Thursday, September 20, 2007
Andy, You’re a Fine Hurl-er
Andy Pettitte had been a mainstay in the Yankees' rotation after his solid debut season in 1995. After nine seasons in pinstripes, he left for Houston in a move that ended up netting the Yankees a draft pick. They used that pick to take Phil Hughes. However, losing Pettitte was a tough blow.Pettitte's been a good pitcher, although I always felt he was overrated a bit during his time in pinstripes. His postseason reputation was overblown by some big games and his win totals tended to be a bit over-inflated thanks to playing for a very good team. That doesn't mean he hasn't been a good pitcher, just maybe not as good as the hype.
When I heard that Pettitte was close to returning, I liked the move. Pettitte projected to give the team 200 innings with an ERA in the high 3, low 4 area. With the way the offense projected that would have been fairly valuable. Instead, Pettitte has been even better than that this year. He's saved the team around 19 runs above an average pitcher and given the team innings. Outside of four bad starts in the middle of the year Pettitte's given the team 184 innings with a 3.08 ERA.
| Date | GS | W | L | CG | IP | TBF | H | HR | R | ER | SO | BB | ERA | RA |
| 4/6-6/14 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 92.0 | 377 | 91 | 5 | 35 | 30 | 50 | 26 | 2.93 | 3.42 |
| 5/20-7/6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 20.3 | 99 | 36 | 3 | 24 | 23 | 12 | 8 | 10.18 | 10.62 |
| 7/12-9/19 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 92.0 | 390 | 98 | 6 | 34 | 33 | 78 | 31 | 3.23 | 3.33 |
| Total | 32 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 204.3 | 866 | 225 | 14 | 93 | 86 | 140 | 65 | 3.79 | 4.10 |
| Date | FB% | GB% | LD% | RS | Stk% | BABIP | FIP | xFIP | HR/FB | BB/9 | K/9 |
| 4/6-6/14 | 31.5% | 51.7% | 16.8% | 15.3 | 62.6% | .295 | 3.67 | 4.39 | 0.05 | 2.5 | 4.9 |
| 5/20-7/6 | 35.1% | 40.3% | 24.7% | -12.9 | 62.5% | .429 | 5.12 | 5.10 | 0.11 | 3.5 | 5.3 |
| 7/12-9/19 | 33.0% | 47.0% | 20.1% | 16.3 | 62.2% | .330 | 3.36 | 3.95 | 0.07 | 3.0 | 7.6 |
| Total | 32.6% | 48.3% | 19.1% | 18.8 | 62.4% | .326 | 3.67 | 4.26 | 0.07 | 2.9 | 6.2 |
TBF : Total batters faced
FB% : Fly ball percentage
GB% : Ground ball percentage
LD% : Line drive percentage
FIP : Fielding Independent Pitching
xFIP : Expected Fielding Independent Pitching
HR/FB : HR per fly ball (league average is around 11%)
RS : Runs saved above average
Stk% : Strike percentage
BABIP : Batting average on balls in play
Last night's win was Pettitte's 200th of his career, and it helped the Yankees pick up another game on Boston and Detroit. Kudos to Brian Cashman on an astute move for bringing back Pettitte on a one year deal with an option.
The Yankees' schedule is harder than Boston's over the rest of the season so the division is still unlikely to me, but at this point in the season we can't predict or project anything. It sure has been a fun ride though.
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