Travis at Bronx Banter looked at the numbers to see if the Yanks performed better against starters vs. relievers. At the bottom he broke out the Yankees’ numbers against rookie starters (19 different for 23 starts this year). The Yankees aren’t being shut down by rookie starters.

This ISN’T my work, Travis at Bronx Banter did it. Here’s his work:

I only compiled starters data against the Yankees and subtracted to find the relievers, but it appears that the Yankees hit better off starters, which is common for the league as a whole:

Yankee opposing starters: 39-63, 6.07 RA/9, 10.66 H/9, 6.39 K/9, 3.83 BB/9, 1.40 HR/9
Yankee opposing relievers: 16-19, 5.28 RA/9, 9.34 H/9, 7.21 K/9, 4.75 BB/9, 1.09 HR/9
AL starters (team average): 52-49, 5.09 RA/9
AL relievers (team average): 19-17, 4.56 RA/9

Full breakdown (Yankee opponents only):
Starters: 762.1 IP, 903 H, 514 R, 472 ER, 324 BB, 541 K, 119 HR
Relievers: 447 IP (est.), 464 H, 262 R, ?? ER, 236 BB, 358 K, 54 HR

More:
Rookie starters (Koronka, Verlander, Loewen, Pauley, Hill, O’Connor, Hamels, Sanchez, Soler, Sowers, Marcum, Rheinecker, Corcoran, J. Shields, Saunders, Jered Weaver, Lester, Baek, Garza): 23 starts, 6-8, 5.69 ERA
(118.2 IP, 141 H, 79 R, 75 ER, 60 BB, 87 K, 16 HR)

Former Cy Young winners (Zito, Colon, Santana, Halladay, Martinez, Glavine, Smoltz): 10 starts, 3-3, 4.85 ERA
(55.2 IP, 60 H, 31 R, 30 ER, 27 BB, 39 K)

Baileywalk is right. Ultimately the guy with the stick in his hand needs to execute. However, the scouting reports are much more in-depth. They show the pitchers (or maybe the catcher’s or bench coach’s, depending on the team) tendencies, and how strong they are. With 2 strikes, should I look for the slider away, or the fastball up and in? How often does he throw a 3-1 curve, or a 3-2 curve? Can he get his change-up over the plate for a strike or is it just to keep you off balance? (Teams are killing Beckett right now because everyone can see he has no commensd of his curveball.) What percentage of his first pitches are fastball, and strikes? Still, if it were all that simple, everyone would hit .320 and drive in 100 runs. Seemed like last night A-Rod, Jeter (needs a break), and Giambi (wrist problems) were all in fastball situations, got the fastball, and still couldn’t make contact. For some reason Cap. decided to try to pull the ball late in the game last night when there were several hit-me pitches on the outer half of the plate that he passed on. Despite what the guys on TV say, I don’t think Jason or A-Rod are particularly good fastball hitters, especially when the pitcher gets ahead, and comes up in the zone. Sheffield, on the other hand,…… I do think Jeter, the best #2 hitter in baseball, has benifited from having Johnny on base. More fastballs, better results.

Any word on Miggy? Prefer him over the rest.

Aren’t we overrating scouting here? Donnie watches video and says, “This guy has a good fastball, 92-94, he’ll try to get ahead with it; he also throws a nice slider and change, and he uses the change as an out pitch; if he gets you to two strikes, look for that change.” And then the batter goes out and gets the change and swings and misses anyway. Outside of Donnie telling them what’s coming, the batter still has to hit the ball.

Just because I tell you that Santana throws a fastball and a changeup and that they look identical coming out of his hand, it doesn’t mean you can hit Santana. Just because I tell you that Wang throws mostly sinker balls around 94-96, mixing in changes and sliders, doesn’t mean that you’re going to do anything but ground out.

This year, the Yankees haven’t seemed comfortable against young pitchers they haven’t seen — but not always. They did bang around Garza and Verlander, who are both quite talented.

//….And it’s just starters, not relievers? Then relievers should really shut down the Yankees and there’s been too many come from behind games for it to be that…//

RICH (is that a name or a goal?)…That hard throwing reliever did pretty well last night. I beleive that was Wellemeyer’s first ever appearance against the Yankees. With respect to disputing the pattern until you see “something more than anecdotal evidence”…. Who you gonna believe stats, or you’re own lying eyes? It’s not anecdotal, it’s empirical.

With respect to Donnie…Don’t forget the guy is still pretty new at this. Like all of of, we get better at things after we’ve done it for a while. Just ask our wives.

