Depth Necessary

Back with more commentary on Joel Sherman’s latest. Here’s what Sherman had to say in regards to pitching depth, and specifically what went wrong in 2008 (and what should go right in 2009).

But as a way to gain a window into their offseason thinking, let’s give the Yanks essentially the rotation they desire: Sabathia, Burnett, Pettitte (Mussina is leaning stronger toward retirement), Wang and Chamberlain.

The Yanks want a deep rotation because it gives them a chance to win any game. Nevertheless, it also allows the Yanks to potentially form a Triple-A rotation from among Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Jeff Marquez, Chase Wright, Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke.

In four of the past five years, major league teams have used between 302 and 304 starters. That means 10 per team on average. So you better imagine a functional second rotation when building a team.

By force feeding Hughes and Kennedy last year, the Yanks not only put unready youngsters into 40 percent of the rotation, they also left themselves with such poor depth that Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson had to eventually become answers. The Yanks want to make sure Hughes, Kennedy and all their prospects earn their way to the majors from now on and also that there is young depth at Triple-A to counter the inevitable performance or injury issues.

Also by fortifying with free-agent starters, the Yanks believe they can more comfortably trade from the minor league stockpile now than they could last offseason with Santana.

Pitching depth is essential and to have a stockpile of arms is necessary for every team. Now, last offseason, most of the Yankee blogs that I visited, including my own, here, were pretty content with giving Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes their respective chances in the Yankee rotation. However, we were essentially blinded by our young talent as many of us failed to question the lack of depth on the farm. Yes, there was depth in terms of talent, but in terms of “ready to pitch in the Bronx talent”, the Yankees were missing that, as it was depleted after IPK and Hughes were promoted (and they, in fact, weren’t ready either). I certainly apologize to readers for not questioning this lack of depth a bit more.

As sherman notes, that’s why the Yankees had to go with Rasner and Ponson. There were no attractive, secondary options and, therefore, the IPK-Hughes promotion turned out to be a losing strategy. What’s funny is that the Yankees didn’t trade Hughes and IPK for this reason (lack of pitching depth), yet they didn’t take the potential ineffectiveness into account. By adding established free agents this winter, the Yankees will bolster the depth of their minor league rotations (AAA and down), which will provide them with better choices if the injury bug ravages the team in 2009. Check out this post by Chad Jennings as he actually tries to sort out that abundance of pitching (Props to RAB). This will also allow the Yankees to trade for a solid OF or 1B, if they feel that the depth is adequate enough.

While the Yankees had a tough season and are sure to have an interesting offseason, they’re actually in a great position to create a winning team for years. Money which will be used to sign younger starters will help and their influx of pitching talent will maybe net them a young and controllable position player. I still think that they’ll go after Mark Teixeira, since he won’t cost them talent, but things are definitely bright despite the absence of a playoff berth.