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As I did yesterday, I’d like to address something before I get started. It seems as though Angels fans are being pressured into rooting for a Freeway Series. I myself am tired of the Dodgers and their fans who look down on us, who refuse to even recognize us as apart of this city. I would never root for the Red Sox or Yankees so that the Angels could face them. In the same way I can not get myself to root for the Dodgers. Now back to the Yankees.
Yankees Bullpen
In my view the back end of the bullpen for the Yankees in the playoffs is their biggest strength; however, I also felt this way about the Red Sox and we all know what happened. The Yankees will feature Joba Chamberlain usually in the 7th inning, Phil Hughes in the 8th, and Mariano Rivera in the 9th. Most would probably expect Chamberlain in the 8th but he was featured in the 7th during the ALDS. Also during the playoff’s it is rare if the Yankees go more than five deep into their bullpen, so that’s where our analysis will end.
Phil Coke
Season: (60 IP, 49 k’s, 21 holds, 4.5 era)
Against Angels This Season: (3 IP, 4 k’s, 2 holds, 12.00 era)
Playoffs: (0.2 IP, 2 k’s, 0 era)
Phil Coke is primarily the Yankees left handed specialist. But as you can see he continues the Yankee trend poor performances against the Angels.
Chad Gaudin
Season: (147 IP, 139 k’s, 6 wins, 4.64 era)
Against Angels This Season: (7.2 IP, 4 k’s, 2 holds, 11.74 era)
Playoffs: (3.1 IP, 1k’s, 0 era)
Gaudin and Chamberlain could both possibly be used for the fourth rotation spot. It is however, more likely that the Yankees will go with a three man rotation and he will be out of the bullpen as a long reliever. But again, no Angel success.
Joba Chamberlain
Season: (157 IP, 133 k’s, 9 wins, 4.75 era)
Against Angels This Season: (8.1 IP, 6 k’s, 5.40 era)
Playoffs: (5.1 IP, 5 k’s, 3.38 era)
We all know about Mr. Chamberlain. It appears that the trend continues, but remember these numbers were at a starter so we’ll see.
Phil Hughes
Season: (86 IP, 96 k’s, 18 holds, 3.03 era)
Against Angels This Season: (4 IP, 3 k’s, 2 BS, 2.25 era)
Playoffs: (7 IP, 9 k’s, 3.52 era)
Finally, positive numbers against the Angels. I guarantee the Yankees know this and may try and use Hughes for more than one inning at a time.
Mariano Rivera
Season: (66.1 IP, 72 k’s, 44 saves, 1.76 era)
Against Angels This Season: (4 IP, 5 k’s, 4 holds, 0 era)
Playoffs: (121 IP, 100 k’s, 0.74 era)
It would be pretty nice if the Angels could avoid this guy. There is no question that if the Yankees are ahead in the 9th it’s game over. However, I still give the Angels the advantage in the bullpen. The 6th and 7th innings will be a huge problem for the Yankees if their starter don’t go long enough.
Stay tuned tomorrow for the final piece of “Taking Apart the Yankees”.
- Tony C
9 responses to "Taking Apart The Yankees - Bullpen"
Your evaluation of the Yankees bullpen leaves out quite a bit.
1) For “starters” you are only looking at 5 pitchers, 2 of which were starters for the majority of the season.
2) Gaudin is probably one of the least likely people you will see coming out of the bullpen. I would imagine Alfredo Aceves, and David Robertson would both be called to pitch before Gaudin.
3) Marte or Bruney may be carried and also may be on the depth chart ahead of Gaudin, especially if a game 4 starter is needed.
4) Your “Against Angels This Season” is somewhat hurt because of the small sample size. All of these pitchers have had relatively good seasons. Two or three appearances vs the angels isn’t going to be very represenative of how good they are. Phil Coke’s 12.00 era in 3 IP tells us no more then his 4k’s in 3 IP vs the Angels. Based on that logic his K per 9 would be 12 va LAA, which is way above his season average. It doesn’t tell us much about expected performance.
This has to be the worst analysis I have ever read. Have you ever heard of a thing called “small sample size”? Have you ever taken a second to objectively analyze anything? Or is it possible that this, being an Angels blog, is just going to contain nothing but ridiculous homer nonsense and no objective analysis.
Coke pitched against the Angels 4 times this year. Three of those outings were perfect (1 win, 2 holds). The fourth, right before the All-Star Break, he got hit hard for 4 runs in an inning. OBJECTIVELY, it appears that Coke has pitched very well against the Angels in pressure spots, 3 out of 4 times.
Alfredo Aceves, not Chad Gaudin, is the fifth guy out of the NYY bullpen. He appeared against LAA twice this year, both in September - one OK, one not so good. Overall 0-0, 4 IP, 6.75 ERA.
Chamberlain, lifetime as a reliever against LAA 3 IP, 2H, 0R, 6K.
NYY Bullpen (only pitchers who will be on ALCS roster) for 2009 - 3.19 ERA, 9.35 K/9 inn.
Actually, I think it’s pretty obvious that the Yankees’ biggest strength is that everyone in their lineup can mash, except maybe for Melky Cabrera. Their bullpen is solid, but pales in comparison to their offense.
That said, you didn’t even mention Dave Robertson, a lefty who strikes out a LOT of guys, or Alfredo Aceves, who was key for them as a two or three inning reliever during the season. I think both of those guys will be more important than Gaudin, at least.
As for how they match up against the Angels? I’m a huge Angels fan, but I find it very hard to give the Angels the edge in the bullpen. Darren Oliver is pitching better than any of the Yankee lefties, but other than that, Rivera > Fuentes, Hughes > Jepsen, Chamberlain = Bulger, and we have no idea how good Santana will be relative to Aceves. The Angels have the edge in starting pitching, but the Yanks are better in the bullpen.
… You’re drawing conclusions from five-inning samples? Really?
Also, if you’re giving the Yanks a five-man pen, it’s Mo/Hughes/Aceves/Robertson/Chamberlain.
David Robertson is NOT a lefty
…Robertson is not a lefty,as Mickey noted, but he does have a high strike-out rate and misses lots of bats. He’s a key part of the Yankees power pitchers that the Angels will face. (Gaudin is there for emergency length.) As many have stated, if you’re going to focus on five relievers, then they are Rivera, Hughes, Chamberlain, Robertson and Aceves.
I can see the desire to add in Coke since you want to have one lefty in there, but that’s part of the problem of limiting your analysis of the Yankee pen to just five. The way Girardi manages, Coke and Marte will be used regularly if both are on the roster.
This has already been mentioned, but:
1. No Aceves, no Robertson? You are guaranteed to see these pitchers in the ALCS.
2. Robertson is NOT a lefty (just to repeat).
If you’re going to look at the stats specifically against the Angels this year, and 5 innings is all that one pitcher has accrued, then this is all you have to go with. We weren’t going to go through every outing that they pitched against the Angels and break it down to justify their numbers. And never in the article did it say that these guys didn’t perform well all season. I think you’re missing the fact that we also provided their season stats right alongside their stats against the Angels and their performance in the postseason thus far. We just posted the numbers and provided commentary on their overall performance.
My bad about Robertson. I’d thought I saw mentioned somewhere that he was a lefty, but I think I got him confused with Coke. My apologies.
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