Who is the Long Man?

One of the most overlooked aspects to any team, right along with the utility man, is the long reliever spot. It tends to be a spot that turns over a few times every year, rather than being a guy that is a steady rock of the team. When the Yankees ruled the world, however, they had an extremely valuable long man by the name of Ramiro Mendoza, who got the Yankees out of countless jams in big spots, particularly against the Red Sox in the playoffs.

Mendoza was the type of pitcher who could be equally successful in long spot duty as in setting up Mariano, Nelson, or Stanton (of course that may have contributed to him blowing out his arm). With a guy like Joba in the rotation this year, however, and all the problems getting innings from their starters last year, Joe may want to keep a steady long guy rather than having a short guy who can sometimes go long in an emergency.

The Candidates:

Dan Giese (The Incumbent): Extremely respectable 3.53 ERA and 1.22 WHIP last year in spot starts and long duty. Many expected the bubble to burst last year, saying he only has 2 pitches, but he was terrific, and a tremendous asset to a team desperate for innings.  Very little upside at age 31, however.

Phil Coke (The Lefty): As a starter for most of his professional career, Coke could be a long guy next year, but he definitely seems more effective in the short role where he can let go and throw as hard as he can.  He added mph and was much more effective out of the pen than as a starter, last year, judging from his stunning 0.61 ERA, 0.68 WHIP and .162 BAA as a major league reliever compared to 2.51, 1.22, .239 as a AA (mostly) starter.

Alfredo Aceves (The Mexican Gangster): 2.40 ERA and 1.17 WHIP in very limited major league action.   At 26, Aceves is entering his prime years.  He has tremendous guile and guts.  He doesn’t throw terribly hard or show great movement but has several pitches he can throw for strikes and really knows how to pitch.

The Others: Albaladejo, IPK, Hughes, Steven Jackson, Jason Johnson, Humberto Sanchez are all possibilities but seem unlikely for a variety of reasons.  I know they went with Albie coming out of ST last year, but he’s done the vast bulk of his work as a short guy.

I think a lot of this depends on Coke.  Ideally, I think Joe loves to have (as he proved down the stretch last year) 7 guys in the pen that he can mix and match on almost a daily basis.  Aceves and Giese are more pure long guys, not pitchers who Joe would feel confident throwing out there to face 2 batters in the 7th inning.

I think Joe would love to have Coke’s versatility in that role, but I would be nervous about ruining him by asking him to pitch both long and short stints.  I suspect this spot will be a bit of a rotating door as he sometimes leaves Coke in that spot, while other times goes with Giese.  I give Giese a slight edge b/c the Yanks probably wouldn’t have 40 manned him unless they had a role in mind and he was very effective working in tandem with Joba last year.