Your 4th & 5th Starters... I'll Take it PART I

Honestly, would it kill him to drop a few pounds?
The Double Chin looks terrible.

During this past offseason, Cashman made two low-risk signings that have paid exponential dividends so far.  Bartolo Colon was signed to a minor league deal worth less than a million dollars, and Freddy Garcia was signed to a deal just over a million dollars.  Both signings at the time didn’t show much potential, but since the season has started have worked out tremendously.  I don’t think anybody, including myself, would ever have predicted to Colon to pitch like he has so far.

After last night’s win, CC Sabathia is 4-3 with a 3.06 ERA over 67 innings.  He is far and away considered to be the Yankees “Ace” and if this year plays out like any other, he hasn’t even gotten started yet. Just wait until August & September when he is lights out!

Surprisingly enough, Colon isn’t far behind the Ace, as far as the numbers go.  Colon doesn’t have the best win-loss record, going only 2-2 so far, but his ERA is only slightly higher than CC’s at 3.16. (Compared to 3.06)  Although Colon has only pitched 51 innings compared to Sabathia’s 67, Colon is not far behind him with 48 strikeouts compared to CC’s 59.  Needless to say, I think all Yankees fans can agree that Colon has been a great surprise acquisition.

If you look deeper into Colon’s numbers you will see that he has only allowed 47 hits over those 51 innings and struck out 48 batters.  If you have been watching any of Colon’s starts you understand why his strikeout ratio is 8.4k/9in.  The late movement on his fastball is incredible, and his speed has been registered as high as 95-96 mph as late in the game as the 8^th inning.  His last start on Wednesday (which Girardi totally blew) was an amazing display of what Colon is capable of.  He went 8 strong innings while only throwing 87 pitches, 61 of them for strikes.  He looked absolutely dominant against the Orioles with 7 strikeouts and great late action on that fastball. You can argue that Mo gives you the best “odds” to win a 1 run game, but Colon was unstoppable Wednesday and Girardi should have looked away from his trusty binder, and flown by the seat of his pants instead. At the same time, Colon said all the right things in the post-game show and didn't throw his manager or team under the bus. (Like Soriano!)

The only concern about Colon is his innings at this point in the season.  As I previously mentioned, Colon has pitched 51 innings, but we are only a quarter of the way through this season.  He is on pace to pitch over 200 innings, especially since he was in the bullpen until Hughes went down with his dead arm injury in late April.  This can be problematic and Girardi must give him days off throughout the season to ensure his arm strength.  Colon didn’t pitch last year and in 2009 he only pitched a total of 62 innings. He is nearly at this point already!  Obviously he is not a young guy and the “Verducci Rules” don’t apply to him, but there must be some cause for concern as Colon has not pitched over 100 innings since 2005 when he pitched 222. 

This begs the question of how many innings can he throw this season?  It’s great to have a veteran pitcher throwing nearly complete games, but at some point it will catch up to the Yanks.  Obviously we need the wins right now, but we need a plan for the second half of the season.  Hopefully one of the Triple –A pitchers will start impressing everyone or Cash-Money makes a big deal at the trade deadline!