Yankees will stay on rotation despite off day

May 30, 2011 by Mike Axisa 33 Comments

Via Marc Carig, the Yankees intend to stay on rotation this week and will use Thursday’s off day to give the five starters an extra day of rest. That means Ivan Nova will start Friday even though he could have easily been skipped since Thursday would have been his normal day to pitch. Following Saturday’s dismantling at the hands of the Mariners, Nova has now allowed 16 runs and 39 baserunners in 18.2 IP over his last four starts. He’s also dangerously close to a sub-1.00 K/BB ratio on the year (27 K, 24 BB), and his 3.9% swing-and-miss rate is dead last among qualified starters. Meh.

CMP

If Hughes can actually make it back into the rotation, as it stands right now, the decision who to pull will be an easy one.
- Sabermetrically Challenged
  
  Next year:
  1:CC
  2:AJ
  3:Darvish
  4:Hughes
  5:Manny/Noesi/Phelps/Bart
  
  This of course barring a midseason trade this year
  - Adam B
    
    IMO, Darvish is a “must sign” for the yankees. He is young, talented, and its only money.
    - Sabermetrically Challenged
      
      He’s basically an asian Felix. Great K/BB, great moving fastballs/change combo, and nasty breaking pitches
      - http://twitter.com/SteveH_MandAura Steve H
        
        That’s an insane leap.
        
        Sabermetrically Challenged
        
        Any scout will tell you that he is the greatest pitcher of this generation. Note that I said “pitcher” and not prospect. At age 24 he has accomplished everything scouts have asked
        
        http://twitter.com/SteveH_MandAura Steve H
        
        Are these the same scouts that said the same things about Dice-K?
        
        Adam B
        
        well I’m no scout, never claimed to be…
        
        He hasn’t faced MLB hitters before and there is a ton of mileage under that arm at such a young age. But I agree with you that he has been downright dominant in Japan. I just think that the yankees can’t blow this one, too much upside there.
        
        http://twitter.com/SteveH_MandAura Steve H
        
        These scouts did not share the view of “any scout.”
        
        “There has been speculation that there will be a bidding war for Japanese (actually Japanese-Iranian) pitcher Yu Darvish this winter. But one scout who watched Darvish isn’t sold on Darvish being a front-of-the-rotation starter. “He’s good, not great,” says the scout. “He throws 91-94, but there’s a lot of fear involved. He can come in and intimidate hitters in Japan. That won’t fly here. He’ll be pretty good, but he’s not a premium guy.” One Yankees scout gave a similar report.”
      - MikeD
        
        No pitcher is “basically” King Felix in any way. Felix is substantially better than Darvish, who will go through an adjustment to pitching in MLB.
        
        Irabu, Dice-K, Darvish. I have no doubt he can pitch on the MLB level. I have doubts about any greatness.
    - Cuso
      
      Eesh.
      
      Everyone falling into the Yu Darvish trap. Just like the Hideki Irabu trap, and honestly, The Daisuke trap.
      
      Yu & his pappy want him to go to the Sawx anyways.
      
      Keep Yu and his man-on-man porn away from the Pinstripes.
      - Adam B
        
        absolutely fair point. I have never watched the guy pitch but I have heard, again “heard”, that he is much better and has more explosive stuff than Dice-K and Irabu.
        
        But you are absolutely right, we have no idea how he will translate to the major leagues. However, that does not necessarily mean he will be ineffective.
      - MonteroSmash
        
        but just as there is no guarantee that he’s going to succeed in MLB, there’s also no guarantee that he’s going to be an absolute bust.
        
        Yu Darvish is full of upside here, posting much, much better stat than Dice-K in NPB (and consider how much hype Matsuzaka carried when signing with Boston) He’s also not full-blown Japanese as Irabu and Dice-K are; he’s half-Iranian as well and towers over the hitters with a great height. Watching some of his games, he’s definitely capable of going deep into the games and movements that he has his on his fastballs and breaking stuff are downright video game-like. Given on his track record and potential, I’d be more than willing to go hard on Darvish. And yes, the uncertainty of his success is still there, with new league, new hitters, new equipments, new atmosphere, etc. but he’s still young and capable of learning much more
      - http://youcantpredictbaseball.wordpress.com bexarama
        
        Keep Yu and his man-on-man porn away from the Pinstripes.
        
