Via Chad Jennings of the Journal News:
Andy Pettitte sounded much more encouraged today than he did on Friday. He threw 35 pitches in the bullpen, and despite a plan to throw with the same intensity as last time, Pettitte said the last 20 pitches or so were like a normal bullpen session.
“I heated it up pretty good,” he said. “I just felt good.”
Pettitte guessed that two weeks is the soonest he could possibly be ready, but he was encouraged by how strong his arm felt. He graded it a nine out of 10.
“My arm bounced back big time,” he said.
That’s great news from Pettitte. Any further setbacks would have hurt him and the Yankees because the minor league season is coming to a close and it would be hard to find a place for Pettitte to pitch to get ready to face major leaguers.
They are saying that two weeks is the earliest that Andy will come back. That would mean a September 12th return against the Rangers in Texas, but I think a more realistic estimation would be later in the week.
The Yankees are playing the Orioles starting September 17th. If Pettitte is limited to about 75-80 pitches in his first game back it would be much more wise to do that against the Orioles later on than to rush him back against a possible playoff opponent if he can’t go deep into a game.
That would be a good warm up for him before he would have to face both the Rays and the Red Sox in the final weeks of the season.
Those are big starts for the Yankees and they’re going to need Pettitte out there because as good as Dustin Moseley has been (I know he hasn’t been amazing, but he’s done the job), you do not want him starting those big games against the division rivals in the final weeks of the season.
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