1. I wrote this column in today’s Post in which 12 experts from around the game were asked who is the best young starter in New York, Mike Pelfrey or Phil Hughes, and I was surprised by the result: Not that Hughes won the poll, but that he won 12-0.
That being said the Mets now have two starters in their mid-to-low 20s in Pelfrey and Jonathon Niese who look like long-term keepers while the Yanks have just Hughes in that category.
It makes you wonder about the Yanks’ future rotation. CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett are both signed for multiple years, but that big body and workload always worry Yankee officials about Sabathia’s long-term viability as an ace while Burnett is Burnett, which is to say not the most trustworthy starter around. Javy Vazquez is a free agent after this season, and unless the Yankees offer the righty arbitration and he then accepts, then Vazquez almost certainly will not be back in 2011.
Andy Pettitte will have an invitation to return on yet another one-year contract for 2011, but he contemplates retirement annually.
The Yanks like some pitchers in their system, maybe Ivan Nova or David Phelps to be a back-end starter as early as next year, and now Dellin Betances and Andrew Brackman are back pitching like aces of the future – but that is just at Single-A, meaning there are plenty of years and hurdles still to come.
This picture is among the strongest reasons that Cliff Lee is so associated with the Yankees, especially as a free agent in the offseason.
2. I think Joba Chamberlain is the A.J. Burnett of relievers for the Yankees. Like Burnett, he has elite stuff. Like Burnett, he does very little to enhance that elite stuff by having a high pitching IQ or by being able to slow the game down and limit damage when things are going badly. Like Burnett, Joba tends to be very good or very bad; there is almost never a middle ground.
Chamberlain has allowed runs in eight of his 30 outings this year. But in five of those eight innings, he has permitted multiple runs and in four of those he has yielded at least three runs.
The end result is a talented pitcher who underperforms his abilities. Does that sound like someone else on the Yankees staff? Mr. Burnett, please step forward.
3. The Mets have won seven in a row. They have won six straight on the road after beginning the year 8-18 away from Citi Field. They are 10 games over .500, dismissing themselves – temporarily anyway — from the shackles of last season and Jerry Manuel watches.
And now they have a fascinating nine-game gauntlet to either further this period of good feelings or, potentially, return some doubt.
In his excellent column today, my colleague and friend Mike Vaccaro points out some interesting data: That, at this moment, the Mets are 21-14 against teams with winning records and just 17-14 against sub-.500 clubs even after sweeping a six-game road trip against the horrible Orioles and Indians.
The Yankees, meanwhile, are 20-5 against the sub-.500 set and 21-20 against the better squads.
Yet the impression remains to doubt the Mets; to wonder if they are for real and can beat the better teams to be one of those better teams themselves. Well, these next nine games are not against weak sisters, there are three in the Bronx followed by home series against the Tigers and Twins.
It is quite a pre-All-Star Game test. Going 5-4 or better will not get the Mets an automatic bid into the playoffs. It will not whitewash every last vestiges of doubt about the recent past. But it sure will be another booster shot that these 2010 Mets are very much for real.