Yanks improve rotation, keep young talent

Sunday, December 14, 2008 | Feedback | Print Entry

• With the signing of Kerry Wood, the Indians look like they have a chance to have a really, really good bullpen. Think about the talent that will be stacked up in the middle innings, in front of Wood: Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis, Adam Miller, Joe Smith and Masa Kobayashi. If Miller can bounce back from finger problems and his vicious fastball-slider combination translates in a relief role, this bullpen might have as much depth as the Indians had in '07.

Assistant GM Chris Antonetti wrote in an e-mail: "Knowing the volatility of relievers, I am not sure that we will ever be comfortable with the composition of the bullpen. That said, with the addition of Kerry Wood and Joe Smith we feel better about our alternatives now than we did at the end of the season. Kerry has dominant stuff and the ability to miss bats. Perez, Lewis, Betancourt, Smith, and Kobayashi all provide different looks and have the ability to pitch late in games."

The trio of Wood, Perez and Betancourt combined for 234 strikeouts in 213 2/3 innings last year (even with a down year for Betancourt) and a K/BB ratio of 234/54 (4.33).  
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

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