        I have zero interest in Darvish but uh, wow
Charles

Why not give Pendleton a start if he continues to throw well? Hes looked good out of the pen and he probably won’t be any worse than Nova…
- CMP
  
  You’d have to think Pendleton would have to be behind Noesi in the line to replace Nova.
Pat D

So what you’re saying is that Ivan Nova is terrible? But I thought I heard he was coming into his own. Or was that a few weeks ago? I can never remember.
- AndrewYF
  
  It’s time to trade him to the Pirates or Arizona. It doesn’t really matter what they get back.
http://twitter.com/kschmidt2 Kiersten

Doesn’t seem like Nova’s numbers are that terrible. Eesh.
http://yesnetwork.com Jim

Isn’t this the way Joba went. Nova was fortunate enough to get to the eigth inning once. Might make a short relief guy. How about Noesi? Or for that matter, bring Silva up for a couple starts and send Nova down to work on consistency. We have a bunch of guys on the farm….maybe they can come up and do to the opposition what a new pitcher does to the Yanks. By the way, except for experience, what’s the difference between Eiland and our new pitching coach?
- The Fallen Phoenix
  
  No, Joba actually missed bats. A lot of bats.
- http://twitter.com/AndrewLeighNYC Andrew
  
  Joba struck out 8.4 batters per 9 innings as a starter, albeit in many more starts (43 to 17) than Nova. Nova is at 5.1 K/9 in his 17 starts and trending in the wrong direction. Strikeouts obviously aren’t everything, but Nova gives up far too many baserunners to survive as a guy who doesn’t get anyone to swing and miss. The Chamberlain comparison is way off.
bonestock94

I’d love to see Noesi get a shot before Silva, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Sleepykarl

Nova::Wang without command
Sleepykarl

Nova=Wang without command
Sleepykarl

Nova=Wang without command.
- CP
  
  Do you think Nova = Wang, but without the command?
  
  More accurately, though, Nova = Wang without the command or groundballs (53% for Nova, 60% for Wang).
  - bpdelia
    
    Or even more accurately:
    
    Nova=Wang without the command, without the INSANE deadly sinker that moves so much even Wang didn’t know where it was going and without the consistent and constant length in games that Wang gave.
    
    Wang used to get taken out for no reason because he was almost always under 100 pitches in the 8th inning. There is no freakin comparison between Wang and NOva.
    
    Wang had one unhittable ++ pitch.
    
    Nova doesn’t even really have a true plus pitch.
    
    Just because he throws hard doesn’t mean his FB is plus because if it was people would swing and miss at it at least occasionally.
    
    And I think NOva may become a decent fifth starter/long reliever but there is no comp to wang.
    
    And to Cahill??????? Cahill looked like the real deal from the very beginning.
- Adam B
  
  far less groundballs… wang was just a better pitcher…
- jack
  
  I didn’t get last part, chould you come again?
Polonia

If you’re not Cy Young by the age of 25, off with your head, and off to Pittsburgh!
- http://twitter.com/SteveH_MandAura Steve H
  
  Nova’s minor league track record does nothing to suggest he’s any more than maybe a #5 starter in the AL East. It’s not like he was ever a highly regarded prospect. He’s just not that good.
bpdelia

NO one is saying off with his head. But guys rarely sudddenly develop an ability to miss bats.

NOva is looking exactly like his scouting report has been for the entire time he’s been around.

LEgit fifth starter prospect with a slim possibility of becoming a fourth starter if he can develop a secondary offering that makes guys swing and miss.

I don’t see that happening.

TO me he looks like a good bet to stick around the ML bouncing between 5th starter/6th starter long reliever.

OR possibly he could become a low leverage short reliever brought in to get ground balls.

THere’s nothing wrong with that but in my opinion Nova ranks probably 6th out of all the yankees young pitchers.