FanPost

Betances Mileage; going forward.

No doubt I'm preaching to the choir here by saying I am a HUGE Dellin Betances fan. His imposing figure out on the mound with upper 90's fastball to match is second to none in the MLB these days in my opinion at 6'8'' 260 lbs, not to mention that ridiculous breaking ball that is one of the most disgusting pitches in the league. I love the fact that he's come up through our system; although there was a lot of hype regarding Betances as a starter and now of course he's out of the pen. Looking forward he looks like he can be a long term contributor our of the bullpen either as a closer, or at least until the jury on David Robertson is out, a shut down late inning(s) guy. Taking a look at what Betances has done so far this year, the numbers just jump off of the stat sheet at you:

First of all, he's 4-0 with a 1.51 ERA through 41.2 innings pitched over 30 appearances out of the pen. So far he's struck out 70 batters while only walking 11, allowing only 7 runs on the season and with a WHIP of 0.72.

If he keeps up his current pace, and potentially pitch more innings down the stretch during the potential playoff push, he will easily pitch into the mid 70's inning count. He has thrown at least 120 innings 3 times already in his career, but this being the first time coming out of the pen regularly, that inning count is relatively high.

I speak for everyone when I say that I'm really looking forward to seeing what Betances can become when he reaches his full potential in whatever role he takes over, but should we (and by we I mean the Yankees organization) should be a little more aware of his innings count and try to prevent as much over use as possible? For instance tonight, I agree that using him was our best option out of the pen tonight even with a somewhat substantial 4 run lead, but couldn't Adam Warren have gone back out there for one more? There have been rumors about him moving back into the rotation, so he could use being stretched out a little bit just in case that does happen. He hadn't allowed a base runner yet and was very economic with his pitch count. Realistically, Betances was the best option and we came out with the W and that's all that matters but going forward I'd like to see Girardi be a little more frugal with his workload. I'm not saying there needs to be any sort of any, dare I say, "Betances Rules", but a little more attention I think could go a long way.

What do you all think about this? I'd like to hear what any of you have heard/think about this because I'd like some more insight on the issue.

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