Alfredo Aceves Deserves Another Shot in the New York Yankees’ Rotation
August 11, 2009 · Nick Klopsis · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
It’s no secret that the fifth and final spot in the starting rotation has been an Achilles’ heel for the New York Yankees this season.
In spite of the team’s great overall strength, Yankees fans have recently found themselves holding their breath whenever Sergio Mitre takes the hill, praying that he can keep the game close enough for their explosive offense to do its thing.
Even though the Yankees have won three of Mitre’s five starts this season, it’s not because of the 28-year-old right-hander.
Since being called up to fill Chien-Ming Wang’s rotation spot on July 21, Mitre has averaged four-and-two-thirds innings per start, has allowed no less than three runs in any of his appearances, and sports a 1.91 WHIP and .373 BAA to go with his 7.04 ERA.
With numbers like that, you’d be lucky to have a spot on a local beer league softball team, much less pitch every fifth day for the Yankees.
During the latest post-game conference, manager Joe Girardi said that Mitre would make his next scheduled start. However, with all of the options available for the Yankees, you have to think that the Mitre experiment is coming to a close very soon.
So now the question becomes, “Who should take Mitre’s spot in the rotation?”
For quite some time now, the Yankees have been collecting veteran arms like a geek collects old comic books. Retreads like Russ Ortiz, Jason Hirsh, and Chad Gaudin have cropped up as potential replacements, and while the Yankees hope that one of these starters could end up becoming the 2009 version of Aaron Small, chances are that none of those names will be able to provide any significant impact right out of the gate.
Which brings me to Alfredo Aceves.
I wrote an article earlier on how Aceves was the Yankees’ “secret weapon”, a guy who flew completely under the radar, while quietly posting very solid numbers out of the bullpen.
Since then, “Ace” has continued to assert his role as one of the most dependable relievers for the Yankees this season. Primarily a long-relief man, he has done everything from closing out games to pitching on short rest when needed.
Think Ramiro Mendoza circa 1996.
Where Mitre has failed this season, Aceves has picked up the slack, keeping the Yankees in the game once Mitre gets the hook.
So why should Aceves—and not Gaudin, Ortiz, or even Mr. Scranton himself, Kei Igawa—replace Mitre in the starting rotation?
Aceves has quite a bit of starting experience in his young career. In addition to a spot start he made back on July 5, Aceves saw extensive time in the rotation in September 2008, when he pitched extremely well in four spot starts for the Yankees and their then-injury-decimated pitching staff.
If Girardi were to put Aceves into the rotation, now would probably be the best time to do so. Aceves has slowly seen his innings increase over his past five appearances, meaning his arm is getting stretched out more and more each time out. And he has regained his effectiveness since taking some time off earlier to rest his tired arm.
It might not be too big of a stretch for the Yankees to give “Ace” another shot in the rotation and leave the newly-acquired Gaudin as the long-reliever just in case Aceves were to falter.
If Aceves were to pitch well in his first few starts, then that’s great—they can leave him there for the stretch run and possibly into October. Problem solved.
If not, it wouldn’t necessarily be a big loss, as they can return him to his regular relief duties and summon a veteran from Triple-A to plug the hole, so long as it’s not Mitre.
In any event, the Yankees must act quickly if they want to fix one of their most glaring weaknesses and prevent it from being their downfall come crunch time, and Alfredo Aceves just might be the best man for the job.
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