Jan

Thinking about the starting five

The 1948 Boston Braves were a pretty good team. They finished the season with a 91-62 record, good for first in the National League, but they fell to the Indians in the World Series in six games. Despite a few no-name pitchers in their rotation — or perhaps because of them — that club birthed one of the most famous poems in baseball history.

On September 14, 1948, as the Braves held onto first place and tried to find someone not named Warren Spahn or Johnny Sain who could win games regularly, the now-defunct Boston Post ran a verse from Gerald V. Hern. The one-time paper’s sports editor’s words live on as part of baseball culture.

First we’ll use Spahn
then we’ll use Sain
Then an off day
followed by rain
Back will come Spahn
followed by Sain
And followed
we hope
by two days of rain.

As we sit here on January 28, just a few weeks before pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training, the Yanks’ rotation resembles that poem. Substitute CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes — what, You think I’d say Mitre? — and we can have the 2011 edition of “Spahn and Sain.” Of course, Sabathia and Hughes won’t combine to throw 41 percent of all of the Yanks’ innings as Spahn and Sain did, but isn’t that why the club signed Rafael Soriano?

Lately, the Yankees have been trying to find someone, anyone willing to part with a pitcher, but the pickings are slim. So earlier this week, they turned to Bartolo Colon, and the world seemingly imploded. Blog commenters, Twitter conversations, talk radio spots all focused on Colon as though the Yanks were relying on him to make 33 starts and win 18 of them. They’re not. He’s a low-risk invitee to Spring Training who will take home a few thousand dollars if he doesn’t make the team. If he pitches well enough to merit a longer look, the Yanks will pay him a salary of $900,000. It won’t break the bank.

Yet, as Joel Sherman pointed out, every pitching move is being viewed through the prism of Cliff Lee. The Yankees didn’t sign Lee; ergo, Colon is the replacement. It doesn’t quite work that way. Rather, in a thin market, the Yanks have an opportunity to maybe catch lightning in a bottle for 15 starts — Aaron Small says hello — or push Ivan Nova and Sergio Mitre to earn their rotation spots. Who would want to have Colon breathing down his neck anyway?

But maybe it won’t come to that. Sherman adds a tantalizing bit of some hopey-changey thing to the conversation:

For now, their only chance to change the perception of having a frail rotation would be if Andy Pettitte again reversed retirement plans. And optimism has risen within the Yankee family that Pettitte will indeed pitch in 2011. Two people briefed on the most recent conversations between the Yankees and Pettitte say the team is upbeat because Pettitte is working out regularly, has not firmly committed to retirement and because it is hard to dismiss the $12 million to $13 million Pettitte knows the Yankees would pay for his services.

What Yankee fan isn’t going to go to their windows, open it, stick their head and scream, “Come back, Andy Pettitte”? One simple signing will turn the Yanks’ off-season around. Although I’m not sold on Pettitte’s ability to withstand the physical rigors of a full season, 21 starts of Pettitte and 12 starts of someone else is far better than the alternative.

So we keep waiting, and if push comes to shove, as Sherman says, the Yanks just have to ride it out until early June. Cliff Lee was sent from the Mariners to Texas on July 9th, and if the Yanks can put together a Spahn-and-Sain-like rotation for half a season or less, the market will open up. Still, I’m holding out hope for Andy Pettitte. Does he really seem retired to you?

Categories : Pitching

21 Comments»

PaulF says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:20 am

CC and Hughes, and pray for good AJ.

YankeesForEver says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:22 am

First CC
Then Hughes
Pray to God we then won’t lose
Bullpen strong to backup the fools
Then to CC
Then to Hughes

JGS says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:36 am

First we use CC
then we use Hughes
then an off-day
followed by booze
Back will come CC
followed by Hughes
and followed
we fear
by two days of booze

Reply

YankeesForEver says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:25 am

Trade Laird and Chamberlain for Edwin Jackson!!!

whozat says:

January 28, 2011 at 1:04 am

Then they can pay MORE money to lose games!!!!!

Reply
- Tom Zig says:
  
  January 28, 2011 at 3:33 am
  
  I can always count on whozat
  
  Reply

Del Prete says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:26 am

Pettitte will come

squishy jello person says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:31 am

So what’s the Palin reference?

bexarama says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:34 am

Sherman adds a tantalizing bit of some hopey-changey thing to the conversation:

Reply
JGS says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:34 am

“Sherman adds a tantalizing bit of some hopey-changey thing to the conversation”

Reply

Midland TX says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:42 am

Excellent summarization. “Check back before the All-Star Break” doesn’t sell radio ad space, hence all the dumb bloviating.

But Bartolo Colon breathing down anyone’s neck? Ew. Trying to eat dinner here, dude.

ColoYank says:

January 28, 2011 at 8:48 am

“Bloviating.” Nice. I like it a lot when vocabularies are exercised.

Reply

Andy in NYC says:

January 28, 2011 at 12:52 am

What was that noise? I think I just heard Bexy yelling out her window…

Chops says:

January 28, 2011 at 2:47 am

There is a fat pitcher named CC
He made the Yankees win easy
But after him
the rest are slim
but their pitching makes me a little queasy

(I know about Hughes too, but I couldn’t make it fit the limerick)

A.D. says:

January 28, 2011 at 7:40 am

Given that Hughes wasn’t all that spectacular after an amazing start to the season don’t know how much he can really be banked on.

Another Bronx Dynasty says:

January 28, 2011 at 7:54 am

There once was a staff led by CC
He was so big but won so E-Z

After him came Phil Hughes
Who would hardly ever lose

But after him
The rest was quite Dim

The team needed three
And went hard after Cliff Lee
And got beat out by a team from Phillie

CS Yankee says:

January 28, 2011 at 9:08 am

Pettitte is not retired, he is refocused.

Juke Early says:

January 28, 2011 at 9:33 am

LLOL + true = ?

Reply

Mike Myers says:

January 28, 2011 at 9:32 am

Pettitte needs to start sexting. His Favre immiatation isnt doing it for me.

Mike says:

January 28, 2011 at 10:50 am

The ’48 Braves also had the up-and-coming Vern Bickford, the relatively solid Bill Voiselle and the advantage of playing in the days of four-man rotations. Bickford went 11-5 with a 3.27 ERA that year (compared with Spahn’s 15-12, 3.71) and, if anything, improved over the following couple years before a broken finger on his pitching hand derailed his career. Voiselle’s record was 13-13, but his ERA was 3.63 in 1948-also lower than Spahn’s. At least based on old-fashioned stats like ERA, the back end of the ’48 Braves rotation wasn’t really so bad, poem or no.