Pitching Need: Wallace Matthews of ESPN wonders whether or not the Yankees will take an interest in the still jobless Kyle Lohse now that Phil Hughes has a bulging disc in his back. Since Lohse's agent is Scott Boras, it's possible his name might come up during the Robinson Cano extension talks. The team might wait to see how Hughes responds to treatments before taking a serious look.
Phelps in 2013: NoMaas examines the career numbers of David Phelps to see what we can expect from him in 2013. It looks like there might be some regression when it comes to his ERA, but his peripherals have stayed around his career rates so expect him to remain consistent. Now with the injury to Hughes, Phelps might save the rotation if they end up losing anyone to injury during the season.
Pitcher Development Success: The Captain's Blog breaks down Jeff Passan's article claiming the Yankees have done a poor job at developing pitching in the last five years. Passan attempted to prove Cashman wrong by accumulating WAR of all the pitchers that debuted in that time, but discovered that they actually were pretty good at it. The article goes on to prove how Passan might have decided the Yankees did a poor job in order to keep the narrative alive. Thankfully, it's easily knocked down.
The Nuisance: Now that Brett Gardner is healthy again, he has to wait to see how he fits on the team. Top of the order or bottom, left field or center field. Gardner's best assets include patience at the plate and a high contact rate that will make him a pesky opponent in the batting order. He sees a lot of pitches in his plate appearances, driving up pitch counts, and he steals a lot of bases.
Healthy Pitching: Brian Cashman believes the Yankees will score fewer runs, even though they have plenty of speed on the base paths. If he thinks the offense will be not as good as last year, yet still believes the team will be just as good, he must be anticipating a better ability to prevent runs from scoring. What the team needs to hope for is that their pitching stays healthy. With Hughes hurt, the once strong #4 spot becomes weaker by having David Phelps slide in, and then the bullpen becomes weaker when Adam Warren replaces Phelps. The team needs the rest of the rotation to stay healthy and Michael Pineda to recover his form.