As of right now, the New York Yankees, who are tied 1-1 with the Detroit Tigers, are planning on starting CC Sabathia in game 3 of the ALDS tonight. Sabathia started game 1 but went only 2 innings before the game was suspended by rain. Ivan Nova went a majority of the rest of the game, effectively taking him out of the starting rotation, and Freddie Garcia went in game 2. Even with the Yanks bringing CC back on only 2 days rest tonight, they need another starter for tomorrow’s game 4. Unfortunately, the options aren’t that great. Really they’re not even good: the Yankees can choose the ineffective Phil Hughes, the out of shape and fatigued Bartolo Colon, or the walking disaster that is AJ Burnett.
Manager Joe Girardi has announced that it is in fact Burnett that will get the call in tomorrow’s game 4 in Detroit. As a Yankee fan and someone with a heavy rooting interest in this series, I have only thing to say: “NOOOOOOO!!!!!” When you start Burnett you get all the terrible baggage that comes with him: the 95% chance of 5 or more runs being scored in a very short amount of time, the 80% chance of an on-mound meltdown, the near certainty of a wild pitch in a big spot and the guarantee of regretting the decision to give him the ball.
I don’t have a ton to say about this, I understand that Girardi doesn’t have a better option right now and I’m not sure who I’d start if I was in Joe’s situation but that doesn’t mean that this is a good idea. I really hope Burnett surprises me and the rest of the Yankee fans out there but I’m not counting on it. It seems to me that the entire Yankee season is going to depend on Ivan Nova beating Justin Verlander in game 5. That is not something I feel good about.
Stat of the Day: Robinson Cano has 26 career post season RBIs in only 38 games. Over the course of a 162 game season, that would be 111 RBIs.
-Max Frankel
