Yankees Bullpen Shaping Up
The Yankees signed Chan Ho Park today. The deal is a one year deal worth about $1.2 million. The last time you may have seen Park was in the World Series as a member of the Phillies. Overall, his post season was mediocre having a 4.05 ERA in 6 and 2/3 innings. Park used to be a solid starting pitcher for the Dodgers when he first broke into the big leagues. Then he went to Texas where he saw his career implode. The five seasons while on Texas and others, his ERA never dipped below 5.00 as a starter. Then in 2008, the Dodgers gave him another chance and he responded with a 3.40 ERA for the year. His 2009 campaign started off shaky and once he became a full time reliever his numbers stabilized. After the all-star break he sported a 1.85 ERA in 24+ innings. Park will add some more depth to an already deep bullpen.
Rivera as always will be in the closer position dominating anyone and everyone. The eighth inning role has not been decided but it is either going to Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain. Ideally Hughes will win the fifth spot in the rotation and Chamberlain will remain as the closer in waiting. Chamberlain’s numbers are far superior coming out of the bullpen compared to a starter. In his career Chamberlain had an ERA of 1.50 and 79 strikeouts in 60 innings, compared with an ERA of 4.18 and 206 strikeouts in 220 innings. The choice with Chamberlain is a mediocre starter at this point or a dominant relief pitcher. Then after the eighth inning a number of different relievers could step up David Robertson, Alfredo “Ace” Aceves, or Chan Ho Park. Out of these three and Damaso Marte who will be primarily a specialist pitcher for lefties, the sixth and seventh innings should be taken care of. Last season, Robertson posted an ERA of 3.30 and 63 strikeouts in 43 innings. Aceves did a little of everything for the Yankees last season and had an ERA of 3.35 with 67 strikeouts in 80 innings as a reliever. Other members of the bullpen will be newly acquired Boone Logan, Sergio Mitre, Chad Gaudin, Edwar Ramirez, and Jonathan Albaladejo. Considering where the bullpen was at the beginning of last season, Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi have done an extremely good job retooling the bullpen. With all of this said, last year the Red Sox were thought to have a strong bullpen and ultimately the bullpen failed them against the Angeles in the playoffs.
Photo courtesy of Zimbio.com
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