Tonight’s start for Bartolo Colon should prove very important for not only Colon, but also the state of the Yankees rotation. His past two starts have been awful as Colon has given up a total of 13 runs and 16 hits over a mere 6 1/3 innings. More importantly, we are at the point in the season where Colon’s effectiveness can be a serious issue.
Colon has pitched 90.2 innings so far this season. Although he started in the bullpen for most of April, he was soon promoted as a starter when Phil Hughes hit the DL with his dead arm issue. Since then, Colon has pitched more innings than he has since 2005. We could be at a point of the season that the Yankees need to re-assess Colon. Last year Colon didn’t pitch at all, and in 2009 he only pitched 62 innings. From 2006 through 2009 Colon pitched a total of 257 innings which breaks down to about 64 innings a year. This was no surprise to the Yankees as he was a clear risk when they signed him, but he has already surpassed 2009’s innings this season. If the Yankees use him as much as they have the first half, Colon could possibly pitch 200 innings. Although the Verducci rules of innings limits doesn’t apply to veterans, it is likely this pressure on his arm will cause some problems – or has already caused some problems.
Colon is coming off two bad starts. The first was before the All-Star Break against the Rays. He allowed 5 runs on 10 hits, and issued 4 walks. He didn’t have his two seamer and his location was terrible from the start. This was only his first start since coming off the DL with a hamstring injury so everyone gave him a pass. He even made a comment that he was concerned with his hamstring following the short stint on the DL. You can read more about this start in my blog post HERE
Unfortunately Colon didn’t make any progress in his second start back this past Thursday in Toronto. He was pulled after 2/3 of an inning. There was no doubt that in this start the Yankees defense was horrendous but Colon wasn’t able to battle through it. He allowed 8 runs in the first inning before getting pulled. (Although 5 of the 8 runs were unearned) Colon just couldn’t push through and get himself out of the jams and even allowed another 2 walks. More concerning was his two seam fastball which didn’t have his usual velocity. Since he was pulled so early, nobody really got a chance to see whether his hamstring was causing any nagging issues.
Tonight Colon will face off against the Rays again and hopefully have a better outing that he did on July 7 against them. I think it’s fair to say that all eyes will be on Colon tonight to determine the future of the rotation. If Colon can’t pitch the full season, the Yankees may need to make a big trade (I would love to see Jimenez!) but they still have the option of bringing Nova back up and putting Colon back in the pen.
However, it’s not out of the question to see Colon get back out there tonight and kick some butt. He has been extremely impressive this season and might be the biggest surprise in MLB this year. Nobody, including myself, thought that Colon could come back this season and be effective but he has proven everyone wrong and pitched some real gems.
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