River Avenue Blues

A reshuffled rotation to give CC rest

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CC Sabathia is, in the old baseball sense of the word, a horse. With two starts remaining, he has thrown 220 innings for the Yanks after throwing 253 last year and 241 the year before. Tack on the postseason, and his innings total climbs by another 19 frames.

Somewhat unfairly and somewhat not, Sabathia carries around with him a reputation for postseason struggles. While he beat the Yanks in the ALDS in 2007, he wasn’t effective, giving up three earned runs on four hits and six walks in just five innings. Chien-Ming Wang was worse, and the Indians grabbed the Game 1 win. His ALCS starts against the Red Sox were worse. Last year, Sabathia’s numbers were ugly against the Phillies. He managed just 3.2 innings in his Game 2 start, surrendering five runs on six hits and four walks. Those results are not good.

Last year, though, Sabathia was pitching under some tough circumstances. Beginning with his start on September 16, Sabathia pitched with three days’ rest for five consecutive starts. During the four regular season starts, he went 2-2 but with a 1.88 ERA anda 26:4 K:BB ratio in 28.2 innings. In his last two starts for the Brewers — do or die games for Milwaukee’s playoff hopes — he gave up one earned run over 16 innings while fanning 18 and issuing just three free passes. Those games carried with them the pressures of the playoffs, and after 16 days of it, Sabathia was hosed.

Because the Yankees have wrapped up a playoff spot, because they have a six-game lead with nine games left to play, the Yankees won’t need to lean on the rubber arm of CC Sabathia. In fact, they can do something the Brewers could not do: They will rest CC.

After their nail-biter against the Angels yesterday afternoon, the Yankees announced the pitching match-ups for the series against the Red Sox, and the team did some shuffling. Joba Chamberlain will face Jon Lester in the Friday evening affair; CC Sabathia will square off against Daisuke Matsuzaka on Saturday afternoon; and Andy Pettitte will meet Paul Byrd in the Sunday afternoon match-up. While Joba will be going on their normal rest, CC and Andy will get a sixth day.

“It’s just giving CC a little extra rest and trying to give him a couple of extra days here. He’ll get an extra day the next time and then he’ll be on regular rest,” Joe Girardi said to reporters on Wednesday.

So while ten days ago, I set up the playoff rotation, let’s reset it.

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Except for the final game of the season, we can see how the rotation shakes down. Not only are the Yankees giving CC an extra day off this week, but due to next Thursday’s off-day, he’ll enjoy another extra day of rest next week. As an added bonus, if the Yankees pick the short playoff series, he’ll get yet another extra day off. If they pick the longer series — the one that requires just three starters — the Big Man will be lined up on normal rest to pitch Game 1 in the Bronx against Detroit or Minnesota.

The only real remaining question mark of the season concerns A.J. Burnett. With the power pitching throwing well of late, the Yanks will probably line him up for a Game 2 start. He is, however, schedule to make just one start this year and could be pitching in the playoffs after a 10- or 12-day layoff. That idea scares me.

To that end, the Yankees could opt for Burnett to make an abbreviated start on the final day of the season with any number of relievers ready to step in after three or four innings. While Gaudin is the projected starter for that day, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Burnett draw the ball to give him on a regular schedule.

So that’s that. It is hard to believe the Yanks have just nine days left. It is comforting though to see the rotation shake down so nicely.

DeLeon named Gulf Coast League’s #2 prospect

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Baseball America started to unveil their annual league top 20 lists today, beginning with the Rookie level Gulf Coast League. Catcher Christian Bethancourt of Braves ranked as the circuit’s top prospect, with Yanks’ farmhand Kelvin DeLeon right behind him at #2. No other Yankee prospect made the list, although Slade Heathcott and JR Murphy did not play enough to qualify. In the subscriber only scouting report, GCL Blue Jays manager John Schneider was quoted as saying “[DeLeon] knows how to hit. He hunts for his pitch. If it’s a fastball count, he doesn’t miss. I didn’t want any part of him.”

The next top 20 list of interest to Yankee fans is the NY-Penn League, which is due out next Tuesday.

Burnett strong as Kennedy returns in series win

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If I told you that the Yanks would win a game in Anaheim with Jerry Hairston, Jr., Shelley Duncan, Melky Cabrera, Brett Gardner and Jose Molina all in the same lineup, would you believe me? What if I told you that Damaso Marte, Jonathan Albaladejo, Phil Coke and Ian Kennedy would be called upon to get a combined seven outs in the middle of the affair? What if I added that the Yanks hadn’t won a series in Anaheim since May 2004?

In a turn of events sure to confound those fans who are convinced that the Yankees can’t win a game in Angels Stadium, the Bombers’ C lineup and their C bullpen corps downed the Angels today 3-2. Robinson Cano, struggling all year with runners in scoring position, came through with a huge hit, and A.J. Burnett struck out 11 in 5.2 strong innings of work. Ian Kennedy gave us all a heart attack but held down the eighth in his return to the Majors. With their victory, the Yanks saw their Magic Number drop to 5 and their lead above the Red Sox increase to a temporary 6.5.

