Me Put Best Starter In Bullpen Now!

“I’m not concerned with when I start throwing again. I’m concerned with trying to touch my shoulder right now."

So said Chase Whitley after watching Nova pitch last night, just a month into his recovery process. I miss Chase Whitley. And that's the first time I've ever said that about anyone or anything named Chase, since the character on "House" was kind of a jerk and my bank is the only other Chase I know (who ever misses their bank?).

The scuttlebutt sez Warren is going to be sent to the bullpen after tonight. And that's total Bizarro baseball.

You are never welcome to
Yankee baseball, from the Sunoco
booth of no broadcasting.

Here are the pitching match-ups against Houston. (Note to tourists in New York City: hew-stun is the city; how-stun is the street...and that other street isn't green-witch, either.)

Tonight
RHP Adam Warren (5-4, 3.62) vs. LHP Dallas Keuchel (8-3, 2.35)

Friday
RHP Nathan Eovaldi (6-2, 4.95) vs. RHP Vince Velasquez (0-0, 4.15)

Saturday
RHP Masahiro Tanaka (4-3, 3.17) vs. LHP Brett Oberholtzer (2-1, 2.81)

Sunday
RHP Michael Pineda (8-4, 4.25) vs. RHP Collin McHugh (8-3, 4.80)

I don't know about you, but the game I feel best about is tonight with Warren on the mound. Our starters have otherwise all caught the Yankees Bullpen Disease. You know the YBD symptoms:  every outing is a crapshoot, every pitch a potential melon ball, every member of the staff who isn't named Betances or Miller is more than likely going to let you down. True, at the beginning of the season, Warren was hardly Superman, but that's changed as dramatically as Kent in a phone booth, especially compared to the Jimmy Olsen performances our other starters have turned in recently.

Eovaldi? Feh. Tanaka? Either he's losing it or other teams have figured him out since his Metrolpolis debut. Pineda? If we could only find a way to get that foreign substance back on him where it won't be seen but can be used...

CC, of course, gets to stay in the rotation because he's making a lot of money. That's sound Bizarro baseball thinking. Capistrano was sent to the bullpen, which was also Bizarro thinking because he should be gone, period. If Girardi has any brains he'll never bring him in unless there's 15-run differential (yeah, you know he's gonna bring him in a lot more often than that; I said IF he has any brains, and we know the reality of that situation).

So given all the choices, what's going to happen? Warren will be sent to the bullpen because paychecks trump merit every time in Bizarro baseball.

Thank God Drew is back from baby leave. At least we'll have a sub-.200 hitter in the lineup tonight! That great! Lineup clogged with lousy .250-plus guys. Me bench them if me could! Maybe ask Magic Binder for permission...