The LoHud Yankees Blog

We are about to begin here at Yankee Stadium. Word is that Andy Pettitte just arrived and the press conference will begin in a few minutes. There are several additional chairs for special guests — looks like Bernie Williams will be one of them — and the media is overflowing. The room is full of Pettitte pictures.

UPDATE, 10:37 am: Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi and members of the clubhouse staff just walked in. And here comes Pettitte with his wife.

UPDATE, 10:42 am: Andy said he doesn’t want to use the word retired, because he still wants to work in some way, but “I feel like I’m done with baseball.”

UPDATE, 10:45 am: Andy feels healthy and strong, but he said his “heart’s not where it needs to be” to pitch another year.

UPDATE, 10:52 am: “That’s all I know. I’m a pitcher. That’s all I know how to do.”

UPDATE, 10:54 am: Andy said he can’t be 100 percent certain that he won’t want to pitch again, but he’s positive it won’t happen this year.

UPDATE, 11:00 am: Bernie Williams just walked in. Pretty funny. Andy made fun of him for being late.

UPDATE, 11:01 am: On whether the Roger Clemens trial impacted his decision: “I would never let that interfer with a life decision that I’m going to make for me and my family.” He said he has not been contacted about the trial and has not been thinking about it.

UPDATE, 11:17 am: Andy said he felt a “huge obligation” to come back when Cliff Lee signed in Philly, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Would he have come back if Lee had signed with the Yankees? “I don’t think it would have mattered,” he said.

UPDATE, 11:21 am: Andy called Jeter, Posada and Rivera before the retirement news went public. “I wanted them to hear it from me.”

Late last night, I could not figure out what to do about this morning’s Pinch Hitter. This day is going to be all about Andy Pettitte, and it seemed silly to start the day with something disconnected from the main event. Then I remembered Tony Bakshi.

Originally, this post was scheduled for next week, but it fits this morning’s news cycle. Tony is a sophomore at Brown University. He’s the first in his family to be born in the United States — his parents are from Russia — he’s studying economics, and he’s the sports editor of the Brown Daily Herald. He’s of the generation who learned about Yankee baseball by watching Andy Pettitte and the rest of the Core Four.

His guest post pitch was pretty straightforward: “I’d love to write about the strange mix of sadness and fear of the future that I feel about the Yankees with the window of the Core Four closing so quickly… I can’t imagine the team winning another title without them.”

My guess is that, this morning, Tony’s not the only one feeling that way. I left the wording of his post the exactly same, complete with the sentence wondering if Pettitte really would decide to retire.

—

I am one of those Yankees fans — the front-running, the ungrateful, the ones who have only known winning. When fans call in to Mike Francesa and say something like, “I’ve been a fan since 1967, Mike, I remember the tough ol’ days!” they are proving that they aren’t like me.

That’s fine, though. Just blame my age. When George Steinbrenner was banned from the MLB? Not born yet. When Ken Griffey Jr., slid into home on that ugly AstroTurf field? Not in kindergarten yet. But I don’t think I’m truly ungrateful. I’ve felt my share of pain in my time as a fan — the garbage Luis Gonzalez bloop, 2004. For numeric proof, consider that my age doubled between the 26th and 27th titles!

So when the Yankees won the 2009 World Series, I made sure to take it all in. Right after Game 6, I ordered a t-shirt with the team roster on the back and bought a commemorative mug, too. A few days later, I watched the entire parade on my laptop in class — not to see Phil Coke or Eric Hinske or the other no-names, but to see the legends celebrate for one last time.

It did feel like the last time, didn’t it? It was all too perfect. Jeter’s remarkable season at age 35, Pettitte coming up as clutch as we could have imagined in the playoffs and, of course, Mariano closing it out with Posada behind the plate.

A year later, the fairy tale is coming to an abrupt end, as it probably should have a few years ago — if our players were mere mortals. The Core Four is now a Key Three, if Pettitte doesn’t return, but really more of a Decrepit Set. Jeter’s a groundball machine, Rivera is almost fully entrenched in his sturdy “Use Only in Case of Emergency” seal, and Posada has been relegated to DH, also known as the last position for near cast-offs before they are finally cast off.

