Shaking out the rotation

Going off a great article written by Chad Jennings of the Journal News, there seems to be a misconception as to the 5-man starting rotation for the 2012 season.


To everyone it seems obvious that there is only 1 spot up for grabs at this point, the 5th slot, between Freddy Garcia and Phil Hughes.  However, Joe Girardi said some interesting things today in Tampa about how he views his group of starters, and that only CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda are guaranteed a place in the rotation.  "We’ve got a competition here," he said. "We have to iron out five spots, and sometimes the five you leave with aren’t the five you end up with. We’ve got time. There’s no rush."

Just based on the words said, that would mean we are to assume that not even last year's 16-game winner Ivan Nova, and this winter's prized pickup Michael Pineda are locked in.  

"If they go out and they struggle," Girardi explained, "or they perform badly in spring training and they don’t have anything, or they’re not right where they’re supposed to be and you guaranteed them that spot and we say, ‘You know what, we don’t think you’re ready and we’re going to send you down,’ the guy goes, ‘You guaranteed me a spot and I was working on things.’ You gotta go out and earn it."

To me the quotes look like typical coach-speak, and overall fairly vague.  What I take away from that is that CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda are his number 1 and 2 starters.  Everything after that is open.  Not open as in they are looking for 3 starters, but open as in they are looking to fill spots 3-5, and figure out which pitcher fills which spot.  We know who he has to choose from, there can't be any surprises in terms of filling those three spots.  We know Pineda will be there because if he's not, why give up Jesus Montero for him?  Nova will be there too, he came up huge last year, and exceeded most people's expectations.  What Girardi was trying to say was that he hasn't told anybody that they are the "3rd starter," etc.  He's letting them know that they're going to be in the rotation, but that they have to earn their place in terms of number.

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On another note, today Girardi announced Robinson Cano will be his third hitter this year, and that he will build the lineup from there.  He said nobody else is fixed in their place in the order, but he'd like to have Cano be the permanent third hitter, and with good reason.

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Photo Credit: Charles Wenzelberg/NY Post