Which 1995-2010 Yankees Pitcher Would You Start in Game 7?

It's the World Series, Game 7, season on the line. You have a chance of choosing any Yankee pitcher from 1995-2010 and only have his resume on the Yankees to choose from. You have some great names on there: Coney, Key, El Duque, The Rocket, Andy, CC, etc. But you need to throw one guy out there for one very important game. I've been debating this all morning at work and over Twitter, but now it's time to put it out there on the blog: who would you take? Here are the candidates:

Sabathia dominated the Angels in the ALCS (USA Today)

CC Sabathia (B-R link)

It's a small sample size, but this may be my pick. Very few (if any) Yankee pitchers dominated a whole playoffs over three series. Overall he was 3-1 with a 1.98 ERA, striking out 32 and walking only 9. He dominated in the ALDS and ALCS and was very good in the World Series (though his record was 0-1). Sabathia's ALCS is what really puts him on this list as he absolutely dominated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, going 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA, striking out 12, limiting the Angels to a .436 OPS against and going 8 innings in both his outings. Remember, though, that Sabathia came into last season with a reputation as a guy who couldn't cut it in October and while we're only going on their New York totals, this weighs quite heavily in a lot of people's minds. CC's total Win Probability Added (WPA) was 0.967 for the 2009 playoffs while FanGraphs clocks his FIP at 3.59 and his xFIP at 3.36.

From Twitter: @NYYEric: depends on if we get to choose the player as he was in that timeframe but I go with CC. (Andy close second)

Andy Pettitte (B-R link)

Certainly the sentimental pick of many (he was the runaway winner in my unofficial Twitter poll), but I'm wondering if he truly is the best pick. He's won the most series clinching games in history, but he also had his share of duds. In 11 ALDS series, Pettitte is 5-3 in 79.2 innings with a 3.73 ERA. In 7 ALCS series, he's 7-1 in 72.1 innings with a 3.73 ERA (and a 2001 ALCS MVP award). In 8 World Series, he's 5-4 in 77.2 innings with a 4.06 ERA. It all seems good, but there were some starts in there where he didn't even give his team a chance. His 1996 ALCS Game 5 and World Series Game 5 were great starts, but his World Series Game 2 in which he lasted only 2.1 innings and gave up 7 runs was not. In 1998, Pettitte was grat in the ALDS and World Series but he got bombed for 4 home runs in Game 3 of the ALCS. 1999 he breezed through the ALDS and ALCS but once again got bombed by Atlanta in the World Series. The problem was that when Pettitte really struggled (1997 ALDS, 2001 World Series, 2002 ALDS), the Yankees lost and he didn't even give them a chance to win. So would you like to have someone who keeps you in every game or one who looks like A.J. Burnett? Tough call. But overall, Pettitte was dominant with a 2.253 WPA in his first run of postseason stint in Pinstripes and a 0.833 WPA after he's returned from Houston. His 2009 postseason run where he won every single clinching game may have sealed this one for Pettitte in many people's minds.

From Twitter: @jersey2bronx: The guy holds the record for career postseason wins, and more important, series-CLINCHING wins.  Hard to argue with that.
@KDumont33: Andy. Pettitte.
@nick_dimi: I'd take Andy on the bump every single time. The only others I would consider would be Sabathia/Clemens. Can Mariano go 9?
@PattiD41: I don't even have to think about that...Pettitte!
@KJTwitty: Andy Pettitte. 

Orlando Hernandez (B-R link)

No one could touch El Duque in his prime. From 1998-2000, El Duque was 8-1 (with one hold) with a 2.20 ERA in 73.2 innings and held opponents to a .194 average. The team was 10-1 in games he pitched and the only game he lost was Game 3 of the World Series where he gave up 4 in 7.1 innings and struck out 12. 1998 Game 4 he saved their season (an amazing performance when you go back and think about the stakes, especially after Pettitte was awful the game before) and followed that up by dominating San Diego in the World Series. He was 3-0 in the 1999 playoffs with a 1.20 ERA. From 2001 to 2004 he was still very good (though not as dominant) going 1-2 with a 3.81 ERA. Although he won't be remembered for it as much as some of his fellow starters, I'm not sure there was a Yankee starter you would want out there in a Game 7--which, amazingly, was the one game of the series he never pitched as a Yankee (he never started a Game 5 of an ALDS either). His overall WPA was 1.908 with the Yankees and he took home the 1999 ALCS MVP.

David Cone (B-R link)

Coney was rarely people's first choice but he always seem to make the list somewhere. Cone was the Yankees' Game 1 pitcher from 1995-1997. Overall he was 6-1 with a 3.86 ERA in 77 innings. Although he struck out 68, he gave up 40 walks and 11 HR and the team was 9-5 in games he pitched. The problem is finding starts where Cone dominated. His one dominant start came in the 1999 World Series Game 2 in which he went 7 innings and gave up only one hit and no runs. Although he walked 5 that game, he was pretty much untouchable. But while he wasn't as dominant other times, he was always rock solid for the Yankees excpet for 1997. For that consistency alone, he may be a good choice. And despite how rough his 2000 regular season was, no one will ever forget Cone coming out of the bullpen to get Mike Piazza to pop out in Game 4 of the 2000 World Series. His total WPA is 0.477, and his postseason FIPs were (in order from 1995 to 2000): 6.36, 5.39, 8.51, 3.54, 3.92 and 3.13 which overall was not all that dominating.

From Twitter: @crotch_jenkins: Cone, pre-2000 edition.

