Another Reason for Yankees’ Woes

Many have offered explanations for the plight of the 2005 Yankees. Here’s another one: the Yankees are failing because of the hiring of three starting pitchers, whose stats were inflated because of their time in the National League.It is traditionally the job of baseball columnists to analyze teams. Unfortunately, the  baseball world is chock full of “analysts” who think their job is to identify every flaw with a team and ramble about that blemish until they can find another fault of the team. With that said, these “analysts” have a seemingly never-ending source of criticism in the 2005 New York Yankees.

The team is old. Its power hitters aren’t crushing balls. It can’t play small ball, nor is it a particularly good defensive team. The manager has lost his magic.

Pick a reason, any reason.

The centerfielder can’t throw, the designated hitter can’t hit without cheating, the third baseman can’t produce a clutch hit, the shortstop is diving in at the plate again, the catcher can’t block balls, the starting pitchers can’t piece together a quality start, and the bullpen can’t decipher Boston’s potent lineup.  

Where would we be without the Yankees?

They’re the easiest target in sports, with their egocentric and unlikable owner George Steinbrenner, who supplies them with the largest payroll in professional sports. When they win, the bashers say that they should win. When they lose, the haters say that with their abundance of stars and their penchant to spend money as freely as Howard Dean jabbers.   

And fortunately for me, their troubles are the inspiration for my writing today. Aren’t I lucky?

Sure, the Bombers aren’t winning right now because of the aforementioned reasons. When the Yankees were the most dominant team in the league from 1998-2000, they had pitchers. Not throwers. Pitchers.

Andy Pettitte was a young, crafty southpaw. David Cone was as gutsy as they come, often resorting to his Laredo motion with two strikes for that extra kick at the end of the pitch. David Wells had a rubber arm, who did his share of talking, but undoubtedly backed up his mouth on the mound. Orlando Hernandez was a trustworthy force in the postseason, compiling a 9-3 record complemented with a 2.65 ERA. Roger Clemens, despite being the oldest pitcher on the team, was still the bulldog that he was earlier in his career. Mariano Rivera, with his ferocious fastball and devastating cutter, was untouchable in the late innings.

Teams win because of their pitching, and the Yankees had the arms.

To an outside observer, the pinstriped bunch still has the arms. Mike Mussina has 211 career wins. Randy Johnson ups Mussina with 246 career wins, over 4,000 career strikeouts, five Cy Young Awards, and a World Series MVP trophy. Like his counterparts, Kevin Brown also has more than 200 career wins (207) and is a six-time All Star. Carl Pavano was one of the hottest pitchers in the league last year, racking up 18 wins and finishing sixth in the NL Cy Young voting.

Statistics lie, though. When the Yankees signed Johnson, Brown, and Pavano, they were coming off respective 16-14, 14-9, and 18-8 seasons. Their respective ERAs were 2.60, 2.39, and 3.00. In other words, numbers smaller than a golf hole. The Yankees had good reason to hire all three pitchers, right? Hold up there, George.

You’re forgetting a key fact about all three pitchers. It’s fine that some retire by Johnson’s age, that Brown is injury-prone, and that Pavano may have off-the-field distractions, namely Alyssa Milano.

Here’s what you should worry about: all three garnered their merits in the National League. AKA, Pitcher’s Paradise.

Newsflash: in the National League, pitchers must hit. There is no designated hitter. Thus, a pitcher’s strategy changes when he pitches in the National League. Any pitcher will tell you that pitching in the NL is decidedly easier than pitching in the AL.

Because the pitcher has to hit, pitchers in the NL have to pitch to eight legitimate hitters, rather than those eight plus a designated hitter in the AL. Hitting pitchers are in the nine spot; therefore, pitching pitchers can challenge or not bother with the eighth hitter, depending on the situation. With two outs and a base open, it is plain dumb to challenge the eighth hitter. Given that situation in the American League, there would be little difference between the eight and nine hitter.

Assuming a decent start of six innings and nine hitters reaching base, pitchers will square off three times. And, playing the law of averages, the pitching pitcher will likely force the hitting pitcher into an out all three times. Pitching in the National League can turn a mediocre season into a solid season. It can spin two million dollars into five million.

The acquisitions of those three pitchers aren’t the first mistakes that the Yankees have made. When it traded for Javier Vazquez in 2003, Vazquez had suffered a 13-12 record with the lowly Expos, but his ERA had been a very respectable 3.24. In 2004, his record slightly improved to 14-10, which was just a product of his pitching for the Yankees, a much better team that would provide more run support and win more games than the Expos. His ERA, however, inflated to a staggering 4.91, his highest since 1999 as a twenty-two year old in his second full season in the majors. This year, back in the NL with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he is a much more human 7-4, and his ERA has dipped to 4.30.

Even Jeff Weaver, one of the worst experiments in Yankees history, found solace in the National League. He had amassed a 5.99 ERA with the Yankees in 2003. There is no interpretation there; an ERA higher than a Harvard-bound student’s weighted GPA is simply unacceptable. In 2004, Weaver went to the friendly confines of the National League, where he upped his wins total to 13 and dropped his ERA to 4.01.

George Steinbrenner is getting old. He is being overrun with Billy Beane and Theo Epstein and Paul DePodesta, the “Moneyball” general managers who rely on sabremetrics to sign undervalued players and released overhyped stars. But even Epstein brought over Matt Clement and Wade Miller this year, who were both on National League teams last year.

The Orioles’ sudden success this year should come as no great shock; none of their starters were in the National League last year, and thus, had a period of adjustment to the American League.

Perhaps pitchers wishing to transfer from National League to American League should be scrutinized by general managers more than they already are; after all, they don’t want another Jeff Weaver, do they?