, 95 runs scored and 29 steals in 2008.

No argument about center field and catcher, though. I don't like what they have at those spots, either.

 

And, obviously, the Yanks are replacing 40 year old Mussina and 36 year old Pettitte with 28 year old Sabbathia and 32 year old Burnett

 

One way to look at it:
The Yankees are markedly better than last year. CC & AJ are younger than Mussina and Pettitte and are far more likely to have career average years or better. Odds are that Mussina, at age 40, and coming off a career year, would not come close duplicating 2008. Pettitte could still be a .500 pitcher, but his innings would go down and he's as likely to get shelled as to keep the Yanks close.

A rotation of CC, AJ, Wang, Joba and Hughes is vastly superior to the rotation the Yanks used post All Star break '08.
Tex is more than marginally better than Giambi. Posada, back from injury, will be vastly superior to his replacements last season.
Cano and Jeter are bound to have better years.
The Yankees will miss Abreu more than they think and the return of Matsui without Abreu will force the Yanks to have a weak OF with Damon playing the field more than he should.

But the biggest reason the Yanks will be better is that their competition will not be.

 

Rebounds by Cano or Jeter are far from assured.

Rob? Strike zone? Know what it is? Not yet? Oh.

And Father Time is closing in on Jeter like Giacomo closed on the field in his Derby.

 

NY Post reports that a Pettitte return to the Bronx may be in doubt because of the Yankees signing of Mark Teixeira.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12252008/sports/yankees/pettitte_return_less_likely_after_teixei_145766.htm

 

Sabathia and Burnett had their career highs in IP last season. It is too much to ask for them to match those numbers from last year. Sabathia may have the early season problems he had last season after being a workhorse in 2007. If he or Burnett gets off to a slow start then the pressure of playing for the Yankees could cause a snowball effect. Very few pitchers have been able to come into New York and be successful in their first season (Clemens was 14-10 his first year).

The glass is half full optimism of "Cano and Jeter are bound to have better years" shows that you are not looking at the realities of the situation. Jeter and Cano are not bound to have better years at all.

 

Looking at Jeter's numbers, he actually didn't have a bad season. he hit .300 for the 10th time in 13 years. His slg% took a dive, he didn;t hit doubles last season. but .363 OBP for a number 2 hitter is pretty good.

Cano should rebound. 3 good years followed by a bad one don't indicate he lost his ability to play the game, just a bad season.

Look at Swisher's numbers last year and Brosius' numbers the year before he signed with the Yankees.

 

hey chris, if we are taking a glass half empty approach, then the red sox will be decidely worse this year, right? lowell and ortiz are older and coming off major injuries. matsuzaka, pedroia and youkilis will all drop off and their weak bullpen will continue to hurt them. so, apparently both the yankees and red sox will be worse. guess we should just hand the division to the rays.