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Posted by: Joseph P. in Pitching. Tagged: Al Aceves, Darrell Rasner, Phil HughesIt looks like today’s off-day will not be used to skip one of the current starters. The Yanks will trot out Mike Mussina on Tuesday, Sidney Ponson on Wednesday, and Andy Pettitte on Thursday to face the Red Sox. Sure, they could tell Sidney to take a day off, slide Pettitte into his spot, and pitch Pavano on Thursday. But is that any better? After all, Sidney tends to do well in his start after being blown out.
The real rotation issues actually begin on Saturday. This will be Darrell Rasner’s next start. He’s faced Toronto twice this year, each time coming up with at least acceptable results. So do you give him another shot? Or do you turn to Phil Hughes or Alfredo Aceves?
It’s not an easy question to answer. Aceves might seem attractive after last night’s performance, but is he ready for The Show? Hughes has been uninspiring his past two times out, but could eight days of rest cure what ails him? These are questions the Yanks will ask over the course of the week. The results against the Red Sox could play a large role in that decision.
Let’s toss this one up to the comments. Do you take a risk with Hughes and Aceves, hoping that they can piece together a few good starts in September? Or do you give Rasner the ball again and give those two another start in AAA?
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I’ve been thinking about this issue the last week since I’m traveling 300 miles to go to the game on Saturday and wondered whether I should just sell the damn tickets. My money’s on Zambrano, but I’m hoping for Hughes. Still not sure if I’ll sell the tix…
If the Yankees want to show that they are still in the hunt, you have to go with Philip Hughes. Darrell Rasner has put many of his games in jeopardy, especially with his last start. Philip Hughes seems like he is going through a dead arm stretch since he had not pitched since May. I think with the extra days rest he will be capable to give us a start that cannot be worse than Rasner’s. Phil is the best option that we have and now is not the time to lose games by giving starts to pitchers that have shown they are struggling the way Rasner has.
Combined with Texas and the Yankees, Ponson numbers after bad starts:
.82 ERA in starts following a start in which he gave up 7+ runs
1.67 ERA in starts following a start where he has given up 6+ runs
basically its when he does his best work
he’s basically crap every 3-4 outings…the perfect example of a reliable 5th starter…….
Or maybe its just a really small sample and he just happened to face a few garbage hitting teams in his next outing or teams that were good match ups for him.
Basically Rasner was dominating to begin the season because his control was unreal, now its not unreal, and I think there has been hitters making an adjustment since he doesn’t have a put away pitch. I’d rather see Aceves, Wright, Hughes, or Zambrano. Not because I think they are necessarily some type of answer, but because I know D-Ras isn’t.
Going with a hot hand like Wright or Aceves, may not be the worst plan, it worked with Rasner early
i think alfredo needs another AAA start to prove he can really deal rather than got lucky his past few games, although his last win against hafner, victor martinez and others is very encouraging. No idea whats wrong with phranchise but id like to see him put 2 good starts together before coming to the show. And victor zambrano needs to do some damage against better competition than AA. Id say another turn though the rotation for everybody in question should give us more concrete answers.
Hughes has pitched poorly his last two and though I have high hopes for him I doubt if he’s ready this week. Aceves has been mediocre in AAA and as I remember had a 4 era in the Mexican League. What about Zambrano?
Aceves had a 3.64 ERA in the Mex league last year, but 4.00s before that
Chase Wright has been better than all 3 of them just chaeck his BAA of .185 in AAA and check his full year of minor league ball. IDK how long he’s going to get shafted by this FO.
The FO probably decided to wait until those four home run balls arrive at their destination on the second moon of Jupiter before they give him another chance.
It’s easy to brng up the four home runs last year, but don’t forget he was brought up as an emergency starter, not because he was ready to fill the big league shoes… take a look at his minor league numbers last year and compare them to how he is doing this year, and you might sing a different tune, especailly compared with who we are throwing out on the mound these days
i dont think id let Rasner pitch on Saturday, but more because its a team he’ll be facing the third time, and the first two didnt go well. seems like they know how to get at him.
i think a 40-man roster move has to be made for Aceves, right? and for Zambrano, too, id imagine.
i guess Hughes is ready, rehab-wise. he has the strength to go 6+ innings, but you wonder if he’s really ready to be back up.
where does Chase Wright line up, rotation-wise? when did he last pitch? i think he’s on the 40-man, which gives him an advantage over Aceves.
well, strike that… i thought he wasnt great against Toronto previously, but my perception was worse that his actual results.
i still dont know, though. i dont trust him, but dont love the other options.
