Look on the Bright Side: Good Bullpen

Well, everyone has been saying that the one question mark that would surround the Yankees throughout the season would be its shaky starting rotation, especially since ace Chien-Ming Wang went down before the season began with an injured hamstring.  Well, those question marks have been answered with a starting staff that has been unable to go more than 5 innings and keep the opposing team scoring to a minimum.  And yet, despite awful starting pitching the Yanks have been able to win 2 games, sure, some of this can be attributed to the offense, but a good bullpen has allowed the Yankees to stay in these games.

Sean Henn has excelled replacing Ron Villone as the long-relief lefty.  A pitcher for contact, hitters have had trouble getting hits off him, and are forced to swing their bats because Henn has showed good control and has avoided giving out walks.  In 4.2 innings Henn has not given up a run.

Another surprise has been lefty-specialist turned reliable reliever Mike Myers.  Also in 4 innings, against both lefties and righties, Myers has also yet to give up a run.  Between the two left handers there has been nearly 9 innings of scoreless baseball, or the equivalent of an entire game. 

The most exciting reliever has been Brian Bruney, who not only has dominated in relief but been a life saver in close situations.  Despite only pitching 2 1/3 innings, Bruney has 6 strikeouts to only 1 walk, and of course like most of the bullpen he has not given up any runs.  Keeping the ball out of play in the latter innings is key in avoiding key errors or misplays to cost the team the game.  A flame-throwing strikeout guy such as Bruney may be the answer to the set-up or closer position when Rivera finally hangs up his spurs.

Statistically the bridge to Rivera hasn’t been this good in a while.  Granted that it is still extremely early in the season, the pitching woes that have plagued the starting staff whether it be the cold weather or simply ineffective mechanics has not spread to the bullpen, where they arent only saving games when the Yankees have the lead, but keeping them reachable when the Yankees dont.

Here’s to a continued success.