Anticipating Andy Pettitte’s return

When Andy Pettitte went down with a groin injury that cost him two months of his 2010 campaign, I guessed the injury would spur him into pitching again next year. At 11-3 and with a 3.17 ERA, he can clearly still dominate American League hitters, and he strikes me as the type of player who wants to finish strong. So as part of the Yanks’ ode to Brett Favre but without the self-serving headlines or unnecessary drama, the “will he or won’t he?” debate over Andy Pettitte has already begun. In Jon Heyman’s latest, the Sports Illustrated scribe puts Pettitte’s return at 50/50. “I hope” he returns, Jorge Posada said. “He had a pretty good year. He’s still, for me, one of the best big-game pitchers.”

Earlier in the weekend, Ken Davidoff added his take on the topic: Pettitte says Roger Clemens’ legal troubles and his own role in the the government’s case will, in his words, have “absolutely nothing” to do with the decision to return to baseball. If Pettitte, who turns 39 next June, does return in 2011, it will more likely than not be his last season. “I know I’m not going to be playing at age 40. I know that,” he said to Davidoff. “So there’s just things I know I promised myself that I wouldn’t let happen. And those things would happen if I kept playing.”