{"id":100,"date":"2006-12-09T11:16:27","date_gmt":"2006-12-09T11:16:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=100"},"modified":"2009-09-26T10:57:47","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T09:57:47","slug":"pettitte-back-in-pinstripes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"Pettitte back in Pinstripes"},"content":{"rendered":"

The latest big move has seen Andy Pettitte return to his former team<\/a> (pending a physical). How does this deal play out for all involved?<\/p>\n

The Yankees<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s good news if you’re a Yankees fan. Their rotation has been a bit of a mess for a couple of seasons now and it was vital that this was addressed during the winter. Of course, the Yanks have tried to improve their rotation in recent off-seasons with limited success. Maybe that’s part of the reason why they have concentrated their efforts on bringing back former Yankee starters in Ted Lilly and Pettitte. Having missed out on Lilly, it was an immediate boost to announce that a deal was nearly finalised. Pettitte’s talent is a big notch above that of Lilly’s and signing him to a one-year $16 million deal (with a one-year player option) makes great sense. With Mike Mussina signed on for another two years at below-market rate and talks ongoing with Kei Igawa, the Yankees are making a concerted effort to shake-up the rotation. Mussina, Johnson, Pettitte, Wang and a battle between Igawa and Pavano for the fifth spot doesn’t look too shabby, particularly with a great batting line-up supporting them and a potential future ace in Philip Hughes on the horizon.<\/p>\n

The Astros<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good new for Yankees fans means bad news for Astros fans. I posted a couple of weeks ago that the signing of Carlos Lee would be a bit hollow if their rotation was left to wilt away. Losing Pettitte creates a sizeable hole to fill and if it plays a part in Clemens either retiring (again) or not returning to Houston then they will have some serious work to do. Not that the Astros’ front office needs anyone to tell them that, as a recent attempt to acquire Jon Garland shows; however the fact that this fell through is testament to the situation they now face. Houston are almost desperate for arms right now and that weakens their bargaining position. Although they have some top quality players, the Astros everyday line-up also contains parts that don’t contribute enough offensively (Ausmus for a start) for them to take liberties with their starting pitching. If anything their recent success has been in spite of a below average run-producing line-up. Pettitte’s agent claims in the MLB.com story that Houston could have had him if they had increased their offer from $12 million to $14 million. I’m not sure if that was completely the case (never trust an agent!), but if it was then it may well come back to haunt them.<\/p>\n

In truth, it’s difficult to judge this deal from Houston’s perspective right now. We have to wait and see whether the money they would have spent on Pettitte is put to a better use. I have my doubts, but it’s up to the Astros to prove the doubters wrong.<\/p>\n

Andy Pettitte<\/strong><\/p>\n

You get the feeling that he would have been happy either way. After deciding not to retire, having a choice between returning to your home team or going back to the Yankees is not the worst position to be in. Having narrowly failed in his mission to help the Astros win their first World Title, he now gets a chance to make it five rings with the Yankees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest big move has seen Andy Pettitte return to his former team (pending a physical). How does this deal play out for all involved? The Yankees It’s good news if you’re a Yankees fan. Their rotation has been a bit of a mess for a couple of seasons now and it was vital that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[553],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-mlb-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4247,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/4247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}