Tagged: David Phelps

Feeling better about Kuroda

So Hiroki Kuroda turned in his second straight strong performance last night. That makes three out of his last four. It looks as though he is figuring things out and that is encouraging, because there is no way the Yankees can win the division the way the starting rotation was performing for most of April.

 
Also, it looks as if Andy Pettitte will get one more start before entering the rotation. He was up to 96 pitches yesterday and after one more outing later this week, he should be ready sometime next week. Phil Hughes better be looking over his shoulder, because he is the next to go. I fully expect David Phelps to be better than Freddy Garcia. It would be hard to be much worse. Phelps’ biggest strength is that he throws strikes. Good to see D.J. Mitchell up in the bigs as well. I believe that he is just as capable as Phelps. Adam Warren could be next if needed.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad April, considering how bad the rotation was, 13-9 against some pretty good competition was OK, particularly after an 0-3 start in Tampa.   If they get the starters squared away, it could be a pretty good month of May.

Hughes This Guy Pitching for The Yankees?

Well this is beginning to be a familiar pattern. I predicted yesterday 5 plus innings and at least 4 runs. That proved to be an optimistic projection. Phil Hughes has been consistently bad as a starter for a very long time. Why they keep running him out there is beyond me. I for one, have seen enough. I believe that Phelps, if given the opportunity, is a better pitcher. I know he got beat up last night as well, but I don’t believe it is a reflection of his ability as a starter when you bring him in from the bullpen.

Of more concern to me is the Yankees seeming inability to develop pitchers. Hughes has talent, but he is terrible as a starter. Pineda is gone for the year, so obviously the treatment plan for him was flawed. Banuelos is on the DL with a bad back. Betances has been terrible at AAA. Joba is most probably gone for the year. These guys all have talent, but the Yankees can not seem to find a way to develop them. There is more pitching talent in the minors, but who knows if the Yankees will be able to develop that talent into some effective starting pitchers. Very discouraging. I fully expect this Yankees team to score enough runs to beat up on the weaker teams and win enough games to make it to the playoffs, but this team still does not have enough pitching to consistently beat the good teams. Hopefully things will get better as the year goes on, but I don’t see a path to success right now.

Ivan Nova wins again

You can say what you want about Ivan Nova. The one thing a starting pitcher is supposed to do is give his team a chance to win. Nova has done that 14 straight times now. Is he perfect? No. He makes mistakes and he pays for them. But he comes right back and attacks the next hitter and generally gets them out. His record last year was no fluke and he will only get better. I am looking forward to watching him pitch for the Yankees for a very long time. I know the Yankees are counting on Betances and Banuelos to possibly crack the rotation next year, but both are struggling right now at AAA and Banuelos is hurt. When they get a guy like Nova, they have struck gold. It looks as if David Phelps is going to be a decent pitcher as well. He may be the one to crack the rotation next year. Regardless, it was a good performance by Nova and a nice win. And how about that monster shot from Ibanez? Wow! Not sure how good this team will be this year, but they have the potential to be every bit as good as last year if not better.