Which brings me, mercifully, to my point. As Yankee fans, we parrot the players and say that we want championships every year or else the team has completely failed. But the reactions to personnel moves do not match this view.

Why was there an outcry over the Montero-for-Lee deal that unfortunately fell through last July? With Lee, the Yankees would have been overwhelming favorites to win the crown, ever closer to meeting the stated team goal. Now, Montero is still in pinstripes. And though he’s not quite ready to take over as the full-time catcher, Father Time won’t be waiting up for him. He’ll still be chipping away at Jeter and A-Rod and the rest.

Sometimes, we overthink player moves. How else can the Rafael Soriano signing be debated? Yes, it’s a lot of money, but that’s nothing new. And staying away from Soriano in hopes of striking gold in the draft? The Rays have stockpiled picks and carefully developed talent from within, and we know how many championships they’ve won. Are such ideas foolproof? Of course not. They can lead to disastrous signings of Carl Pavanos and Jaret Wrights and Kyle Farnsworths. But those are the sunk costs that come about when a team pursues a World Series every single year.

Winning a championship takes a lot of luck and good fortune. It takes magic. And, sadly, our good fortune is long in the tooth and thinking about retirement.

Let’s say it’s 2014, best-case scenario style: a 24-year-old Montero is already in the conversation for the top-hitting catcher in baseball, Robby Cano is in his prime hitting .360, and C.C. Sabathia is still a Cy Young Award candidate at 33.

But it doesn’t matter. The magic is gone. Who’s going to get the last eight outs to clinch a playoff series? Who’s going to get that timely hit to bring the team back from the brink? It won’t be anyone on the Yankees, at least not on a consistent basis. And that’s why you can take your future prospects and your smart financial decisions and shove it.

I’ll be wearing my ’09 championship T-shirt, thinking about the glory days.

Associated Press photo

Great job by the Yankees PR department, which just passed along a series of quotes about the career of Andy Pettitte.

“Andy played with a competitive spirit that brought out the best in the teams he played for, and he exemplified this franchise’s commitment and will to win. He was an anchor for the tremendous success our team has achieved since the mid-1990s. A person and player the caliber of Andy Pettitte does not come around often, and he has earned the right to be considered among the greats that have worn the Pinstripes.

“We thank Andy, his wife, Laura, and their family for their many contributions to this organization. We hope the Pettitte family remains a part of the Yankees family for years to come, and we wish them nothing but the best moving forward.”

-Yankees Managing General Partner Hal Steinbrenner and Yankees General Partner Hank Steinbrenner

—

“It’s been a pleasure to play with Andy for all these years, and the Yankees have been fortunate to have him representing the organization both on and off the field.

“More importantly it’s been an honor to get to know him as a person, and I consider him family. I wish for nothing but happiness for him and his family, as I know how important they are to him.”

-Derek Jeter (current Yankee and teammate of Pettitte from 1995-2003 and ’07-10)

—

“Andy was a great teammate and a wonderful guy. He was a fighter and all about winning, and he was respected by every person in the clubhouse.”

- Mariano Rivera (current Yankee and teammate of Pettitte from 1995-2003 and ‘07-10)

—

“I’m really sad that Andy is going to retire. He was so much more than a teammate to me — he was one of my closest friends. I admire everything that he has accomplished as a Yankee, but Andy was someone who always put the team first. I’m going to miss him deeply.”

- Jorge Posada (current Yankee, who was a catcher for Pettitte from 1995-2003 and ‘07-10)

—

“He is one of the greatest pitchers in Yankees history. Whitey Ford might have more wins as a left hander, but through the seasons we won all those World Series, he was the anchor of our staff every year. Without him we don’t win all four World Series.

“Since I’ve been retired, I’m always asked, ’Who would you have pitch a World Series Game 7?’ And I always say, ‘Andy Pettitte.’ When people ask why, I tell them it was because he was so prepared for every start. When the time comes for a big game, you want a guy who’s going to give you seven strong innings. And that’s what he did time and time again.

