THE YANKEES & THE 5TH STARTER

Having a strong starting five in the rotation is going to be a key piece to the puzzle for a successful 2014 campaign for the Yankees. As of right now, the top three starters are CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, and Ivan Nova. The Yankees’ pursuit of Masahiro Tanaka is in full swing, and although the Yankees are the favored team, there is no guarantee that he is going to sign with the Yankees.

If you play your odds right, you have to look at the #5 slot in the rotation and realize that you need a good candidate from a pool beyond the names mentioned above. Right now, the race to round out the rotation is a three horse race. The best candidates are David Phelps, Vidal Nuno, and Michael Pineda.

David Phelps is probably the best candidate. This will be his 3rd season in the majors, with last season splitting time between the rotation and the bullpen. He had 10 relief appearances in 2013, compared with 12 starts, which was a higher percentage of start appearances than in 2012. In other words, the staff is placing responsibility on his shoulders as a starter, which is a good plan for him. He struggled with settling into games at the start, with an ERA over 7 in the first inning and with hitters having a .306 batting average the first time through the lineup. There are many ways that a rookie can struggle adjusting to a major role, and this is one of them. Starting strong needs to be at the top of his New Year’s resolutions. At age 27, he is still young enough to get it done, and he is healthy. This is the year for him to get it done.

A healthy and effective Michael Pineda would go a long way in solidifying the rotation. He is showing strong signs of recovery, and Brian Cashman has committed to giving him a chance to show that he can get major league hitters out. However, we are not at the place where we can count on him and make plans for 2014 that include him in rotation. Spring training is going to be gut-check time for Pineda, and the Yankees need to see the mid-to-high-90’s fastball that struck out 173 and held batters to less than one homer per nine innings in 2011.  If he is all good, and "'All good' means pitching seven innings and knocking the bats out of guys' hands at the big-league level.", fitting him in will be a nice problem to have.

Then there is Vidal Nuno. I like Vidal Nuno. He made five major league appearances, two as a reliever and three as a starter. One relief appearance was a bad one – a walk-off home run to Nate McLouth in extra innings is the only real blemish on his short record. His other relief appearance was three scoreless innings of mop-up work against the Astros. Two of his three starts were quality starts against the Rays and the Mets, and the third was five scoreless innings against the Indians. For the statisticians among us, it means that he is yet to give up more than two runs in a start. Obviously, given the brevity of his experience, they cannot put him into the rotation yet. Nevertheless, if he is on a 2012-Phelps-like plan – about 30 appearances with about 10 starts to fill in, he can be a valuable member of the team in 2015. He needs more time on the mound, and we think he has earned consideration.


 
--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon
My blog is: Shots from Murderer's Row

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