Andy’s injury leaves the Yankee’s pitching staff with a “petite” problem. For those of you who are French-challenged that is a “little” problem, that hopefully won’t get any bigger. All baseball fans know the adage, “you can never have too much pitching.” It’s one of those sayings that always proves true year after year. Andy Pettitte was having a tremendous season at the age of 38 going 11-2 and making the American League All-Star team. In his first start after the All-Star break at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Andy suffered a grade 1 left groin injury that could cause him to miss 3 -5 weeks of the season. The injury hurts any chance Andy had to be a potential 20-game winner again, and it leaves the pitching staff minus one of its mainstays in the rotation. Now the Yankees have to turn to Sergio Mitre to fill in for him. Sergio, himself, is coming back from a strained oblique muscle injury, and will be part of the C.C., A.J., Javy and Hughes rotation. No, that’s not a law firm!

Luckily for the Yankees they are in first place, 2.5 games ahead of Tampa, and 7 ahead of Boston. So they are in good position for the moment to either win the division or capture the wild card spot, if needed. On the hand, there are still 69 games left to play which is enough time for those two teams to catch the Yankees if they don’t play well. The pitching staff still has C.C. Sabathia, the ace, who is 12-3. However, behind him is where the problem lies with an Andy-less rotation. A.J. Burnett, is 7-8 with an e.r.a at almost 5.00, and Javy Vazquez, although pitching well after a rough beginning of the season, is still only 8-7 with a 4.68 e.r.a. Which brings us to Phil “Innings Limit” Hughes. Phil had a great first half and made the All-Star team where unfortunately he ended up with the loss. He’s now 11-3, but has gone 3-2 over his last 6 outings with a 6.44 e.r.a. During that span Phil has given up 43 hits in 36 and a third innings, walking 12 and giving up 9 home runs. Kind of scary!

Brian Cashman, the Yankee GM, says it’s not time to panic and won’t start looking for another starter before the July 31st trade deadline. Say what? Are you sure, Brian! Then again, after the moves made in the off-season by Mr. Cashman, maybe it’s better that he not try to make some more moves now. In all seriousness, the Yankees may need to get another starter as well as some bullpen and bench help to insure their current good standing in the AL East. The problem is good starters don’t grow on trees but some of them do come from the farm – team. The Yankees have Ivan Nova down there and he is pitching well with an 8-2 record and a 3.06 e.r.a. Plus Ivan looked good in a brief stint in NY earlier in the season. So if Sergio fails, then maybe Ivan can come up big. The only other viable starting option at Scranton that may help the big league team is 32-year old veteran, Tim Redding. He’s 5-4 with a 3.32 e.r.a. down there, but it’s had to block out the memory of his only appearance in pinstripes years ago when he was blasted by Boston for 6 runs, 4 hits and 4 walks in one inning of work. He was a DFA’d the next day by the Yankees, and was picked up again this May as a minor league free agent.

On the trade front there the most mentioned suspects: Ted Lilly, Ben Sheets, Roy Oswalt, Dan Haren, Kevin Millwood, Fausto Carmona, Edwin Jackson, Brett Myers, Ricky Nolasco, Jake Westbook, Gil Meche, Pedro Martinez, etc. Let’s examine their pros and cons:

Expensive - Oswalt and Haren. They make too much money and it would take too many good prospects to acquire either of them.

Nostalgic – Lilly and Westbrook. Both aren’t as good as they use to be after arm injuries.

Ineffective – Millwood has been awful in Baltimore and is coming off of an injury.

Erratic - Jackson is 6-8 with a 4.96 e.r.a. but threw a 149 pitch no-hitter against Tampa even though he walked 9 and hit a batter.

Fragile - Sheets is 4-9 with a 4.53 e.r.a. but has pitched better lately. He is also been a member of the Nick Johnson Disabled List group for many years.

Forgotten - Meche still pitches for the Royals but has only appeared in 9 games this season due to shoulder injuries.

Evil - Martinez is the despised ex-Boston hurler who has been waiting for a call all year, and Myers assaulted his wife on a Boston street years ago.

Young – Cleveland’s Carmona (26) and Florida’s Nolasco (27) bring youth and talent but may require top prospects in order for their respective teams to trade them.

There are other names you could throw into the mix but those are the pitchers whose names have been discussed by the media as potential targets. For all we know, Brian Cashman may shock us and reacquire one of his old favorites, Carl Pavano. OK, fat chance, but Pavano another former member of the Nick Johnson Disabled List group, is 11-6 with an e.r.a. of 3.48 for the Twins. If that isn’t amazing enough, then get this – he has pitched 4 complete games this year including 3 of them in his last 6 starts. This is the same guy who couldn’t complete 4 seasons with the Yankees without getting hurt for what seemed like every day of the contract. Now he is a workhorse, and before he was a horse’s ass. Unbelievable! Oh well, let’s hope Andy gets well soon and that his injury and absence doesn’t cause the Yankees a “grande” problem. That’s big for you French-challenged.

