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March 16, 2008
Madden: Two Rookies In Rotation Means No Ring This Year
Via Bill Madden today -
Pitchers that inexperienced almost never lead their team to the World Series. Hughes is technically not a rookie but for all intents and purposes he is, just 22 2/3 innings over the requirement. And with the rookie Kennedy joining him in the rotation and possibly rookie Joba Chamberlain later in the season, the Yankees, if you're judging by history, are longshots.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, there has never been a World Series team with two rookies making a minimum of just 25 starts apiece, let alone 30-34! When that number is scaled back to 20, only four teams have reached the World Series.
The four teams are: the 1982 Cardinals with Dave LaPoint and John Stuper; the 1976 Reds with Santo Alcala and Pat Zachry; the 1952 Dodgers with Ben Wade and Billy Loes; and the 1940 Tigers with Hal Newhouser and Johnny Gorsica.
But the Yankees are relying much more on their young pitchers than any of those teams did. Alcala, for instance, wasn't even on the Reds' postseason roster in '76, Wade didn't make an appearance in the '52 Series for the Dodgers and, of all of them, only Newhouser went on to greatness.
"Because of the pitch-count issue, I really can't put a number on how many starts (Hughes and Kennedy) will make," said Yankee manager Joe Girardi.
Ah yes, the pitch-count issue, yet another factor that would seem to mitigate against the two rookies being able to deliver what the Yankees are going to need to reach the postseason. Conceivably, a lot of their starts will be limited to five innings - or less - over fear of them achieving their preordained season pitch count.
I wonder if the 1982 Cardinals, 1976 Reds, 1952 Dodgers, and 1940 Tigers also had a 39-year old pitcher, like Mike Mussina, in their rotation too?
Posted by Steve Lombardi at March 16, 2008 09:48 AM
Comments
So I guess the Red Sox aren't going anywhere either then, since they're going to be leaning just as heavy on Buchholz and Lester, along with Wakefield getting a huge brunt of starts thanks to Schilling being out, eh?
Posted by: B ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.waswatching.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 16, 2008 01:21 PM
Madden predicting failure for the Yanks? He must be your new best friend. I kid, I kid...
But seriously... Isn't it funny how everyone always screamed that the Yankees needed young pitching and to get away from these creaky free agents, and every time we faced some hot young prospect the media and fans would suck their thumbs and whine "Oh, I wish WE had a pitcher like that," and now that we have THREE good young pitchers and more on the way, they say you can't win with young pitching?
I mean, make up your mind already. I had some back-and-forths with Madden about the farm system through E-mail and he bitched and moaned about the lack of depth and how they had wasted their draft picks. Now they've done something productive with those draft picks -- in the form of three good pitchers -- and he's still whining.
Posted by: baileywalk at March 16, 2008 05:06 PM
Heh, that's rich. First Murray Chass's moldy corpse. Now Bill Madden. Keen baseball minds think alike, I guess.
Posted by: Harley at March 16, 2008 07:01 PM
last i checked Phil Hughes is no longer a rookie
Posted by: Yu Hsing Chen at March 18, 2008 06:12 AM