“Andy was one of my favorite teammates in my entire career, and he is a great person off the field. In the clubhouse, he cared about the team winning, and he wasn’t interested in his individual stats. No matter how he was feeling he went out there every five days and gave us a chance to win.”

-Tino Martinez (former Yankees first baseman and teammate of Pettitte from 1996-2001)

—

“Andy took the ball every five days, and if he had it his way, he’d get it more often than that. What’s really unusual about him is that a lot of times pitchers are more consumed with themselves. Andy was probably the consummate team player, especially for a pitcher. He was so concerned not only about the day he pitched but he always had his arm around a young guy in between starts.

“He’s been a huge favorite of mine because he’s such a stand up guy, and he hasn’t changed from day one. He’s a great teammate, and I think that’s why he won so many games. The guys that play behind him understand how intense he is, and it becomes contagious.

“I think the impact he had on the teams we had in the mid-to-late 1990’s was enormous even though he was never the guy in the spotlight. He liked the fact that he wasn’t the No. 1 guy even though I trusted him like a No. 1 guy. But he didn’t have an ego that dictated he needed all that attention.

“He did a great job of channeling his energy into competing, and he was about as consistent a performer as anybody in terms of getting your money’s worth. He glued our staff together. When you’re performing with the same people year-in and year-out, it’s always nice to have that security blanket. He was certainly that guy on the pitching staff.

-Joe Torre (Yankees manager from 1996-2007; managed Pettitte from 1996-2003 and from ‘06-07)

—

“When I saw him early in his career, back in the early ‘90s, I could tell he was going to be good. But at that stage of his career it was hard for me to be sure how good he would become. When he broke in with the Major League club, he was already on a quality team, but with that influx of young talent—Jeter, Posada, Mariano and Andy—those teams became great.

“As the years came and went, my wife, Bonnie, and I had the opportunity to get to know him, and he became one of our favorites. Even though he lives in Texas, he has Louisiana in his blood, and I always kid him about that.

“I always told him that when his time was done in this game, his name would be right up there with the greatest left-handed pitchers to put on a Yankees uniform. I feel like he was the greatest left-handed pitcher I ever saw pitch at Yankee Stadium. I never had the chance to see Whitey (Ford) pitch, so the first person I think of is Andy.

“To me, the way he carried himself was head and shoulders above the great majority of other players. You knew he was going to represent the team with a certain type of class. If he made a mistake, he owned up to it. That’s the mark of a true pro. Athletes admire other athletes who have that quality.

“I wish Andy and his family nothing but the best as they move forward in their life.”

- Ron Guidry (Yankees pitcher from 1975-88 and Pettitte’s pitching coach with the Yankees from 2006-07. Guidry is fifth on the Yankees all-time wins list with 170 victories).

—

“I liked the guy from the first moment I met him, and after watching him a few times, I really thought he could be a great pitcher.

“He did right by his fellow players, the fans and the press. He is a wonderful guy and was a great pitcher.”

- Whitey Ford (Yankees Hall of Fame pitcher in 1950 and from ’53-67. Ford is the club’s all-time wins leader with 236 victories.)

—

“Andy has been a wonderful pitcher, one of the tops the Yankees ever had. He’s always a guy you always depend on and we’re gonna miss him.”

- Yogi Berra (Yankees Hall of Fame catcher from 1946-63 and Yankees manager in 1964 and ’84-85)

Associated Press photo

Andy Pettitte has decided to retire. The decision was announced this afternoon, and Pettitte will make it official tomorrow morning. Any hope of a comeback is gone.

But has anything about the Yankees really changed?

Since the very beginning of this frigid winter, Brian Cashman has insisted that Pettitte’s uncertainty would not impact the Yankees offseason. Pettitte had been honest with the Yankees, Cashman said. Pettitte told them he was leaning toward retirement, and the team should move forward with the assumption that he wouldn’t be back.