Roger Clemens (B-R link)

There may not be a more controversial figure in baseball right now, but Clemens had some dominating post-season performances for the Yankees--though they were mixed with some really bad ones as well. 1999 Clemens went 7 innings in the ALDS and gave up no runs and then got bombed against the Red Sox and Pedro Martinez in the Yankees' only loss of the ALCS, following that up with 7.2 innings of one-run ball to clinch the World Series for the Yankees. In 2000, Clemens went 0-2 in the ALDS, but his ALCS and World Series performances were two of the most dominating on this list. In the ALCS game 4, Clemens went into Seattle and pitched a complete game, giving up 1 hit, no runs, and struck out 15 Mariners while walking only 2 (his game score for that game was 98). In the World Series Game 2 against the Mets (the whole Mike Piazza broken bat incident game), Clemens went 8 innings, gave up 2 hits, no runs, no walks, and struck out 9. 2001 was a mixed bag but he came up for the Yankees when they needed it in the World Series, turning in a 7 inning, 1 run, 3 hit, 9 K performance in Game 3 (after losing the first two), and pitched his heart out in Game 7, throwing 6.1, yielding one run, while striking out 10. The two final images of Clemens on the mound in the playoffs for the Yankees, though, may be the ones that serve as strikes against him. In the 2003 World Series he game up a big home run to rookie Miguel Cabrera and although he got a no decision, the Yankees lost the game. And when he came back in 2007, he lasted only 2.1 innings in the ALDS Game 3. It was a mixed bag for Clemens, but when he was dominant, there was no one that could match up with him. Taking out the 2007 series, Clemens was 7-4 in 100 innings with a 3.24 ERA, striking out 98 and walking 34. His WPA was 1.830.

From Twitter: @J_Yankees: re: game 7 starer. Roger Clemens

Mike Mussina (B-R Link)

Moose is the only pitcher on this list for the Yankees not to win a World Series, but he still had some dominant post-season starts. In his first one for the Yankees (Game 3 of the ALDS), Moose went 7 innings and gave up no runs (thanks to Jeter's flip). He followed that up with a win in Game 2 of the ALCS, a loss in Game 1 of the World Series, and then a great performance in Game 5 of the World Series, going 8, giving up two runs, and striking out 10 Diamondbacks, though he was bailed out by Scott Brosius' dramatic tying home run. Moose was one of the many Yankees who struggled in the 2002 ALDS and he lost his first three games of the 2003 post-season as well before he put in an unbelievable performance in relief of Roger Clemens, pitching 3 innings of shutout ball in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS to help the Yankees stage an improbable comeback. He got his first win of the 2003 playoffs in Game 3 of the World Series when he went 7 innings, giving up one run and striking out 9 Marlins. The 2004 postseason featured one win and one loss for Moose going into Game 5 of the ALCS. Although he pitched fairly well (6 innings, 7 Ks), Tom Gordon and Mariano Rivera couldn't hold the lead and the Yankees lost in 14 on a David Ortiz walk-off (Moose's overall numbers for 2004: ERA 3.66, FIP 1.93, xFIP 2.31). The rest of Moose's time in Pinstripes was unimpressive in the postseason as the Yankees failed to make it out of the first round. Overall as a Yankee, Moose was 5-7 in the postseason (team was 7-10) with a 3.80 ERA in 97 innings, striking out 92 and walking only 22 (4.18 K:BB ratio). His WPA, however was only 0.734 so his overall level of dominance may not be as large as some of those performances may make it seem.

David Wells (B-R link)

I don't remember Boomer being that dominant in the playoffs for the Yankees, but the data may suggest otherwise. He had only one truly awful game (Game 4 of the ALDS where he gave up 8 runs in 4.2 innings), though his 1 inning performance in Game 5 of the 2003 World Series will always be remembered.  Overall he was 7-2 with a 3.33 ERA in 67.2 innings, striking out 43 and walking 9 (4.78 K:BB ratio). Wells pitched a complete game, giving up one run in the 1997 ALDS Game 3, but his truly great postseason is his 1998 where he went 4-0 with a 2.93 ERA, striking out 31 in 30.2 innings and walking 5 including a big 15.1 innings and 18 Ks vs the Indians in two wins in the ALCS (a series where he deservingly won the ALCS MVP).  Wells' 2003 postseason included a Game 4 win against the Twins in the ALDS, a Game 5 win against the Red Sox in the ALCS, and then a relief performance in Game 7 of the ALCS to help the Yankees clinch it. Wells pitched well but lost Game 1 of the World Series and then had that forgettable performance in Game 5. Boomer's overall Yankees postseason WPA was 1.144 which suggests that he may have been more dominant than I remember.

Jimmy Key (B-R link)

Again, it was only one season (like CC), but Key was, well, a key to the Yankees 1996 World Series run. He was OK in the ALDS (got a no-decision), but was very good in the ALCS, going 8 innings in Game 3 against Baltimore, giving up 3 hits, and only 2 runs. Key lost Game 2 of the World Series, but came back to win the clincher in Game 6, going 5.1 innings and despite a lot of baserunners, only gave up one run. Key's inclusion on this list, though, is probably short-lived as his WPA for that one post-season series was 0.397.

A lot of people wanted Mariano Rivera to pitch 9 innings for the Yankees in Game 7, but since that can't happen, you need to pick one starter. So vote in our new poll on the right and let us know why you voted that way in the comments below. One game, you're the manager and you're hypothetically giving the ball to one Yankee pitcher: who do you pick?