We certainly know who the Yankee closer will be every year (it may be time to change the answer of that age-old question to Death, Taxes, and Mo), but since Jeff Nelson left the first time, the Yankees have auditioned a slew of right handed relievers to set up the Great Mariano and none of them seems to stick in that role for very long (don’t tell me Farnsworth – I said, “stick” not “suck”). This year may not turn out any differently, as there are several possible contenders for the role. Which of these guys will be THE guy by the end of the year? (after the jump)
Veras: He was generally the guy last year and did a decent job: 124 ERA+, but a scary +1.4 WHIP and 4.19 FIP leaves the door wide open for someone to take the job.
Bruney: is a leading contender. Staved off injuries last year to post a stellar 1.83 ERA and a k/9 of almost 9. His FIP, however, was 3.45 but he also possessed a sub 1 WHIP. Could he finally have mastered his control problems? He’ll only have just turned 27 this season, so both he and Veras may be due for prime breakout years.
Edwar Ramirez: The master of peripheral stats posted a mediocre 3.90 ERA but a tidy 1.23 WHIP and filthy 10.25 k/9. He was also decent against lefties (.256 avg against). He is almost 28 years old.
David Robertson: had an up-and-down (literally) season. For the first time, he faced hitters he couldn’t easily dominate. It seemed to rattle him for a spell, but he came back and didn’t allow an earned run in his 2nd trip up with the big club. He was still missing bats even while struggling (a 10.68 major league k/9).
Mark Melancon: 9.9 k/9 and miniscule .75 WHIP at AAA last year coming back from surgery. Yanks are very high on this kid who may be groomed to eventually inherit the closer role.
Dark Horses:
Humberto Sanchez: once an owner of a high 90s heater, but is now struggling to regain arm strength off of TJ.
Phil Hughes: Who knows? By the end of the year, if everyone’s healthy, he may be asked to take the 07 Joba role for the playoffs (mmmm, probably not).
Albaladejo: I desperately want Bob Sheppard to come back, if only to pronounce this kid’s name in that Voice of God tone he has.
Who’s going to be the man who sets up the Mariano? What do you guys think?
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15 Responses to Who Sets up Mo (Righty Edition)
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TIQ IQ
I think it will be Marte and Bruney to start the season, and Marte and either Robertson or Melancon by the end of the season. Robertson’s curve is filthy, and he seems to have a really good makeup for a reliever.
This was the Righty edition, Moshe, save your Marte’s for the lefties conversation :-)
Lol, my bad. Ok, I’ll give a firm prediction- Robertson will be the righty 8th inning guy by August.
Lol. Yea, Marte and Bruney sounds about right. Robertson would be awesome, too.
For me it’s Melancon. I believe in my boy. I’m telling you right now he’ll crack the club in mid-July and have a Joba-like impact off the shoot. The 8th inning job will become his to lose. . .
Oh, and all the Joba-to-the-bullpen guys will finally shut up (or will they??? Oh well. . .).
They will never shut up, ever.
In a surprising move, Mariano Rivera is actually going to set himself up. Apparently when he went in for surgery at the end of last season he also was up for an elective operations too.
Considering no one on the list has ever had more than one good season in the majors I’d say its still a crapshoot. There’s enough talent there that Girardi will find someone. This would be a dynamite bullpen if they could find a guy with Tom Gordon stuff (but not pitch his arm off). Then everyone moves back one slot in the bullpen which would pretty much insure a top 5 pen.
Ed,
I think the bullpen is always a crapshoot, to a great extent. Cash used to have the philosophy you’re espousing, ie. get a closer type from another team and overpay him to be a setup man (Gordon, Farnsworth, Hawkins, etc.). Now he’s going with the, “bullpens are ridiculously unpredictable anyway, so I’m going to stockpile as many good, young arms as I can, in hopes that a few of them have big years” philosophy. It actually worked well last year and I think it fits well into the way Girardi uses his pen.
In the old days, Mariano pretty much DID set himself up, often throwing two or more innings. If only we could clone him and use him as a set up man, maybe even tweak the genes of one clone to make him a lefty.
I believe that to start the year off it will be Brian Bruney as the primary set up man. He has the capability to strikeout batters and showed that th reduced wait brought back speed to his fastball. Eventually I think Mark Melancon will take the role away but not until at least halfway through the season. We have many options and if just one shows he can set up that is perfect. As long as the Yankees win games.
I agree- as long as they are winning, I am fine with just going with the hot hand.
I’m not sure Hawkins really qualifies in the same league as Farnsworth and Gordon as they were/are still sort of closers and Hawkins profiles more as middle inning guy. But that is my general point. I don’t need Stanton/Nelson/Lloyd or anything so rigid however one “anchor” arm at least for the start of the season would be great. Hawkins served that role last year-I guess. Maybe it didn’t quite work out perfectly last year but I just think having him on the team allowed Girardi to pick his other relievers a little more carefully early in the season until he had an idea of what he really had.
Basically-worst case scenario you want to have someone you can throw out there that you know can bounce back from a bad performance and that usually is a veteran. I’d hate to force a kid like Robertson into that kind of role early into his career before he gets his bearings. That and I just don’t really Bruney…too much.
Don’t forget Aceves and Coke. Both should be part of the pen and could be in the running.
Melancon could be awesome, as long as he doesn’t pitch to avoid contact which can happen if he becomes awestruck in the Majors… he needs to be aggressive just as he’s been in the minors.