The Yankees’ pitching in June was phenomenal. Even leaving the amusing story of Dewayne Wise aside, the very fact that they had 11 pitchers who achieved individual ERAs of less than 3.00 on the month shows that it was the pitching staff who earn the lion’s share of the credit for the 20 wins -7 losses record that they put together in June. Let’s see who did what:
A quick look over the Yankees statistics for the month of June 2012 sends one of the bench players to the centre of attention in a most novel way. Dewayne Wise not only led the team in batting average but he pitched in a game and came out of it with a 0.00 ERA and “caught” a flyball in the stands and was awarded an out even though somebody else was holding the ball at the time. But as well as that amazing month for Dewayne, what else went well and what else went badly? Well, let’s start by surveying the guys who swing the lumber…….
The pitching led us to a .500 record in May – which isn’t good enough – but encouragingly all the wins came from pitchers who for one reason or another took a spot in the rotation during that month.
Let’s see who led the way and who was dragging behind……
May was a difficult month for the Bronx Bombers. It opened with Eric Chavez headed to the disabled list and then the bullpen fell apart. Mariano Rivera and then, his replacement as closer, David Robertson both went to the DL with Rivera done for the season.
In the end, they finished the month 14-14 with the bullpen settling into its new routine in a way that nobody could have predicted. How were the bats this month?
So we have surveyed the batters, now onto the pitchers…..
So the baseball season is over. The St Louis Cardinals who performed very well in the Series are the champions and probably deservedly so. It still sticks in my gut a little that the eventual winners only made the playoffs as the wild card but with the wildcard system likely to expand in 2013, me complaining about that is about as meaningful as a National League fan complaining about the Designated Hitter rule – so I shall make no more noise in that regard. The system allows for that possibility and it has happened. C’est la vie.
Whilst the Yankee bats were quiet in September, the pitching held its own but the makeshift starting rotation started to creak at the seams and the bullpen which had been such a nightmare in May / June continued to bail out starters who just couldn’t go as deep as they had earlier in the season…….
What to say about the Yankees in September? Well, the month was going well until they clinched the title, at which point – as he has done in previous seasons – Joe Girardi decided to avoid injuries by using the length and breadth of his extended roster. This produced a different line up every day and more defeats than wins. The team’s batting average hit a skid which it never pulled out of when the regular line-up was restored for the first round of the playoffs against Detroit in October. Whether this was due to Joe’s excessive tinkering we’ll never know……. but here’s how things looked by the end of September
Mariano Rivera finished? Well, so they were saying in the first half of August. But in reality the bullpen was probably the Yankees’ strongest asset in the dog-days of Summer as unlikely as that seemed just a couple of months ago….. Let’s see what the statistics reveal……
As August drew to a close, the Yankees were embroiled in a vital series with Boston at Fenway. It was the conclusion of a turbulent month which had seen Derek Jeter return to a higher level of form with the bat and suggestions that the Mariano Rivera era was coming to a close. Let’s see what the statistics reveal:
twilightdawning 