Cashman said he would do exactly that. He might hold out some hope for Pettitte, but he would not wait for him.

Today, it feels as if something changed. It feels as if the Yankees lost another piece of their dream rotation, but in reality, it was only hope that was lost this afternoon. If Cashman was being honest in all of those interviews about Pettitte, then nothing about his offseason — or the Yankees situation — actually changed today. If Cashman has been moving forward with the assumption that Pettitte would not come back, then the finality of today’s announcement has no impact.

There’s no increased need to make a trade, no increased desire to sign someone like Kevin Millwood and no increased likelihood that Dellin Betances suddenly shoots to the big leagues.

The Yankees should not be any different today than they were yesterday.

But they certainly feel different.

Here’s the Yankees press release about Andy Pettitte. It was sent in the middle of our chat, and it pretty much makes Pettitte’s retirement official.

The New York Yankees today announced that LHP Andy Pettitte will hold a press conference on Friday at 10:30 a.m. to announce his retirement.

Pettitte, 38, finishes his career with a 240-138 (.635) record and 3.88 ERA (3,055.1 IP, 1,317 ER) in 479 starts over 16 Major League seasons with the Yankees (1995-2003 and ‘07-10) and Houston Astros (2004-06). He is one of just 26 pitchers all-time to complete his career 100-or-more games over .500. Of the 19 Hall of Fame-eligible pitchers who have reached that plateau, only “Parisian” Bob Caruthers, who went 218-99 from 1884-92, is not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Originally selected by the Yankees in the 22nd round of the 1990 First-Year Player Draft, Pettitte played 13 seasons with the club, going 203-112 with a 3.98 ERA (2,535.2 IP, 1,122 ER) and 1,823 strikeouts in 405 games (396 starts). In franchise history, he ranks second in strikeouts and starts, third in wins, fourth in innings pitched and eighth in appearances (405). He appeared in eight career World Series (seven as a Yankee), winning championships with the Yankees in 1996, ‘98, ’99, 2000 and ‘09.

Pettitte is the all-time winningest pitcher in postseason history, going 19-10 with a 3.83 ERA in 42 career starts. He also ranks first all time in postseason starts and innings pitched (263.0), and is tied for second with 173 strikeouts. His personal career postseason win total is more than that of nine other franchises (Kansas City-18; Arizona-15, Seattle-15, San Diego-12, Tampa Bay-10, Colorado-9, Milwaukee-9, Texas-9, and Montreal/Washingon-5). As a Yankee in the postseason, he went 18-9 with a 3.79 ERA (237.2 IP, 100 ER) in 38 career starts. While winning his final World Series with the Yankees in 2009, he became the first pitcher in Baseball history to start and win the clinching game of all three series in a single postseason (ALDS vs. Minnesota, ALCS vs. Los Angeles-AL and WS vs. Philadelphia).

In 2010, Pettitte went 11-3 with a 3.28 ERA (129.0 IP, 47 ER) in 21 starts. He was placed on the disabled list from July 20 (retroactive to July 19) to September 18 with a strained left groin. In the 2010 postseason, he went 1-1 with a 2.57 ERA (14.0 IP, 4 ER) in two combined starts at Minnesota in ALDS Game 2 (W, 7.0 IP, 2 ER) and vs. Texas in ALCS Game 3 (L, 7.0 IP, 2 ER).

A Louisiana native and Texas resident, Pettitte also pitched three seasons with the Houston Astros from 2004-06, going 37-26 with a 3.38 ERA (519.2 IP, 195 ER) in 84 games (83 starts) and appearing in the 2005 World Series vs. Chicago-AL.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Pettitte, a three-time All-Star (1996, 2001, ’10) and 2001 ALCS MVP, holds the distinction of being the only pitcher in Major League history to post a record of .500 or better while making at least 15 starts in each of the first 16 seasons of his career. He also posted a winning record in each of the first 13 seasons of his career (1995-2007), marking the third-longest such streak to begin a career all time, trailing only Hall of Famers Grover Cleveland Alexander (17) and Cy Young (15).

