Manager Joe Girardi relishes opportunity to have Cliff Lee on team
It doesn’t seem difficult to imagine how the New York Yankees would fare next season if Cliff Lee was on their pitching rotation. As we would guess, the possibilities are endless. That comes with the fact that Charles Carsten Sabathia
and Cliff Lee were both team members in the Cleveland Indians’ pitching line up in the past. So one wonders how it would be like to see the two star pitchers work together again.
For Manager of the Yankees, Joe Girardi, the opportunity would surely raise the ball club’s chances in getting to the playoffs and ultimately winning the World Series next year. Phil Hughes is one of the rising talents in the pitching
department and while he made off with 18 wins last season, his performance dipped in the second quarter of the regular season.
Allan James Burnett is another concern, altogether. Along with a basket full of ball throwers, Burnett has been performing averagely. The fact that the prospect of having an ill pitching season in 2011 is undesired, leads Girardi
to relish an opportunity to see Lee in the ball team. With Andy Pettitte’s likely retirement coming to fold, along with Javier Vazquez’s trade, the options at the Yankees’ ball club, has declined immensely.
"He's a guy that wins. He's a guy that gives you innings," Joe said. "He's a guy that knows how to pitch on the big stage. He's everything that you'd want, and a guy that you would ask to help you win another championship. "
One of the missed opportunities of the winter meetings however was Carl Crawford. The outfielder from the Tampa Bay Rays made a switch to the Boston Red Sox. His transfer to the other side had a lot of ripple effects in the post-meetings.
The Yankees had a chance to lure him in but with a massive hitting squad, the extra man would not have fit in well.
"He changes the complex of the game," Girardi said of Crawford. "When he's up, when he's on the bases, he's a great player. We've had a chance to see him a lot over the last six or seven years. And he's a pain. That is the type
of player he is. You know that any single can be a triple. It's easy for him to score runs."
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