For the first few innings, the Scott Kazmir/A.J. Burnett pitching duel lived up to its billing. While the Angels left a man on base in every inning of the game, Burnett had the K pitch working this afternoon. He was sitting between 95 and 97 for most of the game and recorded 11 of his 17 outs by the strike out. With that stuff, the runners on base won’t score.

The Yankees broke through first, finally getting to Kazmir in fourth. While Jerry Hairston, Jr., struck out, Mark Teixeira doubled, and Hideki Matsui walked. Shelley Duncan lined a single just over Chone Figgins’ glove to left, and because Teixeira started back to second when it seemed as though Figgins would make the play, Juan Rivera gunned him down at the plate. With two outs, Robinson Cano and his struggles with runners in scoring position came to the plate, he lined a two-out, two-run single to left and advanced on the throw. Melky Cabrera would drive Cano in with a double, and those three runs would be all the Yanks would need.

In the bottom of the fifth, Burnett ran into a spot of trouble. Mike Napoli singled, and Chone Figgins doubled. With two on and no one out, Burnett bore down. He struck out Erick Aybar, and Robinson Cano ranged far to his left to snare a Bobby Abreu ground ball. A run would score, but Burnett pitched out of the inning.

In the sixth, the bullpen would take over. After Burnett allowed another run to score, Damaso Marte retired Figgins. An inning later, Jonathan Albaladejo would take over, but his stay was short-lived. After a double, Phil Coke came in and struck out Kendry Morales. Coke has lost seven pounds over the last two days with a bad stomach bug, but he got a huge out with the tying run in scoring position.

One of the stories of the game around in the 8th. With Al Aceves and Phil Hughes unavailable and Brian Bruney in the dog house, Ian Kennedy came in for his return to the Bigs after aneurysm surgery. He seemed nervous and struggled with his control, loading the bases on a hit by pitch and two walks. But he pitched around it. He got the first out when Juan Rivera lined to Ramiro Peña at third and struck out Maicer Izturis with two on. With the bases loaded, Erick Aybar flew out to Shelley Duncan. Threat over.

In the 9th, Rivera nailed down the game, and all was right with the Yanks. A.J. had another strong start, and Joe will look at his resurgence in the morning. The Yanks knocked another game off the Magic Number counter and have now won three of their last four against Anaheim. The Yanks are sitting pretty.

Hairston Injury Update
Jerry Hairston left the game in the 7th when he felt his wrist pop, and PeteAbe speculates that Hairston’s injury could be serious. Apparently, Hairston first injured his wrist while with the Reds and received an MRI and cortisone shot ten days ago. He will have another scan tomorrow. I wouldn’t expect much from him for the rest of the year, but then again, I wasn’t really expecting much from him anyway.

Feel free to make this an Open Thread. Talk about the game. Talk about Kennedy for the 8th. Talk about the long wait until the Friday night game against the Red Sox. Just play nice.

Game 153: Burnett draws the C lineup

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Instead of putting out the A lineup and going for a series win this afternoon, Joe Girardi has deemed it more important to get his regulars some rest. Absent from today’s lineup are Nick Swisher, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, and Jorge Posada. Most curious is Posada, who has destroyed Kazmir in 28 career plate appearances: .440/.464/.680.

The lineup, however, isn’t what concerns the Yanks. They have other matters on their minds, and A.J. Burnett stands out among the rest. The man who will likely take the ball in Game 2 of the ALDS has been a bit inconsistent of late, and needs these last couple of starts to tune up and prepare for the playoff spotlight. He was good last time out, striking out six over seven innings against the Mariners, allowing just one run. This is a much bigger test. The Angels offense is quite a bit better than the Mariners.

In fact, you might call this one a…playoff preview.

Since his debut in 2004, Scott Kazmir has pitched 81.2 innings against the Yankees, and almost none of them have been easy. He has allowed just 30 runs in that span, 23 earned, striking out 92 to 36 walks. The Yanks were glad to get him out of the division, but he can be a pest even with the Angels. We’ll see if success against the Yankees carries over to his new home.

Kazmir struggled through the first half of 2009 and let it spill over into the second half. Even so, he pitched 13.2 innings against the Yankees and allowed only four runs. Even when he’s going poorly, he’s still a Yankee killer. He’s turned things around since becoming an Angel, allowing just five runs, four earned, over 25.1 innings spanning four starts. He could have an easy time today with the Yanks’ “we just clinched a playoff spot” lineup.

1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Jerry Hairston, 3B
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Hideki Matsui, DH
5. Shelley Duncan, RF
6. Robinson Cano, 2B
7. Melky Cabrera, LF
8. Brett Gardner, CF
9. Jose Molina, C

And on the mound, number thirty-four, A.J. Burnett.