ok, time to sound like a total baseball geek
they lose pettitte, clemens, wells.
break it down...(throwing out wins and losses becausei ts the most irrelevent stat this side of saves)
pettitte: 4.02 ERA, 180k/50bb (respectable)/ 7.78 K per9 /.272 BAA/ 1.33 WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched.)
the .272 BAA is startling, especially considering the fact lefties hit .321 against him. throw out that "lefty" crap, they hammer him better than righties do.
clemens: 3.91 ERA, 198 K/58 BB (good)/8.08 K per 9/ .247 BAA/ 1.21 WHIP
clemens had a good year for his age, but he's only getting worse...
wells: 4.14 ERA, 101 K/ 20 BB (awful K's , but awesome BB) 1.23 WHIP, .286 BAA which is awful.
only getting worse too, and that .286 BAA is wretched. if he had walked even 10 more batters, that ERA floats up a half a point.
take those three, and compare them to...
Javier Vazquez: 3.24 ERA, 241 K/ 57 BB (awesome) / 9.40 K per 9 (also awesome)/ .229 BAA, 1.11 WHIP (terrific)
probably the most underrated pitcher in baseball, i for one expect him to contend if not win the al cy young this year.
Kevin Brown: 2.39 ERA, 185 K/ 56 BB (solid)/ 7.89 K per 9/ 1.14 WHIP/ .236 BAA
finally stayed healthy, younger than clemens and wells, so i dont want to hear the age crap.
and Jon Lieber, who had a increasingly good 3 year trend going from 4.4 - 3.8- 3.7 ERA in his last 3 years before he got hurt.
adding those 3 in place of pettite, clemens and wells makes the yankees rotation 10 times better than it was last year. 3 legit aces in vazquez / mussina / brown. contreras will have a good year, if you look at how he did as a SP last year, he was phenominal. 57.2 IP as a starter, 2.34 ERA, 57 K, 19 BB, and an obscene .184 BAA.
that rotation is flat out awesome. it doesnt matter who the fifth starter is.
then you add quantrill, flash gordon to the pen... gary sheffield , kenny lofton, travis lee, alex rodriguez...