The Yankees will try to save some face and tie up this season Subway Series today as they send CC Sabathia to the mound. Cc may or may not be the ideal guy for the job today he has bounced back in the month of June wining all three of his last outings and has looked fairly good while doing so. The problem might be the innings 10 hits and 6 runs he gave up the last time he faced the Mets back in May.  So the question is which CC will show up and considering Johan Santana is the guy on the mound for the Mets we better hope it’s the CC who is our ace. Offensively for the Yankees, the captain Derek Jeter is back in the lineup after a day off. A-rod will be manning third allowing Posada to take up the DH role and Cervelli will be behind the plate. Curtis Granderson and Bret Gardner are in the lineup despite the tough lefty on the mound for th Mets.  Granderson is hitting .200 against lefty’s and Gardner is hitting .269 but this is the Yankees most productive lineup despite anything and most likely there best chance of pulling off a win tonight. For the Record Santana is 5-2 with a 4.02 ERA against the Yankees but the most telling stat is that he has only ever given up 5 Home Runs to the Yankees in all that time. Needles to say small ball will have to help win the day today.

(39-29)	NY Mets 39-29 (Road: 15-19) 1:05pm ET NY Yankees 42-26 (Home: 24-10) TV: TBS, YES	(42-26)

The Subway Series is coming to the Bronx!  The same pitching matchups that were seen in the last series in Citi Field will be seen again this weekend.  Here’s a preview of the pitching matchups that will be seen this weekend.

Friday, June 18, 2010
Hisanori Takahashi vs. Javier Vazquez

These two pitchers faced off in the last Subway Series this year at Citi Field in Flushing, NY.  Hisanori Takahashi had a really good outing the last time he faced the Yankees.  He pitched six innings, gave up five hits, and no runs.  He was taken out of the game after his pitch count had gone up quickly.  Though he gave up a few hits, he was able to hold the Yankees to no runs.  Tonight I expect him to pitch well again.  This start for Javy really started to get him on a roll after a rocky start to the season.  He pitched six innings, gave up one hit, and struck out six.  Javy could have continued pitching, but he was taken out early after bunting a ball off of his finger in his last AB.  Joe Girardi wanted to be safe than sorry which is understandable.  Since this weekend’s series is at Yankee Stadium, an American League park, there will be a designated hitter and Javy will not have to bat.  I expect another decent outing from Vazquez tonight.  I would start preparing to see a decent pitcher’s deul tonight.

Saturday, June 19, 2010
Mike Pelfrey vs. Phil Hughes

Saturday will be the first time Mike Pelfrey will get a start in Yankees Stadium.  He has a 2.39 ERA and is coming off a really good outing against the O’s.  He has won nine games this season in the first 10 decisions and is the first Met to do that since Al Leiter did in 2000.  If he wants to make it 10 in 11 tonight he will have to beat the Yankees.  The last time Phil Hughes faced the Mets it was probably his worst outing of the season.  He pitched 5.2 innings and gave up 8 hits and four runs.  Even though that’s not terrible, he did not have his best stuff and he did not have enough offensive support.  Hughes is very good, however, at bounce backs, especially when he plays at home.  Also the last few times Hughes has started he has gotten a lot of run support.  I expect Pelfrey to have a tough outing, but not terrible, since he has never pitched at Yankee Stadium.  Phil Hughes will feel more comfortable on home soil with the “Huuuuuuuuuughes!” chants from fans.

Sunday, June 20, 2010
Johan Santana vs. CC Sabathia

Johan lately has been very good on the mound, however, his teammates have been having trouble giving him run support.  Before his last start against the Cleveland Indians, he had some amazing outings holding teams few runs.  The Mets have been working better on getting runs in, and if they keep it up Santana should have a good outing tonight.  CC Sabathia is slowly getting into form this season.  He is coming off a rocky start against the Phillies where he was still able to collect the win.  If CC and keep some of the confident pitching that he did show in his last outing, he should be able to bounce back against the Mets.  I expect another pitcher’s duel.

Yesterday in relief of CC Sabathia against the tribe, David Robertson took an early exit in the middle of an AB with a mild lower back strain.  After throwing the first pitch to Jhonny Peralta, Dave Eiland came out to mound to visit Robertson followed soon by Joe Girardi and trainer Steve Donohue.

“That last pitch I threw to [Trevor] Crowe, when I hit him, I really felt it,” said Robertson of a tightness in his back. “It’s right above where I got hit in the back. I didn’t feel it for a couple days, but it tensed up. I couldn’t finish a pitch out there.”

On Wednesday, May 26 in the suspended game against the Twins, Joe Mauer hit a line drive that hit Robertson in the lower back.  Despite the pain, Robertson finished his outing that day and yesterday was his first appearence since.  Girardi, Eiland, and Donohue did not want to take chances and pulled Robertson from yesterday’s game and brought in Sergio Mitre to try and finish the job.

In lighter news, Jorge Posada says he looks to be back in the Yankee lineup by Friday when the Yankees travel across the boarder to face the Toronto Blue Jays.  He’s been hitting in batting cages and looks to hit on the field today, but he has not started running yet.  He still remains hopeful.  He seemed very optimistic after taking the boot off his foot this week.  He wants to be back sooner, but since the boot came off this week, it’s going to need time to heal.  I am optimistic though he will be back this coming weekend.