Once Through the Rotation
.. and so far it's been awful. Pavano, Pettitte, Mussina, Igawa, Rasner, and not a quality start (or anything closely resembling one) to speak of.
On the flipside, the bullpen thus far has been lights-out. Henn so far has proven his value over Ron Villone and may in fact soon earn Joe Torre's elusive "trust." Henn should most likely take out an insurance policy on that left arm as re-attachment surgery can be expensive. Farnswoth has looked good. Mariano has been unhittable.
I've always been of the opinion that cold weather tends to affect control/breaking ball pitchers far more greatly than it does the fastball pitchers. With frozen fingers and harder baseballs, it makes it much more difficult to grip a curve, slider, or cut fastball and get the proper movement on it. If you look at the rotation above, none of the starters could accurately be called "fireballers." Pavano is a sinkerballer, Igawa relies on control, changing speeds, and his breaking pitches, Pettitte needs his location and cutter, and Mussina is all about spotting his pitches and getting the knuckle-curve over for strikes. Rasner is probably the only one who can be said to lean much on his fastball, but Sunday was probably his only start for the time being anyway.
The bullpen, however, is full of arms that bring the heat. Rivera, Farnsworth, Proctor, et al don't relay on junk balls nearly as much.
My hypothesis here is that MLB's ill advised scheduling of opening week in cities experiencing snow (such as New York) may have contributed to the poor start by Yankee starters thus far, and hasn't affected the relief corp. At least, that's my hope. I'd bet that once they hit the road in the coming week, we'll see better results overall in Minnesota and Oakland.Labels: pitching woes
posted by Mr. Faded Glory @ 6:48 PM
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