And then to the fourth and final part of this survey with our overview of the men who might take the mound for the Yankees in 2014. Again, some old favourites, some trying to enhance their reputation and some new arrivals………
And so we come to the third part of our survey and the offensive players who are currently on the 40-man roster……. those who have stayed, those who have arrived and those we might meet for the first time:
The Yankees depended a lot upon their bullpen in 2013. One of the things that was surprising in September was that those who had performed so well until then began to fall apart but, thankfully, a new group of relief pitchers came up from the minors to take up the slack. Let’s see who benefitted from the roster expansion and who needed to be bailed out…..
The Yankees have seen most of the season through with two strong starters, three weak starters and a good bullpen. That remained the same in August but the names were shuffled around……
In July, the starters and some of the relievers continued to struggle. Thankfully, the Yankees have Rivera and Robertson to pull them through in the tight games……
The bullpen – good to great
The rotation – good to poor
The Yankees have a quandary to solve in the second half.
The Yankees dominated in the American League Division Series (ALDS) against Baltimore but then just stopped hitting in clutch situations in the American League Championship Series (ALCS) against Detroit. Consequently, this is a rather cursory glance at the pitchers during that period because the truth is that it doesn’t matter how well you perform if you have next-to-no run support. Few of the pitchers were outstanding and only a couple ran into real problems but the bats couldn’t make any noise at all during that fateful final series.
If, at the end of the regular season, someone should have predicted that the stars of the Yankees’ playoff run would be Raul Ibanez and the bullpen and that number 2, shortstop and Captain, Derek Jeter would end his series in hospital there would have been gasps of disbelief and ridicule. Let’s see who except Raul Ibanez among the batters managed to stand up and be counted (Jeter pun intended)
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.
The Yankees found themselves in a surprisingly tight finish in September and they needed players to step forward and give a good account of themselves. Few did. Who were they?
