Comments on: When Was The Last Time The Yanks Had 2 Effective Lefties In their Pen?

By: Johnny Twisto

Johnny Twisto — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:42:58 +0000

In '04 and '05, I don't think they even had a lefty in their pen. Really upset me that the highest paid team in the league could be assembled with no lefty reliever. (*Checking, I remember Felix Heredia and Gabe White were around in '04, but they were horrendous.) Then the last couple years they had Mike Myers, who pitched decently, but I believe actually was better against righties. Sort of flukey, but it is what it was. Chris Hammond makes the list above, but he was actually more effective against righties. So the Yanks haven't had an effective lefty on lefty reliever since Stanton in '02, and I doubt Billy Traber will put an end to that.

By: Jgeller

Jgeller — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:41:57 +0000

perhaps we can look at the Yankees in another light that proves your point that it's been a while since they've had strong lefties.
since 2000, there have been 115 seasons with the above criteria, an average of 3.83 per team, and the Yankees, one of the perenial top teams, only has 3. since 2004, the numbers are 48 total and 0 Yankees.
the Yankees might want to fix that soon, as since 2000, out of the 16 playoff teams, 11 had a lefty with this criteria.

By: David in Toledo

David in Toledo — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:25:30 +0000

Thanks! P-I doesn't go back to 1954 yet, but in that year the Indians had rookie Don Mossi (1.02 WHIP, 190 ERA+) and veteran 2-time MVP Hal Newhouser (7-2 record, 7 saves for 46 innings) in their bullpen.