Grading the Pitchers - The Rotation

Greg is doing the position player past of this so I'm doing the pitchers. I'm going to make two separate posts for the bullpen and the rotation. So here's the Yankees starters:

LHP - C.C. Sabathia (8-6. 3.86 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 128.1 IP, 110 H, 55 ER, 38 BB, 95 K)

So far Sabathia has not been the ace he was brought in to be. However, he has been a very good pitcher who can eat up a ton of innings. Even when the guy struggles, he will battle for seven or eight innings and give the bullpen a rest. How he does in the second half will be a major storyline for the Yankees. If he catches fire like he did last year and goes from being a good pitcher to an elite one then the Yanks are going to be tough to beat going down the stretch. On the other hand, all these innings could catch up with him. He already has suffered from sore biceps. Girardi has to be much more careful with his use of him. Less 120 pitch outings when its clear he doesn't have his best stuff would go a long way to helping him stay fresh for the rest of the year.

Grade: B+

RHP - A.J. Burnett (8-4, 3.77 ERA, 1.38 WHIP, 107.1 IP, 95 H, 45 R, 53 BB, 101 K)

A.J. got of to a good start but then came back down. His downward spiral climaxed with a terrible performance in a big game against the Red Sox. Since then though, he's completely turned things around. Over the past couple games he's been nothing short of dominating and right now is arguably the Yankees best pitcher. His ERA of 3.77 is excellent if not quite outstanding. However, his DIPS numbers are much less impressive. His K/BB is only 1.91 and his FIP is at 4.56. This is much lower than it was a couple weeks ago but still not great. The problem is his high walk total. Before his recent hot streak he, like Joba, seemed to be nibbling. Now he's challenging guys and the results show. As long as he keeps challenging hitters he should be fine for the rest of the year.

Grade: B-

LHP - Andy Pettitte (8-5, 4.85 ERA, 1.53 WHIP, 107.2, 121 H, 58 ER, 44 BB, 70 K)

Pettitte has been exactly what most people expected from him this year. He's a 36 year old pitcher who can eat innings and give you a solid performance. He's been very up and down this year. Sometimes great, sometimes awful. He's coming off of a bad start so his ERA and FIP are high, both around 4.80. However, he's on pace for well over 200 innings and his second half innings have historically been better. The key for Pettitte is for the Yankees to keep him away from Yankee Stadium when they can. His home/road splits are very dramatic and I think Girardi is smart enough to set up the rotation to help Pettitte succeed. Andy is still a fighter and even though he can't throw as hard as he used to be able to he's going to continue to be a decent back of the rotation starter for the Yankees.

Grade: C-

RHP - Joba Chamberlain (4-2, 4.25 ERA, 1.56 WHIP, 89 IP, 97 H, 42 ER, 42 BB, 78 K)

Joba dominated in the rotation last year and was even more electrifying in the bullpen the year before. So, the bar was set pretty high for him coming into the year. Really, unfairly high for a 24 year old only a few years out of college. So, now that he's hit a rough patch people are calling for a demotion or a move to the bullpen, although that never really stopped. If you look at his numbers on the season, though. They're really not bad at all. Just not great. I think Joba's problem is in his head. He's afraid to challenge hitters and he walks guys. Then when he gives up the inevitable home runs in the new stadium, it hurts even worse. For now, its to early to send Joba to Scranton but with another bad start or two, you need to start thinking about it.

Grade - C

RHP - Chien Ming Wang (As a starter: 1-6, 11.38 ERA, 2.18 WHIP, 34 IP, 57 H, 43 ER, 17 BB, 22 K)

Wang has been terrible for most of the year. Historically bad before heading for the DL and then just bad before finally figuring things out and becoming a solid pitcher again. He got hurt again as soon as he started looking like a 19 game winner again. Those last couple starts are the only things that keep him out of Igawa Territory (an F). Its unclear how long he's going to be out now but when he returns he could be able to redeem himself a bit. Maybe even push them into the playoffs. They need Wang back for this team to work.

Grade: D-

RHP - Phil Hughes (As a starter 3-2, 5.45 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 34.2 IP, 37 H, 21 ER, 15 BB, 31 K)

Phil wasn't bad in the rotation. He showed his potential in a couple of his starts but was up and down overall. Towards the end of his stay in the rotation he started really come into his own and seemed on his way to an excellent year. You can't have a 19 game winner as your mop up man though so Phil got moved to the 'pen and Wang took over in the rotation. Still, Hughes sent plenty of encouraging signs in his time starting and I'm sure he'll be back in the rotation for the entire year in 2010, even if he's been delegated to the eighth inning for now.

Grade - C

Overall Staff

Things look ugly right now. The staff's stats are below average across the board. However, you have to attribute a lot of that to these guys adjusting to the new stadium which has turned out to be a launching pad. Their was a period where Burnett and Joba just seemed terrified to throw strikes for fear of giving up the long ball. They have a staff full of second half pitchers and I'm hoping for them to turn things around. That said, for the first half these pitchers have been huge disappointments.

Grade - C