Associated Press photo

With Andy Pettitte expected to retire on Friday, come join Sam and Chad for a live chat on Pettitte and the future of the Yankees rotation!

Beginning at 2 p.m., Sam and I are going to do a quick chat about Andy Pettitte and the impact of his retirement. We’ll have the chat feature up and running here on the blog in about 20 minutes.

See you then.

Michael Kay was the first to report (and others have quickly followed) that Andy Pettitte will officially announce his retirement on Friday after meeting with Yankees officials today.

That means that the Yankees rotation for 2011 is: CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes, A.J. Burnett and pick two from Sergio Mitre/Bartolo Colon/Freddy Garcia/Ivan Nova/Anyone Else You Can Think Of.

The Yankees missed out on Cliff Lee, and because of that — because of what could have been — their rotation seems to be a disaster.

The Yankees opened the offseason dreaming of Sabathia to Lee to Hughes to Pettitte to Burnett — or whatever order you prefer — and with that group no longer possible, every other combination seems second rate.

Which is, to some extent, completely unfair.

Right now, the Yankees have the potential for a strong top three. CC Sabathia remains one of the dominant pitchers in the game, Phil Hughes is coming off an impressive first full season in the rotation, and A.J. Burnett will surely be better in 2011 than he was in 2010. If those three reasonably approach their potential, the top of the rotation will be sound.

If just one of Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon or Sergio Mitre — just one of the four — proves durable and fairly productive, the Yankees will have a solid fourth starter.

If the fifth spot becomes a manageable patchwork of effective arms — plan all you want, but rotations never end with the guy who’s supposed to be No. 5 — then the Yankees will have a solid group of five starters.

Don’t even think of of best-case scenarios, just think of reasonable hopes for these five: Sabathia could certainly contend for a Cy Young, Hughes could certainly be back in the all-star discussion, Burnett could absolutely rediscover his 2009 form, Nova’s Triple-A numbers suggest he could be (at least) a reliable big league starter, and Garcia could repeat last season, making him a more-than-capable No. 5.

That’s not pie in the sky. Man for man, that’s perfectly within the realm of possibility. And given the strength of the lineup and the depth of the bullpen, that gives the Yankees a perfectly viable rotation.

It does not, however, give the Yankees a comfortable rotation.

If any of the top three is hurt or falls into an unexpected hole — like Burnett did last year, or like Hughes did in his first attempt in an Opening Day rotation — can they really count on Nova or one of the hot shot prospects to pick up that kind of slack?

If Nova doesn’t take that next step, and Garcia can’t stay healthy, and Mitre can’t thrive out of the bullpen, and Colon can’t cut it in spring training — not exactly out-of-the-question scenarios — will the Yankees really be able patch together two-fifths of their rotation?

This morning, Greg wrote that the Yankees have been in this situation before. That they got to the 2001 World Series with a rotation that wasn’t perfect, but a rotation that did the job.

Thing is, the Yankees were also in a similar situation in three years ago.

Back in 2008, they had Pettitte and Chien-Ming Wang at the top of the rotation, they had Mike Mussina coming off a rocky 2007, and they had two unpredictable spots filled by Hughes and Ian Kennedy.

Mussina bounced back in a big way and Pettitte was as good as expected, but the Yankees couldn’t make up for an injury to Wang, a rough rookie season by Kennedy and a rocky, injury-marred season from Hughes. That team missed the playoffs entirely.

Given a bad situation this offseason, the Yankees have put together a group of starters who are legitimately capable of becoming a solid — maybe even a good — starting rotation. They have seen a rotation like this work out just fine. And they’ve seen a rotation like this fall apart.

The Yankees have a perfectly capable rotation, but it’s not a comfortable rotation, and the Yankees won’t be comfortable until one of their unknowns begins to prove himself, or until one of those unknowns is replaced by someone who removes some of the guess work.

Associated Press photos

Our next Pinch Hitter is a a 26-year-old New Jersey native living in Delaware and working for the Wilmington Blue Rocks, which is Kansas City’s High-A affiliate.