Well we can start with DFAing Traber. I can’t see him contributing very much in September, so get him the hell off of the 40-man.
didnt they do that already to get Pavano on the roster?
They only optioned Traber, not released. No idea what the 40 man move was, unless they happened to have a spot from all the shuffling of the past few weeks.
Posada to 60-day is the easy move, assuming that’s not what they did to get Pavano on.
They didn’t need a move for Pavano on the 40-man. They got the spot from DFAing Moeller.
Rasner has indeed done alright in his two starts against Toronto this year. However, their lineup seems to be firing on all cylinders lately. Plus I’d imagine that Rasner’s stuff isn’t the kind of stuff that fools you three times around if you’re a good hitter. While it would be risky to go with one of the younger guys, I just don’t feel at all comfortable with throwing Rasner out there anymore.
It may or may not be worth nothing that Hughes’s only good outing this year came against the Blue Jays way back on April 3rd. Such young and innocent times they were…
As painful as it may sounds, Rasner seems to be the best option. He was terrible yesterday, but we can’t forget what he did the start before that against Toronto. I think Hughes has to pitch well at least once before he’s promoted.
Depends what happens between now and then too. If we win at least two against the Sox and are theoretically still alive — then I think it’s probably a little too much to ask of Aceves.
I don’t believe Hughes is ready to return to the big club yet. I would like to see at least one more start in AAA from him.
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I do not think Aceves and Wright will challenge for a rotation berth until some time in 2009, most likely May or later. A spot start could be a whole different matter. And both Hughes and Kennedy may be in the same category.
Helllll no to D-ras. Even when he pitches well we dont win…. lets just roll the dice on Aceves or even Zambrano
Even when he pitches well we dont win
that makes sense. great logic.
Some people, even when they throw great games the offense just doesn’t hit. it very well could be the pace of the game that makes it hard for the offense to wake up from its slumber.
I just say this bec whenever I play Baseball and my starting pitcher that day is laboring and is taking forever. the team is in a ma laze and just cant get the offense going. or you could simply attribute this to the opposing pitcher or even luck.
but the bottom line is, if this dude pitches and the team doesn’t get the win then its hard to trot him out there every 5 days.
Okay, so then you may have an argument there, but only if Pavano was an anomaly on the mound, like a Steve Trachsel or something.
Nothing about Pavano’s game suggests that he has any non-negligible impact on how his teammates produce offensively.
And I believe the word you’re looking for is “malaise”.
tsjc, was talking about Rasner , not pavano. and yes Your right about the malaise thing…
Sorry for the mixup, but my statement stands. Nothing about
Pavano’sRasner’s game suggests that he has any non-negligible impact on how his teammates produce offensively.i don’t want to see rasner anymore. he was given two leads yesterday and blew them. he didn’t finish four innings also which doesn’t look good especially when they have a huge series with boston coming up. id say throw hughes and see what happens. i just think rasner pitching again can be disastrous against a team that is really starting to hit.
Rasner isn’t good, but you don’t think he was betrayed a bit by his defense in that inning?
sure he was betrayed by the D a little, but he wasn’t exactly lights out before that
no, certainly not.
but Randy pointed out that he was “given 2 leads” and blew them.
but the only reason he “blew” that lead was because the defense decided to kick the ball around in the 4th inning.
asking a pitcher like Rasner to pitch around 2 errors is a little tough.
he’s a 5/6ish starter. he can keep you in games, but there is little room for error.
Jeter can’t blow a routine play like that in a must win game with Rasner on the mound. he just can’t.
yes that’s true but he struggled the entire game. it wasn’t just that inning. his pitch count was high before the fourth. he wasn’t throwing strikes and was getting roughed up. and also, sometimes your d is gonna make an error. you have to pick your guys up at times and he failed miserably at that.
yeah, i don’t think we are really disagreeing much.
Rasner wasn’t looking great. but the defense has to be a little tighter when he is pitching.
