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Thursday, January 14, 2016
This Ain't A Scene It's A --- Damn Arms Race
Prepare yourselves Yankees fans because the American League East is not a scene anymore, it's about to become an arms race. The New York Yankees have beefed up their bullpen with Aroldis Chapman and put out a potential CC Sabathia-less starting rotation with every pitcher under 28-years old while the Boston Red Sox added David Price and Craig Kimbrel. Not to be outdone the reigning and defending AL East Champions added Drew Storen from the Washington Nationals along with JA Happ and a severely underrated Jesse Chavez to beef up their pitching staffs. There won't be many easy inter-division games this season, even the Rays and Orioles are pesky, and it's all going to come down to pitching.
The Yankees have a plethora of options in case one of their starters go down and Joe Girardi, as he loves to do, has a ton of options to mix and match in his bullpen as the season goes on. Names like Bryan Mitchell, James Kaprielian, Luis Cessa and Chad Green can step into the starting rotation alongside presumed long reliever Ivan Nova while the list of bullpen options for Girardi and the Yankees would take me until late into the weekend to list. To hit the high points you have Jacob Lindgren, James Pazos, Chasen Shreve, Nick Rumbelow, Nick Goody, Johnny Barbato, Kirby Yates and the minor league signings like Vinnie Pestano.
Could the options be better? Sure, most teams could say that though. Are there plenty of options now and plenty of insurance? Again, sure. As it stands now with everyone healthy and ready to go, obviously a lot can change between now and then. I'm just glad the Yankees have plenty of available arms ready for the arms race that will soon become the American League East Division.
* The title references a song by Fall Out Boy and is not my own. Send them the hate mail :)
Do you think with how things turned out with severino, they would be likely to do similar advancements with other pitchers? Or why he a more unique case
ReplyDeleteSeverino has a mid 90+ fastball, a killer change and a good workable slider. He will come inside on the hitters, likes to keep the ball low and has good C&C...one can't ask for much more than that. He is a bit on the small side but because of his delivery/motion he should be another Whitey Ford...which ain't bad brother!
ReplyDeleteYes, he was a special case!
Agreed. Severino was a special case. It doesn't mean Domingo Acevedo and others can't be a special case either.
DeleteI must say I am one of those Vicente Campos fans, he is making his way back from TJ surgury. Will be better this year than he was last year and could challange for a starter spot in 2017/18. The guy has great C&C on all three of his offerings. He has been rated very high and with good reason...great talent, and I think he will make a full recovery and be in the bigs in 2017...hopefully!
ReplyDeleteI've kind of forgotten about Campos to be honest. Tommy John surgery and a lackluster beginning to his tenure in pinstripes will do that to a guy I guess. He has a 40 man roster spot again so this is the season to essentially put up or shut up.
DeleteI liked what he had before the TJ surgery...in fact, I wrote about him saying he had more upside than Pineda.
DeleteHere I go again IF his stuff comes back we will have another young kid for the starting rotation.