Although the currently works for another organization, Greg Mathews is a fourth-generation Yankees fan. “My life revolves around the team and its tradition,” Greg wrote. Andy Pettitte has always been his favorite Yankees pitcher. “If this really is the last we’ve seen of him,” Greg wrote, “I’d like to take this moment to say thank you. AN-DY PETT-ITTE [clap, clap, clapclapclap].”

For his guest post, Greg looked back 10 years to find that this year’s Yankees rotation isn’t necessarily one-of-a-kind. The Yankees have been in this situation before.

—

Learning from the Past to Embrace the Present

For the Yankees, this has been an unusually quiet and rather uneventful winter. Throughout this offseason, Brian Cashman has been preaching his plan of “patience.”

Patience? PATIENCE? You mean to tell me that the Yankee fan base is supposed to just sit back, watch the rest of the league sign all of the good free agents, and accept the fact that the two pitchers rounding out the rotation of our favorite team are named Ivan Nova and Sergio Mitre? Plan “A” was Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte, but now we’re supposed to believe that Nova and Mitre — or “patience” — is a sufficient backup plan?

Yes. That is precisely what the Yankees should do and we, as Yankee fans, need to embrace that plan. We’ve been down a similar road in the past.

Ten years ago – 2001 — the Yankees were heading into the season with a rotation of Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, Orlando Hernandez and Ted Lilly. On paper, that’s a comforting rotation with a strong front three. It became a different story though, once the season began. Hernandez had thrown 410 innings over the previous two years and the Yanks were going to have to stomach the growing pains of Ted Lilly’s first full year as a starter. Then, “El-Duque” got hurt. Hernandez threw only 94.2 innings in 16 starts, which was 100 innings less than he threw in 2000.

How did the Yankees fill that 100-inning void? Randy Keisler and Sterling Hitchcock were called upon, and they combined to throw 102 innings in 2001. Keisler, in 50.2 innings, had an ERA of 6.22 and a WHIP of 1.697. Hitchcock had an ERA of 6.49 and a WHIP of 1.656 during his 51.1 innings. Combined, they faced 559 batters and 196 of them reached base, 82 of them scored and only three were unearned. That is a lot of base-runners and a lot of runs allowed in a 102-inning period.

Yet, that team made it all the way to Game 7 of the World Series.

At the moment, the rotation in place for the 2011 season isn’t all that different. Yes, they’re banking on A.J. Burnett rebounding, but if he can even get to just the 2009 A.J., they’ll have a similarly strong front three when you add CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes.

Lilly had three career starts under his belt before 2001, and they all came in 1999. He threw eight innings for the Yankees in 2000. Nova is going into this season with seven starts under his belt and his 42 major league innings are 10.1 more than Lilly’s 31.2 when the Yankees declared him the fifth starter. Think of Nova as this year’s Lilly. If Nova can pitch like he did in 2010, but over the course of 120-140 innings this year, he’ll end up with similar statistics to Lilly’s rookie year, and possibly a little better.

We all know what the Yankees are getting (or not getting) when Mitre takes the mound. Even though his three starts last year are a small sample size, his numbers are right in line with his only full season (27 starts) as a starter in 2007. His WHIP in 2007 with the Marlins was 1.483, which is just about even with his WHIP of 1.463 in those three starts last year. Pitching fulltime in the AL East is going to cause that to rise a bit, but essentially that’s how he should perform.

The parallels between the 2001 and 2011 rotations aren’t exact or perfect, but they are certainly very close. The Yankees are relying on Burnett having a bounce-back year, and if he can do that, they are in very good shape. I don’t think there’s any doubt that the back of the rotation will look different when the calendar turns to June or July. Whether it’s a trade for a starter or a starter from AAA being promoted, we’ll see. Brian Cashman has the right idea, though.

Patience is important. With an offense like the Yanks have, it doesn’t matter what other teams do; the Yankees can afford to be patient. Just making a move to make a move isn’t going to improve the rotation, but being patient and making the right move will pay huge dividends.

Associated Press photo of Mussina