Thursday, July 12, 2007

The Bullpen- C-

This was expected to be one of the Yankees' strengths. They were thought to have one of the top 5 bullpens in the league. After all they had one of the best LOOGY's in baseball in Mike Myers, a workhorse in Scott Proctor, flamethrowing Kyle Farnsworth and Brian Bruney, another solid reliver in Luis Vizcaino, another hard throwing lefty in Sean Henn, a nice young reliever in Chris Britton, and obviously Mariano. Instead what happened was everything collapsed. Britton was left down in the minors, Myers suddenly couldn't get lefties out, Farnsworth and Bruney lost any control they once had, Vizcaino couldn't throw a SO, Torre seemed to want Proctor to break the record for IP by a reliever in a single season, and Mariano was underused and as a result pitched poorly. In Scranton though Edwar Ramirez had an ERA close to 1.00 with a changeup that's earned him the nickname El Cambio (The Change). Chris Britton, Ben Kozlowski, and Jim Brower were also pitching very well. Cashman refused to call up any of these guys until close to the ASB when Ramirez was finally called up. In Ramirez's first start he pitched one inning and struck out the side in a perfect inning. The Yankees can make this bullpen a lot better just by looking within the organization. Luis Vizcaino has also seemingly turned his season around. Ron Villone has also done well while pitching in blow outs. Rivera has done better since getting regular playing time. This bullpen can be great but right now is just mediocore and sometimes terrible.

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