The Yankees do have an abundance of starting pitching at the moment, but the situation was much different a year ago. They were scrambling for pitchers after Cliff Lee went back to the youthful Phillies, and in what amounts to an act of desperation, they signed Bartolo Colon one year ago today.
Colon hadn’t had any kind of sustained success in the bigs since winning the Cy Young Award in 2005, but he was pitching well in the winter ball and the Yankees rolled the dice. It was a minor league deal, so they had nothing to lose. Bench coach Tony Pena was managing Bart in winter ball, so they had a bit more info than everyone else. Colon came to Spring Training and was throwing mid-90’s gas to everyone’s surprised, and before long he was in the rotation and serving as the team’s number two starter. It didn’t last all season, but watching this big fat guy slime out to the mound and throw 96 on the black with his two-seamer running all over the place was pretty awesome for the first few months.
Bartolo revived his career with the Yankees in 2011, and parlayed that success into a guaranteed $2M deal with the Oakland A’s this offseason. He won’t get much run support, but Colon should but up a shiny ERA in that ballpark and division. I hope he does well, he’s already made a fortune in his career and it was pretty obvious last season that he came back because of his love for the game. Hard not to appreciate that.
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Here is your open thread for the night. There’s no hockey because of the All-Star break and neither the Knicks or Nets are playing, so you’re on your own for entertainment. You folks know how this works by now, so have at it.
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