Key for rest of the season: bottom of the rotation
Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:48 pm
Wang and Pettitte are a terrific top two. Both of them give us innings and have relatively low ERAs. Clemens is a decent middle of the rotation starter who is going to keep us in games most of the time. He doesn't eat many innings but he's certainly better than the other options we would have. Our bullpen is fairly stabilized with Mo, Viz and Joba anchoring the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Edwar and Farnsworth are decent middle relievers, and I think Britton will be, but I need to see more. Our offense is terrific and there was never any question about that. I think we are fairly stable in all these regards. Of course it could be better but I'm not complaining.
However, the bottom of the rotation must pick up the slack. I think the world of Hughes, I think he is going to be terrific. But he has been pretty below average since he got off the DL. Kennedy I think will be good. I think Mussina might have something left. Two of these 3 are going to have to pick up the slack and start giving us quality starts. Since the end of July, we've got nothing from these two spots. We've gotten very little on a consistent basis from the 4 and 5 spots as a whole on the year. We have 29 games left, and our bottom of the rotation will likely start 10-12 of those games. They need to keep us in the game and give our offense a chance.
We used our top 3 starters against Boston at Yankee Stadium. We will likely do the same thing at Fenway. But the other 2 guys need to pick up the slack or we are going to lose any momentum we've had.
I'm not asking for perfection or anything, I understand there will be growing pains, and I don't care what their final season stats look like, but Kennedy and Hughes are the key to the rest of the season.
However, the bottom of the rotation must pick up the slack. I think the world of Hughes, I think he is going to be terrific. But he has been pretty below average since he got off the DL. Kennedy I think will be good. I think Mussina might have something left. Two of these 3 are going to have to pick up the slack and start giving us quality starts. Since the end of July, we've got nothing from these two spots. We've gotten very little on a consistent basis from the 4 and 5 spots as a whole on the year. We have 29 games left, and our bottom of the rotation will likely start 10-12 of those games. They need to keep us in the game and give our offense a chance.
We used our top 3 starters against Boston at Yankee Stadium. We will likely do the same thing at Fenway. But the other 2 guys need to pick up the slack or we are going to lose any momentum we've had.
I'm not asking for perfection or anything, I understand there will be growing pains, and I don't care what their final season stats look like, but Kennedy and Hughes are the key to the rest of the season.
