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Monday, March 21, 2016

Nova and CC are not worried... and the only people in the Yankiverse who feel that way

After a crummy outing yesterday - (4.1 innings, 4 runs) - Ivan Nova assured the Tampon Gammonites he's not worried - an Alfred E. Newmanesque view shared by Mr. CC Sabathia, following several even crummier outings.

Nobody's worried.

O, the vagaries of spring, Bobzyeruncle!

No problemos, muchacho, si? Sheriff Joe will think of something. Right now, he has CC and Nova "competing" to be 5th starter, with the loser becoming the swing man formerly known as Adam Warren. But why kid ourselves? The only way the Yankees drop CC from the rotation is if he's caught on a sex tape with Bubba the Love Sponge's wife. And they won't cut ties with Nova, because - in their view - he's on the verge of breaking out - at least, that's what they've figured for the last five years.

So yesterday, the people's 5th starter - Brian Mitchell - threw two more scoreless innings, lowering his spring ERA to 0.86 and easing Excalabur from the stone, before pushing it back into place. Mitchell is the one who should worry, because the Yankees are not paying him enough to use him. If they keep Nova as the sixth man, they'll want Mitchell to be stretched out as a starter, and the only way to do that will be buying him a ticket to Scranton.

The Yankee 2016 pitching staff was supposed to be our firewall, in case Boston or Baltimore dramatically improves. (They won't suck forever.) Pineda, Tanaka and Eovaldi are still young and strong, though none pitched more than 154 innings last year. And we may be putting too much pressure on Luis Severino, who is basically a second-year rookie. He threw just 62 MLB innings last year. How many would they have him do this year? I'm guessing 150, max. 

So that leaves us with the innings-eater, Sabathia. Last year, he threw 166 wretched innings, (4.73 ERA). No matter what happens this spring, come April 1, we're going to trot CC out there again - and again, and again. And when he goes down - of course, he'll go down - Nova will get the call. Last year, he threw 94 innings with an ERA over 5.00. 

But why worry? Neither can be much worse than last year. O, the vagaries of spring.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

No matter what CC or Nova do this year, they're not winning $115 million for having a catch with Mrs. Sponge.

Parson Tom said...

This spring has been a perfect microcosm of Nova's career: A couple of good ones that get your hopes up followed by a few lousies. Always with the goofy smile. That last part is kind of mean. Seems like a decent kid, but he just can't corral his talent and keep everything moving in the right direction at the same time. Maybe he'll put a Goose Gossage-autographed baseball in Jose Bautista's earhole before he gets traded? That would go a long way toward an invitation to future Old Timers Days.

As for CC, the Yankees will soon -- August? -- be paying him and his family lots of money to stay away. Nice work if you can get it, and payments are probably going to be more reliable than what Hulk Hogan's supposed to receive -- plus CC won't have to wear a bandanna all the time.

Brian Mitchell is fucked until he's traded. The Yankees don't know what to do with serviceable young pitchers who come up through the organization. This pattern goes back a long ways to Scott Proctor and others. If Girardi doesn't abuse his arm to the point that it's useless, Mitchell might be able to look forward to a career that really gets started with the Tigers, the Diamondbacks or the Mariners -- although Seattle might be out of the picture since they fired GM Jack.

Anonymous said...

TO ME, IT'S SIMPLE WITH NOVA......HE IS A 2 PITCH PITCHER, AND ESPECIALLY IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE, A STARTER ABSOLUTELY NEEDS AT LEAST 3 PITCHES.....NOVA HAS A DECENT FASTBALL, AND A REAL GOOD SLIDER, BUT IT ENDS THERE....HE NEEDS TO DEVELOP A RELIABLE 3RD PITCH, BUT YEAR AFTER YEAR, HE NEVER DOES......... IT'S A SHAME, FOR MITCHELL BECAUSE US YANKEE FANS WOULD RATHER SEE HIM (EVEN IF HE GETS HAMMERED), THAN CC.

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