TwitterForcing It
8 May 2012
I can’t for the life of me get why the Yankees are putting Andy Pettitte into the rotation Sunday. I get that David Phelps didn’t exactly dominate in his one start, but by giving up two runs in four innings while striking out five, he showed some potential. Meanwhile, Andy Pettitte has made two starts above A ball and has allowed three earned runs in five innings in both of them.
But Pettitte proclaimed himself ready and something makes me think the Yankees felt pressured into this. I hope I am wrong and I also hope that getting Pettitte back in the bigs will “start his juices” and up his performance. I wouldn’t have made this call if it was my choice.
What I do wonder is what will happen roster-wise over the next few days? Brett Gardner should be back Thursday and Eric Chavez may join him. Then Pettitte will need to be activated and put on the 40-man roster. the obvious calls are Gardner gets activated, Wise gets sent down. Chavez gets activated and Nix gets sent down. Pettitte gets activated, Rivera moved to the 60-day DL and Eppley gets sent down. But, it wouldn’t shock me to see the Yankees keep Nix and send Nunez down to get more outfield time. Or jettison Rapada, a guy who has walked 5 in 8 innings and keep Eppley. Maybe they send Phelps down to keep him stretched out? We shall see.
May 08, 2012 @ 19:34:43
Yep, whole lotta moving going on.
I don’t want to think about this too much but it seems like we’re all simply *assuming* that Andy will be lights out in his “triumphant return”. What happens if he’s not very good? What sort of angst will that cause across the Yankees Universe?
May 08, 2012 @ 22:19:23
Its’ officially a new era of what I call, somewhat unaffectionally, the “cardiac close”. WHEW!
May 09, 2012 @ 10:05:17
This is the way Sparky Lyle used to close out games. He never seemed comfortable unless the game was on the line with the bases loaded.
May 09, 2012 @ 10:22:45
Mitchell
I agree, I can’t see how anyone can assume Pettitte will pitch well Sunday. I would have liked to see him show some more at AAA before coming up.
“Cardiac Closer” is a good one. I also saw “Enter Strandman” on Twitter last night. Jokes aside, he can’t keep loading them up and escaping those jams, can he?