Last night seemed to be one of those play-’em-and-forget-’em games. Moose was getting work in (thought he looked okay, got some strikeouts, but also gave up some hard-hit balls, and as always the team played like crap behind him). They looked silly against a pitcher they never saw before. Etc. Maybe the game had a bit of a hangover feel from the previous night’s one-inning outburst.

Is anyone else surprised that Brian Bruney hasn’t turned back into a pumpkin? He throws hard, and his strikeout numbers are ridiculous, but something else has to be going on here. How is it that he got cut and no one wanted him? Relief pitching is the thing everyone needs — so something isn’t right here. He’s going to make the post-season roster, but I wouldn’t expect him to be a force with the team next year. Maybe we’re looking at Sturtze part two.

A little off-topic, I guess, but did anyone else feel the chill in the booth last night? Al and Kenny seem to hate each other. I thought Kenny was going to smack Al around after Al’s “that’s not royal blue, is it?” comment. Whoever paired these two alone is a fool. They really seem to get on each other’s nerves. It got pretty awkward and embarrassing last night.

I dispute the “tend to not hit well against young hard throwers that they are unfamiliar with” theory until someone shows me something more than anecdotal evidence.

Two weeks ago it was young SOFT throwers, now it’s hard throwers?

If it’s a case of not doing well against unfamiliar pitchers then no one should tell Abreu and Cabrera because they’re probably facing a lot of pitchers for the the first time in many games.

And it’s just starters, not relievers? Then relievers should really shut down the Yankees and there’s been too many come from behind games for it to be that.

As #15 said, a lot of it is the scouting, which has been bad ever since Gene Michael’s role got eviscerated around 2000(until recently…allegedly). But MJ’s onto something with the coaching. I love Donnie and Guidry as Yankees icons, believe me, but what exactly qualifies them to be coaches on the major league level? Supposedly Mattingly goes over video of opposing pitchers meticulously (on plane rides even). Yet, there are few in-game adjustments. With pitchers they’ve never seen, it seems to be the pattern that if they simply establish the fastball first time through the line-up and then mix in an off-speed or breaking pitch in 1-2 or 2-2 counts second and third time through, the team is stumped. Say what you will about Piniella but one of the things he’s most noted for is making in-game adjustments with his offense. He picks things up. Mattingly seems to rely on a game plan that doesn’t allow for adjustments. Do you recall a game some weeks ago where the team, out of the blue, consistently went after the first pitch, going against the fundamentals of their patient, grinding style (this was before Abreu was acquired)? They lost…predictably. And, it wasn’t Johan Santana they were facing.

As #15 said, a lot of it is the scouting, which has been bad ever since Gene Michael’s role got eviscerated around 2000(until recently…allegedly). But MJ’s onto something with the coaching. I love Donnie and Guidry as Yankees icons, believe me, but what exactly qualifies them to be coaches on the major league level? Supposedly Mattingly goes over video of opposing pitchers meticulously (on plane rides even). Yet, there are few in-game adjustments. With pitchers they’ve never seen, it seems to be the pattern that if they simply establish the fastball first time through the line-up and then mix in an off-speed or breaking pitch in 1-2 or 2-2 counts second and third time through, the team is stumped. Say what you will about Piniella but one of the things he’s most noted for is making in-game adjustments with his offense. He picks things up. Mattingly seems to rely on a game plan that doesn’t allow for adjustments. Do you recall a game some weeks ago where the team, out of the blue, consistently went after the first pitch, going against the fundamentals of their patient, grinding style (this was before Abreu was acquired)? They lost…predictably. And, it wasn’t Johan Santana they were facing.

//…as a team, they tend to not hit well against young hard throwers that they are unfamiliar with.//

This excuse is getting to be pretty pathetic. I’m not disputing its accuracy; I’m just tired of hearing about something that is so imminently fixable that continues to be a problem for a team with the resources to overcome it. At a certain point, it becomes the coaching staff’s fault. I love Donnie but is he actually doing anything? Nothing about De La Rosa screams phenom. He’s a pitcher without a herky-jerky motion and he’s got the usual repertoire of fastball-breaking ball-slow change. Just hit the damn ball!

I think it’s a focus thing as much as anything. That and, as a team, they tend to not hit well against young hard throwers that they are unfamiliar with. Could be that the organization has the “B” scout team on the “B” competition as well. Don’t forget that this KC team slammed the Botox in three straight, took 2 outa three from Minni, 2 outa 3 from the White sox, and split 4 game series with the White Sox and Oakland, all in the last 5 weeks. Yeah, they stink, but, like Tampa Bay, KC would be right in the wild card hunt in the NL. RJ pitches well and the Yankees win tonight and all is well with the world. Hate that we lost a chance to catch Detroit in the loss column last night. Patience is a virtue for Cubs fans…not us.