After last night’s eighth inning implosion, the state of the bullpen is the issue on the minds of most Yankees fans. Before anyone mentions Joba Chamberlain, I want to preempt that by pointing out the atrocious starting pitching in the first two games against Boston. Forget about the point that a starter is more valuable than a reliever, or that sticking him in the bullpen would stunt his development. Right now, the rotation actually needs Joba more than the bullpen does.
With that out of the way, we can look at the bullpen and examine what needs to be done. Firstly, the Yankees need Brian Bruney, and to a lesser extent Damaso Marte, to return from injury and pitch well. Bruney has a career ERA under 3.00 with the Yankees, so I have no reason to believe that he cannot handle the 8th inning once he returns. Here is Newsday’s Erik Boland with more on Bruney:
Brian Bruney took the next step in his rehab Thursday afternoon when he threw 25 pitches to live hitters in the batting cage and felt no pain.
It was another positive development, one that Joe Girardi said will probably have the righthander pitching for Double-A Trenton tomorrow (Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre is on the road Saturday).
The Burning movie If that goes well, Bruney could rejoin the Yankees as early as Tuesday, though Girardi said the team is still being cautious with Bruney, who has been on the DL twice this season with pain in his right elbow.
Marte is still 2-3 weeks away, but his return will be almost as vital, giving Girardi another lefty that he can use to play matchups with. As I noted a few weeks ago, Marte has had a very good career, and his last two seasons in NY have been marred by injury. He should be an important piece in the bullpen mix.
Finally, the Yankees could always look to the trade market. Ken Rosenthal mentioned some possibilities this morning (h/t RAB):
The Yankees, in dire need of a setup man, eventually will target the best available late-inning relievers — the Rockies’ Huston Street, Diamondbacks’ Chad Qualls and Astros’ Jose Valverde. In fact, they already have expressed interest in Street, according to major-league sources.
Quite frankly, the only one I would touch is Street, and he is likely to come with a hefty price tag. If it would cost the Yankees Zach McCallister, would you make that deal?
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9 Responses to State Of The Bullpen
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TIQ IQ
I wouldn’t trade Mcallister at all.
He looks like the real deal and a perfect guy to replace Wang or Pettitte someday.
If Bruney was with the team and was lights out like last season, I don’t think CC pitches the 8th inning yesterday.
MArte doesn’t float my boat as much.
i think COke’s last few outings have been much more like last years.
He’s hitting 93 pretty consistantly (Marte’s top velocity) and has has better control of his breaking stuff lately, more like last season.I expect a lot from Coke from here on in.
The good news is, since Wang is still a train wreck of historic proportions, the Joba debate disappears almost completely.
I say trade Zach. you never know how success in the minors translates to success in the majors (ie: kennedy). you at least know you’re getting an established good reliever who has performed well in the Al. also, who knows if bruney will go back on the dl as soon as he gets off of it- that elbow issue is perplexing as noone seems to know why exactly it was hurting. bruney has been good for us, but I would feel so much better in knowing the yanks have a shutdown reliever when they need him. wouldnt it be sweet to see street, bruney and mo together?
The whole point in developing your own players is to stop paying huge luxury taxes to your competitors so they can beat you with your own money.
Yankess will not be spending crazy going foreward like they have in the past.Nobody wants to believe that but I absolutely do.Their pro forma at the new stadium has not held up and things will be getting worse in NY before they get better, 37 % of NY’s entire economy related to Wall Street and at least half of that is gone, maybe never ot return, that’s an epic collpase.
Who is going to replace Andy Pettitte? What about replacing Wang, even if he finds his stuff, he’s about to get expensive also and Yankees can’t afford 4, 12-20 million dollar starters, paying old fogies like Posada and Mariano huge Bucks.
I’m not crazy about what happened when RP parade failed to close the wound, but Girardi keeps leaving his starters in there for too many batters and leaving a considerable mess for them to clean up.
I wasn’t surprised even a little bit when CC got right into trouble, and him giving up another hit after Girardi’s visit was almost predictable. (In fact, I did predict it when Girardi left him in there.)
I thought leaving CC in was the right move.
I would not give up Zach for Street I would first really see what Robertson and Melanson can do. I would give them many more opportunities to pitch like last night bringing in Robertson to face the first two hitters in the 8th (Green and Pedroia) and then would have brought in Coke to face Drew. Lets all remember this is June with Bruney and Marte coming back we have plenty of time to figure out the bullpen.
ZMac is way too much for Street. Street’s a relief pitcher who will command 6+ mil for next season and is then a free agent. Offering ZMac is way too much when the Yankees have such potential in their pitching corps. Melancon needs another chance and the Yankees need to bite the bullet and put Wang or Phil in the bullpen for the time being. Bruney and Marte were our 2 and 2a options after Mo and they’ll be coming back soon. The Yanks need more time.
Before this season i would say valverde is the only one from that list that i would even consider trading for… With valverde’s injury season this year i no longer see him as guy to get… AND STREET lost his closers job each of last 2 years with two different teams and has had his injury problems.. No thank you on any of these 3. And this is without taking into account what giving up