Bleacher Creature Feature

#2: A Pitcher's Worth a Thousand Words

18 March 2002

Look, I like the guy, okay? I think he was a very important component of the 1998 Yankees, who were one of the three or four best baseball teams ever in the history of the game. When he's healthy, he's a helluva good pitcher, and his enthusiasm for the game in general and being a Yankee in particular is infectious and a joy to watch. He also gives very entertaining interviews.

I hated to see him go, but I couldn't bring myself to complain about the trade because, well, the Yankees got Roger Clemens. Yes, Wells is a good pitcher, but Roger Clemens is, well, Roger Clemens. It was the functional equivalent of trading Ralph Kiner for Babe Ruth. Clemens is one of the best pitchers ever to play the game, and he hasn't shown any significant signs of slowing down.

(The other parts of the trade worked out fine. Homer Bush wasn't going anywhere as long as the Yanks had Chuck Knoblauch, and Bush wound up a total bust. He's spent as much time on the disabled list as off it, and one could argue he was more useful to the Jays on it. And Graeme Lloyd was an easily replaceable reliever.)

As for Wells, he's 38 years old, overweight, and just off back surgery. His last two seasons have consisted of one good season -- barely. He's several trips to the disabled list waiting to happen. He's a huge risk, especially at the amount of money they're paying him.

Wells is an example of the dark side of what I was talking about in BCF #1. This is a case of Steinbrenner sticking his nose into things where he shouldn't, and letting his personal fondness for Wells get in the way of his good sense. First of all, $7 million over two years is way overpaying (both in terms of years and in terms of money) for an overweight 38-year-old with a history of back and foot problems. Secondly, the Yankees already had an excess of starting pitchers. Besides the Big Three of Clemens, Mussina, and Pettitte, they had the recovering Orlando Hernandez, the useless Sterling Hitchcock (another person signed to a wasteful contract), and several talented rookies, primary among them Ted Lilly. Now Wells has been added.

The loser in all this? Ted Lilly.

Lilly is also left handed, is twelve years younger than Wells, has been phenomenal this spring, but has been crowded out of the pitching picture.

Terri and I saw Lilly's pitching debut on 21 April of last year against the Red Sox. It was also the debut of Tomo Okha, and in a series that had a Clemens/Pedro matchup, everyone was rather stunned that it was this Sunday game between two rookies that turned out to be the pitcher's duel. They both pitched well (the Yanks finally won on a ninth-inning homer by David Justice). Unfortunately, Steinbrenner's overabundance of cash and underabundance of common sense has stalled his career in AAA until and unless one of the Yankees' starters goes down with an injury.

And that's a shame. Because I really think that, given a chance, Lilly can be for the Yanks of the 2000s what Andy Pettitte has been for the Yanks of the 1990s.

NEXT: Roster Follies

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