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.

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Righthanded Starters

Mariano Rivera looks like a runaway winner in our closer bracket (as he should be) with only one lone vote going to the old-school Goose Gossage. We'll keep the voting going on the right until it's over but we need to start on our next group. Let's move on to the righthanded starting pitchers.

Yankees

Mike Mussina: Hey, I was surprised to put his name on this list too. But let's look at the evidence. He won 123 games from 2001-2008 at a .631 winning percentage. He put up a 3.88 ERA in a hitters division during one of the bigger power breakouts in the history of baseball. His wins leave him 7th among Yankee right handed starters but despite throwing a ton less innings than many of the other guys on the list he was 2nd in strikeouts and among pitchers with at least 1200 innings, he was 1st in BB/9 (1.84), 1st in K/9 (7.41), 3rd in WHIP (1.212), and first--by far--in SO/BB with a 4.02 rate there. He had some memorable playoff outings for the Yankees including 2001 against Oakland (the "flip play" game) and 2003 in relief against the Red Sox (the Aaron Boone game), though his most dominant outing as a Yankee was his perfect game through 8 2/3 against the Red Sox in Fenway until Carl Everett broke it up. (picture from Seven Good Innings)

Red Ruffing: It was tough to choose between Allie Reynolds and Red Ruffing. Amazingly, these two missed each other on the Yankees by one year. Each pitcher was 7-2 in the World Series for the Yankees with an ERA under 2.80. Each one won 6 World Series with the Yankees. And both had better winning percentages than Mike Mussina. But Ruffing pulled ahead because of the sheer numbers: 231 wins is 63 higher than the next closest Yankee righty. He had over a walk less per 9 innings than did Reynolds and had a better SO/BB ratio. It's really close between the two, but I'll go with the Hall of Famer Ruffing who came in the top 8 in MVP voting 3 years in a row (picture from A Yankee State of Mind)

Just missed: Allie Reynolds (who was probably jipped both here and in Hall of Fame voting) and Roger Clemens (who, if he hadn't gone to Houston for those years, may have been near the top of the list).

Mets

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Mark Buehrle Looking A Lot Like Tom Glavine

Also a lot like Johnny Padres and Frank Viola. This is via Baseball-Reference and does not include today's game:

Sim Player               From  To Yrs  W   L   WL%   ERA    G   GS  GF  CG SHO  SV   IP     H    R   ER   HR  BB   SO  ERA+
+---+--------------------+---------+--+---+---+-----+-----+----+---+---+---+---+---+------+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+
     Mark Buehrle        2000-2009 10 132  90  .595  3.78  312 287   6  23   7   0 1973.0 2043  928  829 226  451 1153 122
952  Johnny Podres       1953-1963 10 129  96  .573  3.66  336 286  22  72  22   5 1891.0 1876  853  770 193  627 1267 107
949  Frank Viola         1982-1990  9 137 110  .555  3.70  307 306   0  63  14   0 2107.7 2077  960  866 233  608 1469 112
945  Tom Glavine         1987-1996 10 139  92  .602  3.45  298 298   0  34  13   0 1956.3 1871  842  751 127  664 1212 115

(Side Note: That's right, Tom Glavine had ZERO relief appearances. He's the winningest pitcher ever without coming in from the bullpen, according to B-R's Play Index. #3 on that list and #1 active is Yankees ace CC Sabathia)

Rob Neyer mentions that he's been flying under the radar for a while despite being really good:

Buehrle's career ERA is roughly 23 percent better than the American League average during his 10 seasons. That's really, really good. That's better than Bob Feller, Eddie Plank, Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale, and various other Hall of Famers. It's better than CC Sabathia, Josh Beckett, Jake Peavy, Andy Pettitte, and John Lackey.

But would Joe Fan or Rob Blogger put Buehrle on the same level with those stars?

Probably not, because Buehrle just hasn't done the sorts of things that get one mentioned among such notables. He has never won 20 games, and has won more than 16 games just once. He has been mentioned in the Cy Young results just once (finishing a distant fifth in 2005). With two notable exceptions -- first the no-hitter, and now this -- he's never been particularly overpowering.

Well here is "Rob Blogger" giving Buehrle his due (and not just for that Perfect Game today). In his quiet excellence and lack of a 20-win season, Buehrle reminds me a lot of the Mike Mussina. Quiet, never the best, but quietly puts up very good numbers.

Maybe now after the perfect game, Buehrle will finally get his due. Or, if the White Sox fall out of the race, maybe they will have a big chip to move to a team looking for a very good and very underrated starting pitcher.

Pettitte Plays The Role Of Stopper Again

In the glory days, Andy Pettitte played a role rarely talked about in baseball: he was the stopper. In 1996, Andy Pettitte had more than half of his wins the day after a Yankee loss. This year, he's also been the stopper of losing streaks: Pettitte is 3-1 the day after a Yankees loss (his lone loss coming against Boston Red Sox who no Yankee pitcher since Mike Mussina has been able to beat).

And he continued that "stopper" mentality again as he shut down the Marlins. There is something to be said about just going after hitters. Instead of aiming for corners, Andy Pettitte went after an agressive Marlins team and got the Yankees a solid 7 innings. Part of his success may have been pitching away from home; he has an ERA of over 5.75 at home and 2.35 on the road.

He also helped wake up the Yankees offense with a big double in their 4-run inning. On a day where A-Rod sat, Derek Jeter played hurt, and Brett Gardner was unable to go after making severe contact with the wall (I think Bobby Abreu cried watching that highlight), Andy was Dandy once again. Now they need to turn the losing streak into a winning streak with AJ Burnett and CC Sabathia closing out this series.