To report that Andy Pettitte will be back on the mound for the New York Yankees in 2010 is no more surprising than saying they will play their home games in the beautiful, new mini-park known as Yankee Stadium. Yet, ESPN reported it today.
If you will still be 37 until just before the All-Star break, and you can make at least $6,000,000 playing a game with other grown millionaires, where would the big surprise be that you intend to come back?
Pettitte had a very good year in 2009, especially when we use modern-day pitching records as a backdrop. With 14 wins, that is just one or two shy of Cy Young contention. Am I right?
Even though Andy failed to complete any of the 32 games he started, that is what they pay bullpens for. The entire Yankee staff only had three complete games, two for C.C. Sabathia and one for A.J. Burnett. Sabathia also recorded the lone shutout for the staff.
His record in 2009 was better than it was the year before. He completed 2009 with a 14-8 mark, 4.16 ERA and struck out nearly twice as many batters as he walked. Is he attempting a Hall of Fame run?
I don't feel that he has accomplished nearly enough to gain entrance into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Especially when you have pitchers such as Bert Blyleven , Tommy John , and Jim Kaat : each with basically the same number of wins (283-288) and a much better ERA than Pettitte, who can't get inside without a ticket.
He has been playing in MLB for 15 seasons, all but three with pin-stripes. He was with the Houston Astros from 2004-2006, where he was 37-26, with a very good ERA (again, by today's standards) of 3.38. He ranks third all time in Yankee lore with 192 wins, sixth in innings pitched with 2,406, and third in strikeouts with 1,722.
What would the legacy of Andy Pettitte be if he retired now? Would he be too easily associated with the steroid crowd ? Is he trying to outrun that image? Could that be why he wants to play more? Would he be remembered for his two 21-win seasons? How about his post-season work? He has won 18 and lost only nine with an ERA of 3.90 in 40 post-season starts.
Did you ever wonder what, if any, relationship he has with Roger Clemens? Remember how he threw Rog under the old proverbial bus back when Clemens couldn't even pop-up from his hole and look for his shadow? I don't think too many hold that against him, probably just the "gangster type" element who can't tolerate snitches.
It should come as a shock to absolutely nobody that Pettitte will be back. The only thing left to haggle about is how many millions of dollars he deserves. He played all of the '09 season making about one-third of what he made in the previous season. At $5.5M, how did the boy get by? All joking aside, that is a big party-buster when you just made $16M for two straight seasons.
If the rest of the teams find out how much performance 33 percent will buy these days, we could see a completely new landscape; fiscally speaking of course.
So, just to be clear, is anyone surprised that Andy will be back in 2010?
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