From Sam Borden:
Their weaknesses become strengths. Here are the two areas that concern me most about the Yankees: The back of their rotation and their setup-man situation. In the regular season, these are legitimate issues. In the playoffs, though, the series are scheduled so that teams can use a four-man (and in some cases, three-man) rotation. That means CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett or Andy Pettitte will get the ball nearly every night. In other words, no more Chien-Ming Wang or Chamberlain laboring through the third inning as the Yanks fall hopelessly behind.
Instead, Chamberlain can return to the bullpen and Wang … well, Wang can do something assuming he’s healthy, but it probably won’t be anything too critical. Suddenly, the Yankees have a very live bridge to Mariano Rivera in Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Alfredo Aceves, as well as the option to use Brian Bruney in key spots if he’s early-season-dominant Bruney instead of more-recent-disaster Bruney. Either way, the Yankees’ pitching situation is tailor-made for the postseason.
I agree entirely with Borden. With Joba Chamberlain having pitched in the bullpen in the past, the Yankees have a staff tailor made for success in the postseason. While I would love for them to add one more solid starter, the Yankees have two horses in the front of the rotation, plus a number of options in the bullpen that can provide length should a starter falter. For the first time in a while, the Yankees are built like a team that could have success in October, and have the ability to go arm for arm with the other contenders. It should make for an exciting postseason.
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7 Responses to Borden: Yankees Equipped For Postseason
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TIQ IQ
Yeah we don’t need Halladay. We dont need a guy who can pitch a CG against the sox and give up one run.
He is a luxury, not a necessity. You honestly think that they need him/ That this team could not win in the postseason without him? I strongly disagree.
I know he is better than anyone we have and I believe that the Sox have a better pitching staff.
Maybe at the margins. Put it this way. After CC and AJ vs. Beckett and Lester, you have Wakefield or Smoltz vs. Joba or Pettitte. I’m not sure who you take in that second group, but it is close. If the Yankees go with Andy, the bullpen of Hughes, Aceves, Coke, Joba, and Mariano is pretty awesome.
We will be in the play-offs this year and next. No reason to sell off the future for a short-term fix.
Exactly! We do not need to make it to the playoffs so badly this year that we sell away our chance at the postseason in 3 or 4 years.
short term fix? this isn’t the yankees of 2000 when our best prospects were the Brandon Claussens, Brandon Weedens, Jon Potersons… etc. Or when we had only a few legit prospects like Lilly, Nick Johnson or Juan Rivera. We are deep in talent, good scouting and most importantly, money.
The Yankees are ridiculously deep that even if we did trade Montero +, we’d still be looking at a good core group of catchers and promising pitchers. Plus 3, 4 years is 3 or 4 years that the Yankees add even more talent to replace lost ones in a trade involving Halladay.
A staff anchored by Halladay, CC and Burnett would be absolutely lights out. That’s at least 600 innings, even if Burnett missed around 2-3 weeks with something.
Our playoff pitching staff would be Halladay, CC, Burnett, Pettitte/Wang with a BP of Wang/Pet, Marte, Coke, Ace, Bru, Hughes, Joba and Mo. Heck, we can even pull off a 3 man rotation, and mix and match the BP to have 5 inning games. If our starters get us through or past the 6th, teams have no chance against us.