Change Occurs, But This is Ridiculous
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by user Harold Friend
LouGehrig
Kei Igawa typifies the Brian Cashman era. Last night, Kei was staked to a five run lead against the Mariners. He was on the mound (one cannot state that he "pitched") into the fifth inning, when he was mercifully removed after giving up singles to Jose Vidro and Raul Ibanez. The score at the time was Yankees 8, Mariners 6. The Mariners went on to score 8 runs in the inning on their way to a gruesome 15-11 victory.
Kei has pitched 30 2/3 innings this season, yielding 35 hits, 14 walks, and 27 earned runs. This has been the return on the Yankees investment of $26,000,194 paid to the Hanshin Tigers as the posting fee, plus another $20 million to Igawa for the privilege of the Yankees having his services for the next five seasons. The 194 after the $26,000,000 represents Igawa's 194 strikeouts in 2006. Now, that is a bargain.
In 2006, Igawa had a comeback season compared to the previous two years. He was 14-9 with a 2.97 ERA and 194 strikeouts in 209 innings. At the rate he is going this season, he would have to make over 40 starts to pitch 209 innings, which is a prospect that cannot please any Yankees fan. In 2003, Igawa had his best season, going 20-5 with a 2.80 ERA and 179 strikeouts, but over the next two seasons, he won only 27, lost 20, and had ERA's of 3.73 and 3.86 in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
Kei Igawa is not the Yankees primary problem and neither are injuries. The Yankees are a team with a pitching staff that lacks stability. In 2006, the top five Yankees starters with respect to games started were Randy Johnson (33), Chien-Ming Wang (33), Mike Mussina (32), Jaret Wright (27), and Shawn Chacon (11). Randy, Jaret, and Shawn are all gone. In 2005, the starters were Randy Johnson (34), Mike Mussina (30), Carl Pavano (17), Chien-Ming Wang (17), Kevin Brown (13). Jared Wright (13), Shawn Chacon (12) and Al Leiter (10). Yes, Pavano really did start 17 games in 2005. From 2001-2004, Yankees starters who have left include Javier Vazquez, Jon Leiber, Jose Contreras, Orlando Hernandez, Esteban Loaiza, Brad Halsey, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, David Wells, Jeff Weaver, Ted Lilly, Randy Keisler, Sterling Hitchcock, Adrian Hernandez, and Ramiro Mendoza.
No one denies that in the era of arena baseball, the emphasis is on offense because offense translates into dollars, but those who act surprised at the fact that in 2007 the Yankees have had 9 different pitchers start at least one game have not been paying attention to the Yankees' pitching staff in the Brian Cashman and Joe Torre era.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_Igawa
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/individual_stats_player.jsp?c_id=mlb&playerID=506432
http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/NYY/2006.shtml
