Yanks spotty Bullpen flies under radar

Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated

While everyone has been focusing on the recent Yankee hitting woes, the bullpen failures have gone largely unnoticed. Of course, a 4 run lead will help gloss over the occasional hiccup, but the Yankee bullpen has been inconsistent so far this season. Overall, the numbers aren’t bad. They’re 6th in the American League with a 4.04 ERA. But looking at each pitcher individually, you quickly realize most of the positive contributions have come from The Great Mariano. Here’s the numbers:

			Player		TEAM		W		L		ERA		G		GS		CG		SHO		SV		SVO		IP		H		R		ER		HR		HBP		BB		SO
			1. J Chamberlain		NYY		1		3		5.72		30		0		0		0		2		3		28.1		31		19		18		1		0		9		32
			2. M Rivera		NYY		0		1		1.21		24		0		0		0		15		16		22.1		9		5		3		1		2		5		20
			3. D Robertson		NYY		0		2		5.48		23		0		0		0		0		2		21.1		27		13		13		3		2		11		24
			4. C Park		NYY		1		1		6.16		15		0		0		0		0		2		19.0		25		14		13		5		0		5		16
			5. S Mitre		NYY		0		0		2.30		10		0		0		0		0		0		15.2		7		4		4		1		1		6		8
			6. B Logan		NYY		0		0		4.20		15		0		0		0		0		0		15.0		16		7		7		1		0		10		10
			7. D Marte		NYY		0		0		3.65		24		0		0		0		0		2		12.1		8		5		5		1		1		9		9
			8. A Aceves		NYY		3		0		3.00		10		0		0		0		1		1		12.0		10		5		4		1		1		4		2
			9. C Gaudin		NYY		0		1		5.25		7		0		0		0		0		0		12.0		13		7		7		3		1		6		10
			10. M Melancon		NYY		0		0		9.00		2		0		0		0		0		0		4.0		7		5		4		1		0		0		3
			11. R Sanchez		NYY		0		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		3.2		1		0		0		0		0		1		3
			12. I Nova		NYY		0		0		0.00		2		0		0		0		0		0		3.0		4		0		0		0		0		0		1
			13. J Vazquez		NYY		1		0		0.00		1		0		0		0		0		0		0.1		0		0		0		0		0		0		1

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Except for Mariano and (surprisingly) Sergio Mitre, there are a lot of ugly numbers there. Dave Robertson is still trying to work his way back from a slow start, his ERA peaking on May 7th at an ugly 14.73 and has declined steadily since then. But he has pitched well since, giving up only 2 ER in his last 13 appearances. Chan Ho Park started off the season with a horrendous outing in Boston where he gave up 3 ER in 2/3 of an inning, but even if you eliminate that appearance he’s been up and down all year. He was coming off 5 straight scoreless outings going into last night’s contest, but his contributions in April and May were pretty brutal. It’s telling that Girardi has only given him 3 inherited runners to work with all season, that shows how little faith he has in him. Damaso Marte has been fine, he’s mainly used as a LOOGY and his numbers against Lefties have been very good. I can’t help but think all of these lesser relievers would be helped by a healthy Alfredo Aceves coming in and getting key outs, but given his lower back injury we can’t expect much from El Paton this year.

Now we get to everyone’s favorite topic, one Joba Chamberlain. His season has been up and down, the down parts coming recently and being spectacularly bad. He was doing well up to May 12th, pitching to a 2.16 ERA. Over his next 5 appearances, he gave up a whopping 11 ER in just 5.0 IP. He was better in June, giving up just 1 ER over his next 7 outings before his disastrous outing against the Phillies on Thursday. While everyone obsesses over Joba’s velocity, it hasn’t been his fastball this year. He’s averaging 94 MPH and his Fastball has been only a slight negative in terms of Pitch Value. There’s evidence to suggest he’s been unluckly, his BABIP has been an ungodly .385 (career .326) and his FIP (2.28) tERA (2.51) and xFIP (3.22) all suggest his results should be better going forward. It’s important to remember he’s still just 24 years old and this is the first season he’s been a full-time reliever, he was a starter in College at Nebraska State and for most of the 07-09 seasons. But his up and down nature will need to improve if we are to consider him the ‘Heir to Mariano’ at some point in the future. He’s been too combustible to be a reliable 8th inning guy this year, much less a future Closer.

This year has followed a familiar pattern of Girardi’s tenure as manager. The Yankee bullpen gets off to a slow start in April and May, as the Yanks assess what they have and how the pieces fit. Then roles begin to become more defined as the season rolls on, and the results improve. But you also have to consider that the Yanks hit a very soft part of their schedule in the first few weeks of June, playing 6 games against Baltimore and 3 against Houston, the AL and NL’s worst offensive teams. The jury’s still out on this group, and I’m sure that some bullpen help will be high on Cashman’s shopping list this July 31st.