A Hole in the Yankees? No Way!

Pete Abraham notes today that the Yankees still have a hole in their team, more specifically their rotation. The Yankees made no secret this offseason that they needed to address the pitching staff, then they reaaaaalllllyyy made no secret about it by signing Sabathia and Burnett. I'm not sure where they stand with Pettitte and his $10m offer, but the Yankees still don't have a 5th starter. Pete makes a good point about innings pitched in the rotation, stating getting to 950 innings from their starters would be a solid bench mark. Both Sox, Rays, and Angels all were over that mark in their rotations, and it's not a coincidence that they all made the playoffs.

"So, how can they go about getting to 950 innings this season?

Put down CC Sabathia for 225 innings. It’s unreasonable to expect more than that. Put down A.J. Burnett for 190. Given his history, it’s hard to expect more. Figure
Wang for 200. Chamberlain will be limited to around 140 or so.

That’s 755. So where are those extra 200 innings coming from? Team officials have said they’re ready to draw the line on spending and that Andy Pettite missed his chance. But the rotation is no place to suddenly get a financial conscience.

In theory, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy and Alfredo Aceves could give you those 200 innings. But that assumes the other four starters stay healthy and do what is expected. That’s a big assumption."

It's a great point that the Yankees need 200 innings somewhere, and most likely relying on Hughes/Kennedy/Aceves wouldn't help the cause especially considering at least one of them will need to spell Burnett or Joba. Although I don't have a big problem with Pete's estimates, it's easy that Joba and Burnett could only give the Yankees 150 innings combined. There's that old cliche that you're only as good as your weakest link, and if the Yankees want to make pithcing a strength, why have a huge weak link in the 5th spot? Pete summed this up beautifully "the Yankees have taken dramatic steps to get better. But they’re leaving open a trap door for no reason." I couldn't agree more.

Andy's performance down the stretch put a bad taste in some mouths, and those people would prefer him off the team. I wouldn't give Andy more than one year, or even much more than the proposed $10m offer, but I wouldn't call it a day with the rotation and start going to battle. The Yankees have their aces (potentially four of them, wow) they just need innings, and no pitcher on their roster can do that like Andy. Andy has averaged 214 IP the last 4 years, and even if he repeated last years subpar numbers with those innings he'd be helping the team tremendously.

Better yet, Andy didn't even have that bad a year. According to FanGraphs Andy had a 3.71 FIP, placing him right below John Lester (new Red Sox ace) and above Cole Hamels (new World Series ace). Only 5 pitchers in the league had a bigger difference in their FIP and ERA than Andy. The Yankees defense won't help Andy ever reach his expected ERA, but it should still be better than last year if he pitches exactly the same even stinking in the 2nd half. The Yankees could be shorting themselves the opportunity to have 5 allstar worthy pitchers for a couple million. Who are the Yankees to now say enough is enough with money? This isn't signing Manny to DH, or giving Derek Lowe a 5 year deal. Up the offer and give Andy $12m and you still have a bargain.

Getting Teixeira allows them to use Melky or Gardner in CF, but Teixeira didn't solve the tiny hole in the rotation. They can sign Pettitte and still be at or below last years budget, while having by far the best rotation in baseball, and maybe the past decade. Why they would leave that trap door as Pete mentions is beyond me.