Return of the Lefties

Though we don't really know about the new stadium yet, the old one played well for lefthanded pitchers like Lefty Gomez, Whitey Ford and Al Downing before the remodel, and Ron Guidry, Andy Pettitte and David Wells after the the re-model. Then, with the departure of Wells and Pettitte (pt. 1) and aside from the ghost of Randy Johnson, the 80 year stream of Yankee lefties ran a little dry. What's more, the minor league committment to lefties that produced Pettitte, Sterling Hitchcock, Eric Milton and others crashed and burned as players like Alex Graman, Danny Borrell, David Martinez, Matt Smith, Brandon Claussen and Sean Henn produced a total a 0 quality Yankee starters. And as the farm ended its LHP bias and started churning out quality righties, it looked like the Yanks might not have pitchers that could get a boost from the home park.

But things have changed with the signing of CC Sabathia, the breakout by Phil Coke, the mound conversion of Wilkins De La Rosa, the drafting of Jeremy Bleich and Nik Turley and the signing of Manny Banuelos, the Yanks once again have a smallish, but intriguing group of lefties in the system. Coke and De La Rosa may end up in the pen, though, thus far neither has failed as a starter. Bleich, Turley and Banuelos are all profiling like starters, and Bleich, for one could be a fast mover. It should be fun tracking their progress this summer. Bleich and De La Rosa could start in Tampa, where Banuelos has an outside shot at Charleston, but most likely he and possibly Turley will start in SI.