Javy Has A Dead Arm

From Andrew Marchand:

The New York Yankees believe they know why starter Javier Vazquez had a mysterious drop in the velocity of his fastball Friday.

"He has a little dead arm," pitching coach Dave Eiland told ESPNNewYork.com. "Nothing more than that."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi raised alarms by admitting that Vazquez's velocity was down Friday when he gave up six runs, three earned, in 5 1/3 innings. Girardi said the Yankees would examine why Vazquez couldn't reach 90 mph on his fastball.

...

Eiland said the Yankees' course of action for the dead arm will be to cut down on Vazquez's workload between starts. At this point, Eiland said it will not affect when Vazquez starts.

If he continues to struggle, it might be wise to skip one of his starts to make sure he's 100%, or close to it, down the stretch. The only problem with that is the Yankees don't have another off-day until the 26th, and then don't have another one until September 9th, so for that to work out they'd either need to give Sergio Mitre another start, or call someone up. Hopefully, the extra rest between starts is enough.