Andy Pettitte had the most tumultuous offseason of his career, the product of his role in baseball's drug scandal. Named in the Mitchell Report, the left-hander admitted to using Human Growth Hormone, then testified several times to congressional investigators.This seems like a reasonable explanation for his second half struggles. I also mentioned last week that I felt this may be affecting him.
The workout regime that he believes has been the base of his success was not abandoned. But Pettitte did not put in the amount of time he usually does.
"There were times I didn't want to leave the house, much less go work out and focus on baseball," he said last night before the Yankees played the Angels.
Pettitte tried to catch up in spring training, scheduling early-morning workouts and pestering teammates to join him and provide a push. For a while, it appeared to work. Pettitte was 12-7 with a 3.76 ERA through his first 22 starts. Pettitte's history suggested that he would only improve as he season went on.
He has struggled instead. He is 1-5 with a 6.57 ERA over his last eight starts, putting 82 runners on base via hit or walk over 49 1/3 innings. Opponents have hit .325 against him.
He obviously deserves the blamed for this; if you're a professional baseball player, or a professional anything, you have to be able to put aside your distractions and do your job. Pettitte didn't do that and he's suffering because of it. But with that said, it's still could be the reason for why he has been pitching the way he has down the stretch, and should be taking into account when the Yankees decide to bring him back or not.
If I were running the show I would bring him back, I've said this several times. One of the reasons is because I believe he will be better next season after a normal off-season. I'd rather bring back a pitcher who had a bad year because of a bad off-season, instead of a pitcher who just had a bad year.
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