Vazquez Strong in Spring Debut

Javier Vazquez had his spring debut against the Phillies yesterday. After giving up a homer to Jimmy Rollins on the first pitch of the game, the righty settled down and retired the next six batters he faced, four of those via strike out.

After his performance against the Phillies yesterday, my intrigue in Vazquez was peaked yet again. Sure I checked out his stats to figure out what he had been up to while away from the Yankees after New York traded for the crafty right-hander, but I didn't really take an in depth look at his numbers.

I remember seeing several projections as to what Vazquez would do back in the AL and the crucible that is the American League East. Most of those numbers would bring A.J. Burnett to mind and not necessarily the Vazquez that finished third in the NL Cy Young voting last season. Baseball Prospectus put his ERA at around 3.85 through 203 IP and 180 strikeouts.

Now I wouldn't complain if those were the numbers Vazquez put up and I doubt any other Yankee fan would complain either. My only qualm is that I think Vazquez has the potential to do better. To support my theory I decided to look at Vazquez's number from interleague play. Unfortunately, Vazquez only had one start in interleague play, a 1-0 loss to the Red Sox at home on June 27.

To bulk up his splits I figured I would include the top four offensive clubs from the NL that he faced during 2009. These include the Phillies, Rockies, Brewers and Dodgers. While still a small split, it brought his total number of innings in those 10 starts up to 61.2. His ERA in those starts was merely 2.77 and opponents only hit .211 with him toeing the rubber.

Now I'll grant you that those NL offensives I have sighted simply aren't as good as the top AL offenses. The Phillies, a team that scored 40 more runs than any other NL team, would have finished a distant fourth to the Yankees, Angels and Red Sox and the other top NL offenses wouldn't have cracked the top five. Still I don't think it is out of the realm of possibility that the Yankees new #4 starter could wind up out pitching everyone on the staff and putting up huge numbers.

He could also pitch like he did in '08, but, like A.J. Burnett, I think Vazquez is at a point in his career where he has figured out how to pitch and how to stay in the game all the time.