It needs to be observed that the Yankees’ bullpen – which at times been their great strength and other times their greatest weakness – didn’t come back from the All-star break doing quite as well as they had in the first half. Those ERAs that were 1.something became 2.something for the month of July but, overall, the team’s pitching held their own. Let’s see who did particularly well and particularly badly…….
July saw the Yankees stay close to the Red Sox and ready themselves for the big run in. It’s hard to believe that they are not going to be at least the wild card for the American League. Here are some of the reasons why:
And now we turn our attention to the pitchers…………………….
And so having safely returned from New York, we turn our attention to what has been a very good month with the bat for the Yankees:
And so the pitchers:
The Yankees rotation coming out of Spring Training looked like a disaster waiting to happen. The old hands (Freddy Garcia as a starter with Bartolo Colon in relief), the under-achievers (AJ Burnett, Phil Hughes), and the unknowns (Ivan Nova). So given that April was such a success it bodes well for the rest of the season. Or as May plays out, was this just beginners’ luck? Anyway, here’s what happened:
At the moment, it’s almost a relief to look back on something I wrote about the Yankees at the end of April. May has seen them go into meltdown and at the end of the April it all seemed so optimistic. It was only two weeks ago………
The 2011 season is an unusual one for the Yankees. They normally go into Spring Training as the best stocked team in professional baseball. And the emphasis is normally on depth of starting pitching.
The story of the Yankees bullpen in August was Kerry Wood. The finest player on the team was C.C. Sabathia. It is fair to say the pitching had a good month.
The Yankees have maintained their record of being the best team in the majors. In August, one additional factor fell into place – the bullpen. The bullpen which had been previously erratic and with roles constantly changing fell into place with the arrival of Kerry Wood. But before we get to that let’s attempt an overview of the batters – those who were strong, those were weak and those who were just plain confusing……..
twilightdawning 