Joba Chamberlain Is Pretty Good – Everyone knew Joba was good coming out of the bullpen, which of course led to a lot of stupid arguments saying he should stay there. Well guess what, he was pretty damn good starting games too (which was not really a surprise). His twelve starts were varied but they all showed that if he can stay healthy, Joba is quite clearly the real deal. The only aggravating thing about his year was that he was unable to hit his innings cap due to his injury–the team made a strange decision to put him back in the bullpen rather than stretching him out in games again. The good news is, so far the team says he will be a starter all next season.
Mike Mussina’s Golden Year – The cranky old man started out as he had pitched pretty much the whole year in 2007 and lots of people wanted him out. I admit, I was one of these people. He was trying to pitch the way he did when he threw his fastball considerably faster. Then, apparently at the urging of Kevin Eiland, he went and reinvented himself and what happened was incredibly fabulous. His four-seamer still borders 90 but Moose all but abandoned it to throw a two seamer that had great movement and his wide variety of secondary pitches. He pitched 200 innings, won 20 games, stayed healthy the whole year and walked virtually no one all year (1.39BB/9, 4.84K/BB). While it’s unlikely he’d post an ERA+ of 128 in 2009, it’s clear that if Mussina comes back he’ll likely be above-average and average at worst. It was a surprising and awesome resurgence from a great pitcher and really the best thing about the season. In early August, the Hardball Times published an article about “The Mussina Renassance” that is worth reading if you want a more in-depth look at his year.
Where Did This Bullpen Come From? – Brian Bruney showed up to Spring Training half the man he used to be with (at least) twice the control over his pitches, Edwar Ramirez made himself useful with the addition a cutter, Jose Veras was good most of the time (sort of) and Kyle Farnsworth put in a mostly good 3/4 of a season with the team. The Yankees bullpen ERA went from 22nd in MLB in 2007 (4.35) to 7th in 2008 (3.78). That is what you call a huge improvement, and even Damaso Marte could not completely screw things up. The weak point was that they ranked in the bottom third of the league in homeruns surrendered (and a lot of that is Edwar, who while useful gets hit very hard when he is hit at all), however they came in fourth in SLG overall. It was really great to see Bruney, who has always had killer stuff, find command hopefully it wasn’t a fluke. David Robertson hit some bumps but he is very young and will hopefully find his stride next year, some guy named Mark Melancon will in all likelihood be joining the team as well.
Saint Mariano Rivera – The season Mariano had was really amazing, and if some bespectacled blowhard hadn’t set a superfluous record, it would be getting a lot more attention. Here’s the total line for the season:
6-5, 70.7IP, 41H, 11R, 11ER, 4HR, 6BB, 77K, 1.40ERA, .665WHIP
Just look at that. Six walks all season. Six. That is ridiculous and gives him a K/BB of 12.83. The only season from a relief pitcher that outshines that in recent history in terms of K/BB and WHIP is Dennis Eckersley’s 1990 (which was better than Mariano’s 2008). Funnily enough, the season Eckersley posted was overshadowed by Bobby Thighpen’s record setting saves year.
