Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Courant.com: Yankees Rotation Forced To Regroup
NEW YORK - Though the Yankees (17-16) showed significant fight over the weekend, shaking their hitting funk and sweeping the Mariners to recoup the three losses to the Tigers last week, there are serious questions about their starting rotation.
At the moment, it’s Andy Pettitte, Mike Mussina and Chien-Ming Wang - then everything goes wrong. It was enough to have co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner, who was talked out of trading Hughes and Kennedy for Johan Santana, doubting the Yankees can make the playoffs in his most recent rant.
“You’d like for things to go exactly the way you planned it,” general manager Brian Cashman said, “but if you truly have a strong organization, then when someone struggles, there is going to be someone else you can turn to.”
On Sunday, that candidate was Darrell Rasner, a career minor leaguer who replaced Kennedy and threw six innings to get a win. So for this week Rasner’s in, but a No.5 starter hasn’t been identified, with Kei Igawa the logical but far-from-inspiring option.
You can’t be upset with what Wang, Mussina, and Pettitte have given the team. Everything Moose has provided is almost enough to make you forget about the Hughes and Kennedy starts. Almost. But if Kei Igawa ends up starting for this team at any point this season it may get ugly. Really ugly.
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