Posted by VDesai:
If I'm the Yankees I don't make a move on my rotation right now. There are too many good options in the minors available and plenty of time for Wang to right himself.
I'm not worried about the fact that Wang was penciled in as our no.2. The reality is Burnett is a top flight no.2, Pettite a very worthy no.4 and Joba should slot in nicely as a no.4. The question is whether they want to give Joba the innings- which is why wee need another guy up here. But I'd shocked if Hughes and Kennedy stunk again this time around. Kennedy is killing it right now- 16 K's vs. 2 walks in 12 innings and a 1.50 ERA. Hughes is only slightly worse. Neither really has anything left to accomplish in the minors. They just have to have thier confidence. Kennedy in particular is a command guy who walked a lot of guys when he was up last year. Now he's back to a sick K/BB ratio. I feel like its mental with him- if he comes up and hits his spots he will be a really good major league pitcher.
[Edited by - vdesai on 04-18-2009 5:50 PM]
I'm not sure how to feel about Kennedy and Hughes to be honest. True, there's really nothing left for them to accomplish at AAA but both still have a lot to prove IMO. Neither are lights-out guys and there's a big difference in AAA and the Majors, evident by both of their performances last year. Of the two, Hughes arguably has better stuff, though he hardly has the type of dominant arsenal we were all led to believe he had. I mean if Hughes, the best pitching prospect in baseball a few years ago, was really that dominant, why all of a sudden experiment with a cutter last year? I mean now all of a sudden the arsenal needs tinkering? Think about that for a sec. Now I heard he abandoned the cutter which he didn't seem comfortable with anyway (I remember him saying so after a home game against the Chi Sox last year where Pudge kept calling for it that night). Plus this year, the decision was made to bring back Pettitte and neither guy was seriously considered to make the team out of spring training anyway. Whatever, bottom line is both are really touch and feel guys when you get right down to it and I get the feeling that not too much is expected from either of them anymore. Hughes will undoubtedly get the first crack to replace Wang and we'll have to hope for the best. I just wish I could say I felt great about that...
When you look at Wang coming into the season, it was thought that with him healthy they could EXPECT at least 15 wins from him while HOPING for him to match his back-to-back 19-win seasons of a few years ago. So if you look at it in those terms, yeah, you're absolutely looking to replace a #2 starter here bro. Looking at the rotation, they would probably sign up for another 14 wins from Pettitte right now (though they'd hope he's much more efficient this year esp. down the stretch) and Joba, who knows man. He's still making the transition to being a full-time ML starter and there was talk already about closely monitoring him & limiting his innings this year before the season even began. Make no mistake, the bulk of the production was expected to come from CC & AJ (for the amount of money they spent I don't blame them here) and Wang, our own #1. Losing Wang now is a huge blow, bigger than you think. You're not talking about replacing just anyone - what we're talking about here is trying to replace a front-of-the-rotation starter & 15-19 wins. I'm not sure we have anyone in the minors right now who's capable of doing that. Hope I'm wrong...
[Edited by - finestrg on 04-18-2009 7:41 PM]