Surge for Scherzer

By: Vince Pitzulo

Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda, CC Sabathia, Nathan Eovaldi and Chris Capuano look like a pitching rotation worth 80 wins in another potential disappointing season for the Yankees. Pineda and Sabathia are disabled list regulars, Eovaldi has a power arm but has not shown consistency yet and Capuano has only had one season where he was over .500 in 2005. Tanaka is an ace without much question unless he goes through a sophomore slump as many pitchers have coming from Japan.
This leads me to thinking, why not put everything they can into signing free agent Max Scherzer? In his past three seasons he has an incredible stat line of 55 wins to only 15 loses. His earned run average has been at 3 or lower. Most importantly he is only 30 years old and is a workhorse on the bump who will get you at least 200 innings a season.

The starting rotation I said at the top again is about an 80 win staff, throw in Scherzer and take Capuano out and that takes the Yankees from middle of the road, to a contender. Picture this, having Tanaka and Scherzer at the top of the rotation who are both capable of having 20 win seasons, Pineda who if healthy has shown to be very effective, then Sabathia, Eovaldi, Capuano and Ivan Nova fill in the back end of the rotation. With a bullpen that will be better than last years, that pitching staff as a whole would bring a lot of excitement to New York.

As always the American League East this upcoming season is going to be a battle for first place. All of the other teams in the division have made big moves to improve their teams while the Yankees have only signed reliever Andrew Miller in place for David Robertson and Didi Gregorius, a good defensive shortstop that has not proved that he can hit in the big leagues. Signing Scherzer to a 6 to 7 year deal would change everything in east this season and years to come. On top of that, other than maybe Kershaw and Greinke, there wouldn’t be a better one two punch in the league than Scherzer and Tanaka.

Great hitting wins games, but great pitching wins championships (ask the Giants) therefore if the Bronx Bombers decide to throw their cards at Scherzer, making the playoffs and perhaps the World Series come a lot more believable.

Follow me on twitter @Chenzooo1

All statistics courtesy of baseball-reference.com 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Introducing Bronx Bomber Bets: BBBets 9/23

Trade Market the Perfect Storm for Yankees to Acquire Starter

Pride, Passion and Pinstripes: The greatest Yankees to ever touch the field