WHY CJ WILSON COULD BE THE ANSWER

With Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia set to become free agents, along with the inevitably of CC Sabathia opting out of his contract, the Yankees will focus on starting pitching this off season. One of the two hot ticket items on the free agent market is CJ Wilson. He's known as "Pretty Boy" around here, but honestly, I think he could be a good fit with the Yankees and I would welcome him to the Bronx in a heartbeat.As we all know, the other top pitcher on the free agent market is Yu Darvish from Japan. Grant Cederquist wrote a piece titled WHY I'LL CONVINCE YOU ON YU. Honestly, I'm not sold on Yu for a number of reasons, just my opinion.

Casey loves Mark Buehrle and wrote his piece titled WHY BUEHRLE WILL MAKE THE YANKEES BETTER. Buehrle could be a good fit, but as Mark Buehrle said himself, his options are wide open, and he's hinted he would pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals before he hangs 'em up. Read about that HERE.

Some say CJ Wilson isn't an ace. That may be true, but look at what he's done this season and his last two seasons combined:

2011: 16-7, 2.94 ERA, 223.1 innings, 8.3 K/9, 2.98 BB/9, 49.3 GB% (Ground ball percentage)

2010-2011: 31-5, 3.14 ERA, 427.1 innings, 7.92 K/9, 3.52 BB/9, 49.2 GB%

As you can see, his numbers this season and the last two seasons combined are very solid. I also threw in his ground ball percentage because let's face it, when you're a Yankee and pitching your home games at the Stadium, it's pretty important to keep the ball on the ground to prevent the long ball and basically eliminate extra base hits. I'd say a good ground ball rate would be anything above 43%. Also, being left handed certainly helps his cause as well.

Now, the reason why I only showed his last two seasons is because that's how long he's been a starter, two seasons. He was mainly a reliever for the Rangers from 2005-2009 pitching in 258 games, six starts (all in 2005) compiling a 4.30 ERA and 52 saves. The Rangers thought they could try him out as a starter again in 2010, and it's worked out pretty well. Some may say that two years in the starting rotation isn't a big enough sample size to hand out a fat contract to Wilson. Well, to me it is. He pitches in the American League and pitches his home games in the heat of Texas. And not to mention, his last two years against the Boston Red Sox he's made five starts against them going 4-0 with a 1.08 ERA in 33.1 innings.
You may ask, "Well if you like C.J Wilson, what kind of contract would you offer him?" Personally, I'd offer him a five year, $85 million contract. The other day on Twitter I saw a tweet from ESPN's Buster Olney that said that he talked to an agent and he told him that a good performance or a bad performance in the postseason could swing the offers Wilson gets one way or another. Read Buster's Tweet HERE.

Honestly, I don't think a couple starts in the postseason should cost Wilson up to $40 million on his contract. Look at CC Sabathia, he was awful in his postseason career with the Cleveland Indians and the Milwaukee Brewers from 2001-2008, and that didn't stop the Yankees in signing him to a huge contract, and it shouldn't with Wilson. In his postseason career Wilson has made seven starts dating back to 2010 while going 1-4 with a 5.40 ERA.

Wilson's my guy and I'm sticking with it. Agree? Don't Agree? Comment and tell me.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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