Guzman Added to ALCS Roster, Hinske Off

Eric Hinske is off the American League Championship Series roster, speedy Freddy Guzman is on. This is according to Yankees LoHud blog's Chad Jennings. Here is Girardi's reasoning:

“We thought we could use another speed guy in this round. We’ve had some success doing those types of things late in the game, and in a seven-game series stuff could come up late in the game. We saw the games against Minnesota were very close and sometimes you can use a couple of pinch runners. If Gardy gets a start, then you don’t have a pinch runner (without Guzman). It just frees us up to do some more things.”

This makes sense to me. When are you going to use Hinske? The one place I could see using Hinske is if Johnny Damon continues to struggle, Hinske may be an answer in the outfield. But as the starting lineup fills out, you don't really have anyone who would get pinch hit for. The lone exception is Jose Molina and in that game you'll have Jorge Posada on the bench ahead of Hinske.

The one problem here? It leaves the Yankees without a bat on the bench. If you remove Posada for a pinch runner in the 7th and Molina comes up in a big spot in the 9tth, who do you put in to hit? That's my biggest question.

Also, I'm guessing this means that the Yankees are going to go with 11 pitchers. Whether that means Marte or Bruney as the last guy, it seems like the Yankees could have gone with a hitter instead of either. Utilizing 3 catchers and 11 pitchers gives you increased flexibility...but it severely hurts the bench. Let's hope that doesn't burn them late in a close game.

Update 2:42 PM: Baseball Musings brings up a good point that I didn't mention above:

I’ve assumed that if Gardner starts, Melky Cabrera doesn’t, but this seems to indicate there are games where Girardi may want a better defensive outfield. However, if you have Gardner in the lineup, he’s the one person you’d like to have a pinch hitter to replace, especially if you have an RBI situation. I guess either Damon or Swisher takes that job, depending on who Girardi sits.

That does make some more sense. If Damon or Swisher still struggle at the plate, this could be an option to choose. But let us too remember that Damon struggled all of the 2004 ALCS...until the final game.