Raz didn’t have it yesterday, but he was going ok until the wheels fell off with errors. Moose had a ruff outing also, so he isn’t worth another start? Plus, look what happened to Moose the last time against the Rsox, will they light him up again? I don’t think so…but, one never knows. The past is the past, what counts is this game. 27/08??
Are you sure about that rotation for the Boston series, Joe? Mike Mussina would be pitching on short rest (three days). I thought it was going to be Pettitte, Ponson, and Mussina.
yeah, he flipped Moose and Pettitte.
Rasner is a disaster waiting to happen but really what can you do at this point. Hughes is still trying to get it going in the minors and the rest of the options provide little comfort. The Yanks have to evaluate where they are as the week progresses as their position in the big scheme of things changes day by day. For example, if the team is 2 and 2 after the first four contests, Saturday and Sunday are absolute must haves, Rasner starts but he’s on a very short leash. If the team is 3 and 1 they have Sunday as a safety net and rasner game becomes a little less of a factor. 1 and 3 or 0 and 4 forget it.
i don’t think there is such a thing as a safety net at this point. they have to go in with the best chance possible to win that game on that day. i just have no confidence in rasner at all.
go with the hot hand - Chase Wright
Agreed- at this point, if any of the candidates were going to be starting for an extended period of time in the bigs you’d probably be looking at the same animal- a starter that can maybe go 6 innings and give up four or five runs over that time. Better to go with whoever is throwing well at the moment.
I’d go with Wright over Rasner.
Rasner’s kept them in the game in almost every start. Hughes has had many more blowouts this year than that though everyone wants to let him pitch. His god status is revoked, the kid has to work his way back and two back to back ‘not quality’ starts (to put it mildly) in AAA should not be rewarded with a call up.
Agree. 27/08??
Aceves
Hughes has been terrible. It wasn’t like he was pitching good before he got hurt.
how do you figure? he was probably hurt the entire season from spring training.
he pitched pretty damn well last year for a 21 year old in the big leagues.
Hurt or not. Was he pitching well before he hit the DL?
This isn’t a time and place for rehabbing young pitchers who cant get AAA hitters out.
Good thing Cashman didn’t get Paul Byrd in here for a C level prospect.
Would hate having playoff tested veteran pitchers in here to give 6 strong everytime out.
Byrd has made 24 starts this year.
he has 10 quality starts.
only in your mind is that “6 strong everytime out”.
Don’t feed the trolls/
He was referring to HGH strength, not strength of pitching performance.
The same Byrd who beat us in a playoff game last yr??
The same Byrd who would be a ten times better option than Ponson, Raz, or Pavano?
Really???
How can you even argue this? You got people asking for Chase Wright and a lame Hughes.
And Byrd isn’t a better option to make 6 starts in a pennant push???
Ok…
Look, Byrd is an upgrade over Ponson, Rasner, and Giese (but not necessarily Pavano, he’s a total wildcard). That’s why I advocated acquiring him (or Wolf, or Washburn, etc.) if the price was right, and it probably was.
But we’re not talking about a moving from a Dodge Dart to a Ferrari Superamerica kind of upgrade here. He’s still Paul Byrd. You’ve got a point that yes, it would have been nice to have him, but he’s not Paul Waner. He’s Paul Byrd. He’s not exactly a lock to make it two months without imploding.
No need to sit in a warm bath and open a few veins.
You mean to tell me there was a REASON why CLE released him?
But, he’s a “playoff tested veteran”!!
You stick with Rasner. Yesterday was atrocious but, like you said, he’s pitched decently against Toronto. Havign Rasner in our rotation half the year has not resulted in the earth crumbling to pieces. Let Phil get his footing back in AAA.
This is also not the time for experiments unless you have to.
I think we throw out any of them…they’re all bad…and we cross our fingers that it’s the right choice. They’re all no good right now.
Close our eyes and just hope for the best. They all stink.
I really hope Hughes can put it together and get some quality starts. We have yet to see this guy perform like he can this year. We saw glimpses of it last year. But, he is definitely going to need one more AAA start. Aceves probably does to. By that time Joba might be back in the rotation, if they don’t put him in the bullpen. So we might never get to that point. But, I am rooting for Hughes to come back strong. It would be the best thing for the team this year and building on to next year.