Mr Girardi has a tendency to use the full range of his expanded roster when it turns September 1st. Unfortunately, this means that players are used to pitch on an irregular rest period and the continuity and consistency of the pitching tends to fall apart. This may be the last season he has to face that temptation as the rules on September roster expansion seem likely to change soon. In the meantime, here’s how the Yankees fared under the current system.
| New York Yankees – Pitching – Month – September + Oct | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | GP | GS | GF | IP | H | RA | ER | BB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA | OBA | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pettitte, Andy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 16.2 | 16 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1.62 | .254 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Lowe, Derek | 10 | 0 | 4 | 14.1 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1.88 | .167 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Chamberlain, Joba | 14 | 0 | 2 | 13.1 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.03 | .200 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rapada, Clay | 10 | 0 | 0 | 4.1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.08 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Eppley, Cody | 14 | 0 | 3 | 10.0 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2.70 | .194 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Logan, Boone | 19 | 0 | 0 | 11.1 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.18 | .262 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Soriano, Rafael | 13 | 0 | 11 | 14.0 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3.21 | .176 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sabathia, CC | 6 | 6 | 0 | 44.0 | 35 | 16 | 16 | 8 | 40 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3.27 | .211 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Robertson, David | 18 | 0 | 6 | 15.1 | 17 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 21 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4.11 | .279 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Phelps, David | 8 | 5 | 0 | 29.2 | 23 | 14 | 14 | 17 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.25 | .217 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Kuroda, Hiroki | 6 | 6 | 0 | 36.1 | 44 | 20 | 19 | 11 | 32 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4.71 | .303 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hughes, Phil | 6 | 6 | 0 | 34.2 | 37 | 21 | 20 | 8 | 35 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 5.19 | .264 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nova, Ivan | 3 | 3 | 0 | 13.0 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6.23 | .283 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wade, Cory | 5 | 0 | 2 | 5.2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6.35 | .190 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Garcia, Freddy | 5 | 2 | 2 | 13.2 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7.24 | .240 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thomas, Justin | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3.0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | .182 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Aardsma, David | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 146 | 31 | 31 | 280.1 | 255 | 129 | 126 | 92 | 258 | 20 | 11 | 9 | 4.05 | .240 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Good
Andy Pettitte. Andy Pettitte returned from injury and led the team in ERA over the final weeks. Pettitte who had previously decided to retire and then returned to the Yankees and pitched well earlier in the season, proved that he was still very much worth a spot in the rotation and the Yankees will be hoping that he decides to return once more in 2013.
Derek Lowe. Lowe has usually been inconsistent during his career. Good year, bad year. Good month, bad month. After a fairly checkered time with the Yankees too, he managed to come good over the final weeks of the regular season and led the team in OBA.
Joba Chamberlain. All the signs were that the Yankees rushed Chamberlain back to the majors and his performance in September, vastly improved, supports that suggestion. The number of batters he was allowing on base and the number of runs he gave up were ballooning until the final weeks, then he managed to make his appearances much more consistent. Perhaps he should have worked off some of those early outings at Triple-A.
Clay Rapada. Rapada proved to be a consistently good pitcher throughout the season and September / early days of October were no exception. He gave up less than a hit per innings and managed to stop most of the few runners he allowed on base from scoring.
Bad
Justin Thomas. Justin joined Boone Logan as what has been a rare breed in Yankee Stadium over the last few seasons – the left-handed specialist reliever. Joining the team from Boston he struggled mightily to make an impression but in reality fell at the first hurdle and continued to fall each time out.
Freddy Garcia. As the season wore on things just got worse for Mr Garcia who was doing well enough at one stage to reclaim a spot in the starting rotation. Picking up a loss and an over 7 ERA during the final month brought the season to a miserable conclusion for Freddy.
Cory Wade. Wade was brought back to the majors when the rosters expanded in September. He had performed well in the early months but lost his way resulting in his demotion. Unfortunately, after again looking promising it was mostly the latter Cory Wade we saw in his last few appearances.
Ivan Nova. Nova was bad enough in September that he lost his place on the playoff roster – a conclusion to the season which looked extremely unlikely a few months earlier.
Surprising
David Phelps. Phelps was used both as a starter and as a reliever throughout the season and also in this last phase. He continued to be inconsistent but in 5 starts and 3 relief performances he made a good argument for the Yankees to persevere with him at least a while longer.
David Robertson. The big surprise with Robertson was just how often he came into a game with a lead or a tie and left with a loss. He far out-numbered every other reliever in the capacity to allow a game to be turned on its head in this way and it marred what otherwise was a good season for him.
Hiroki Kuroda. Despite giving up 19 runs in 6 starts, Kuroda was able to produce 4 wins and 1 no decision. He rode the luck of being the pitcher this season who consistently had good run support.
Cody Eppley. Eppley had started to struggle but bounced back well in September. He came in third in OBA over the last few weeks and has proved a very good addition to what has proved to be a spotty inconsistent relief corps.
