Young Starters

Young Starters

A common theme in why the Yankees will miss the playoffs is the youth of their starters. However, if you take a look back at last year it was no different. The Yankees had the following "unproven" starts;

Starts - Player
13 - Phil Hughes
12 - Kei Igawa
6 - Tyler Clippard
6 - Matt Desalvo
6 - Darell Rasner
3 - Ian Kennedy
3 - Jeff Karstens
2 - Chase Wright
1 - Sean Henn

52 Total Starts by unproven Pitchers, of those 30 by pitchers with ERAs over 6 (in red). You have to expect at least a mild improvement from Hughes and if you increase his total to 25 starts he will absorb most of the 18 starts by Clemens at slightly above league average (Clemens had ERA+ of 107).

So that leaves about 40 starts needed by Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain. You have to expect that those two can at least match the output of Igawa, Clippard, Desalvo, Karstens, Wright and Henn.