Lots of excitement in Yankeeland as they appear to have their first bonafide star starting pitcher who was developed from their farm system since Andy Pettitte. Now, Pettitte was a rookie for the Yankees in 1995. If you are the GM, and if you are developing stud pitchers every 20 years, you may want to polish up your resume. But not the case for Brian Cashman who is as secure in his job as anyone around.
SU likes the way Severino just stands on the rubber ready to go to the next pitch. No nonsense. But…. I read a report from a scout who says that his motion is pretty violent and for someone throwing high 90s heat, he is not that big. This scout wonders if his arm can hold up under the stress of that throwing motion. Tommy John waiting to happen?
Big game tonight for CC Sabathia. The Yankees play 6 of their next 9 games against Toronto and they really need CC not to be terrible. SU believes if they can go 3-3 with the Blue Jays, they will be in good shape the rest of the way. The key is not to give them hope. Tanaka was serviceable on Tuesday but he is not pitching like last season. The offense continues to cook without any contribution from Jacoby Ellsbury who has fallen from around .325 when he returned from the DL to about .275 in just a few weeks. He is very hot and cold. For $22 million a year, you can do better than that.
The Mets almost let one get away last night in the 9th inning. SU likes the way that they took care of business in Miami after an emotional sweep of the Nats over the weekend. They are just 1 week removed from the Carlos Gomez debacle. Pretty amazing. Definitely the Minolta Turning Point of the Season for them.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
If it’s any consolation, the “he’s not big enough to throw that hard” comment could have been written about Pedro Martinez 20 years ago.
Shep, I thought about that as well but I always thought that Pedro had a very smooth delivery and a big follow through that looked less taxing on the arm. Plus he was so accurate with his pitches. He always knew which body part and where to hit on the Yankee hitters knowing that no-one would ever retaliate. He was especially skilled at hitting Jeter and Soriano on their hands although I think he tried to vary which knuckle.
So true about Pedro. Re CC, he is clearly the #5 starter regardless of who is or is not injured- he won’t be getting any starts in the postseason, and probably won’t even be on the roster in a best of five. When Pineda comes back they will have to move him to the bullpen- by that time rosters will probably have expanded so it won’t really have any effect on the roster.
CC should look at how Posada was treated by Girardi in his last years. In the end, this is a business and baseball is clearly a what have you done for me lately profession – especially in NY. Jeter, Marano and Pettitte were all able to go out more or less on top (not so much Jeter but he was busy getting retirement gifts all over the country). Girardi is playing for his job at this point and is not going to go down trying to make sure CC’s feelings are not hurt. His $24 million a year paycheck should soften the blow.
I still remember the game where Girardi inserted Posada in August 2011 expecting him to fail and most likely be released. Instead he turned back the clock and had a moster game. He rode that momentum (slightly) through the rest of the regular season but then turned it up in the playoffs and was the Yankees best hitter. Maybe Sabathia’s recent start when he broke 90 mph for the first time all year (except when driving on the Merritt Parkway) will result in a similar turnaround.
I think before we annoint Severino, we should look back at the hype surrounding Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes. Neither of them ever panned out as one would hope – hopefully this time is different!
These are the 2015 NY Yankees. Fans are desperate for something to hype – especially someone younger than 35 years old. But point well taken – he’s only 21 years old. Look at the Mets and their pitchers – they are hyping 4 youngsters over there.
The Andy Pettitte standard might be fairly high. In fact, how many bonafide star starting pitchers of his caliber have the Yankees developed in their history? Not many. Whitey Ford? Lefty Gomez? Ron Guidry? Mel Stottlemyer? One every 20 years is pretty much as well as they’ve ever done. It’s also not like other teams are cranking out Andy Pettitte clones every couple of seasons.
And I’m excited by the Mets starters too but it’s important to have some perspective and point out that it is highly unlikely that any of them win as many games as Andy Pettitte did. And before Mets fans jump all over me I will point out that the Mets had absolutely incredible rotations in 1986 and 1988. None of the starters from either of those years is within 50 wins of Andy Pettitte.