Most of the questions the New York Yankees have this spring training surround their starting rotation. Will A.J. Burnett show signs of bouncing back, and who will win the fourth and fifth spots in the rotation?
One of the pitchers trying to win one of the spots in the Yankees’ rotation is Bartolo Colon. Colon, who didn’t pitch in a single game in 2010, got the first shot to impress Joe Girardi and the rest of the Yankees’ coaching staff on Saturday.
The Yankees played their first preseason game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday, and Colon got the start. Let me rephrase that: The Yankee starters were playing the Phillies’ ham n’ egger squad. The only regulars to make the trip for the Phillies were Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez and Domonic Brown.
It was determined before the game that Colon would go two innings or throw 35 pitches. Remarkably, he did both.
Colon pitched two innings and gave up two hits, one walk and one run and didn’t strike out a batter. He threw 36 pitches, and 23 of them were for strikes. The damage could have been worse, but Howard just missed a HR off a mediocre fastball by two feet in the first.
While I understand it was just the first spring training game and it was Colon’s first appearance, every appearance counts for him, and I came away unimpressed with Colon’s performance.
Colon was consistently throwing 88-89 mph, only induced a couple of swings and misses and failed to show major league-quality secondary pitches. He did let one go at 93 mph to Ross Gload in the first but never hit that mark again in his two innings of work.
A pitcher can get away with throwing 88-89, but he needs those secondary pitches to be successful. Colon did throw a couple of cutters and changeups, but neither of those pitches had any bite to them. Developing a successful secondary pitch might be difficult for Colon because even in his prime Colon was throwing 80 percent fastballs.
Colon is competing with Ivan Nova, Sergio Mitre and Freddy Garcia for the final spots in the Yankees rotation. If he plans to beat any of those guys out, he is going to have to show more in his future starts than he did on Saturday.
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