New York Yankees’ Phil Hughes and Freddie Garcia Must Go, but Who Replaces Them?
April 29, 2012 · Harold Friend · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
Back in the good, old days, whenever a girl said that she was too busy to see me Saturday night and I continued to call her and she remained busy, my mother would say, “What do you need, a building to fall on you?”
Does Brian Cashman need a building to fall on him?
The New York Yankees desperately need at least one more starting pitcher not named Andy Pettitte.
Yesterday, Freddie Garcia should have written his ticket out of the Yankees clubhouse, but knowing how Cashman and Joe Girardi react, Garcia will probably remain in the rotation. Garcia couldn’t get out of the second inning in the 7-5 loss to the Detroit Tigers.
Girardi spoke after the game.
“We’ve got to figure out what’s going on,” Girardi said. “He just doesn’t have the crispness, the velocity is down a little on all of his pitches, and I think that’s why it has been a struggle.
“… I can’t tell you exactly what we’re going to do. I’m not going to come to any rash decisions. Obviously we’re trying to evaluate what’s going on here.”
Girardi figured it out. It was announced today that Garcia will pitch out of the bullpen with David Phelps taking his spot in the rotation.
The Yankees are 11-8. It’s just a little premature, but if the season were to end today, the Yankees would be the second wild card, which is no way to approach the very young season. They must and will finish first in the Eastern Division and that is the problem.
Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner, unlike George Steinbrenner, are willing to accept a Yankees team that makes the playoffs. That has become the definition of a successful season in sports for any team.
The Yankees are not “any team.”
The numbers are revealing, as well as upsetting.
Yankees pitchers have allowed 4.99 runs a game with a 4.62 ERA and a 99 ERA+. Can anyone say “mediocre?”
Texas Rangers pitchers have allowed 3.95 runs a game with a 2.79 ERA and a 164 ERA+.
Joe Torre always feared the first round of the playoffs, saying that anything can happen in a five-game series. An inferior team can play over its head for a few games and defeat a much better team.
And now we have the wild-card “winners” play one game in order to determine which team will really get into the playoffs.
At this early point, it seems that the only way the Yankees will play the Rangers in a best-of-five series is if the Yankees are a wild card, which is anathema.
The Yankees offense is excellent. They average 5.63 runs a game and already have hit 31 home runs, but the Rangers average 5.55 runs a game and have 33 home runs. Once again, as is usually the case, pitching makes the difference.
After play on April 28, no AL East team was below .500. The Boston Red Sox are on a six-game winning streak, the Tampa Bay Rays are always a threat, the Toronto Blue Jays have improved and the Baltimore Orioles have a better manager than the Yankees.
A frightening statistic is that no Yankees starter has an ERA under Hiroki Kuroda’s 4.38. The starters are 7-7.
Phil Hughes has an obscene 7.88 ERA, has allowed 24 hits in 16 innings and has a 1.875 WHIP.
Garcia is worse with a 12.51 ERA. He has allowed a mind-boggling 25 hits in 13.2 innings and has a 2.200 WHIP.
Who wants to play wiffleball?
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