Zell's Pinstriped Blog, A New York Yankees Fan Blog

Now that we know where Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and John Lackey will be playing baseball in 2010, it’s time to look at the best options that the Yankees have not named Chien-Ming Wang. The best free agent options the Yankees have are Justin Duchscherer and Ben Sheets. Let’s compare these two and pick a future Yankee…

Ben Sheets- Pros

Upon mentioning his name, I know I invoke a few groans and rolls of the eyes, which is well deserved, in some cases. Though, the stats do not lie, in 8 active years, he has an ERA of 3.72 and 7.6 Ks per nine innings. Though, when healthy (and that’s a big IF) he can throw 200+ innings easily and even with injury riddled years, he provides 6+ innings in his starts. Think of this you can slide Ben Sheets in as a 4th or 5th starter and move Joba or Phil to the bullpen or rotate their starts which benefits everyone. With Ben not needing to be the #1 starter like he was in Milwaukee, he can relax and pitch his game. When healthy, Ben Sheets has the potential to be a front line starter. Sheets is also one year younger than Justin Duchscherer.

Cons

Sheets missed all of last year due to rehabilitation of his surgically repaired elbow which he injured in 2008.  All the eye rolling and scoffing at him possibly signing is well deserved. The biggest con against him is his health. If you remove 2008 from his pitching records, from 2005 to 2007, his innings pitched were: 156.2, 106, 141.1. Not exactly stellar, more like Joba rules were in effect for him. Another big IF is whether or not he’d be able to pitch in a big city market like New York. Many pitchers have come and not lived up to their expectations or wilted under the pressure (See: Javy Vasquez, Kenny Rodgers, Jack McDowell, Randy Johnson, etc al). He has also pitched solely in the National League Central…

Justin Duchscherer- Pros

J-Duch (I’m not going to type his last name again, damnit) has pitched his whole career in the American League, which is better than pitching in the National League (see John Smoltz and Brad Penny). J-Duch has a 3.14 ERA for his career and a 2.54 ERA as a starter while exhibiting excellent control and a career WHIP of 1.12. He also hasn’t shown a career filled with injuries like Ben Sheets.

Cons

J-Duch has pitched his whole career for the Oakland A’s, which isn’t bad, but it isn’t a demanding division like the AL East. J-Duch has only pitched 27 career games, 22 of them in 2008. Another issue you have to think about is his bout with clinical depression. While he may be better now, one has to wonder if he’ll be able to mentally hold up pitching in New York.

Decision

As much as I like Ben Sheets and have gone ‘Man, when is he a free agent?’ I still don’t like the fact that he is injury prone (then again, wasn’t AJ Burnett?) and he has pitched his entire career in the NL Central. Not a formula for success in the AL East. While J-Duch has had success, I still question his mental make up a little bit, but in the end I would go with J-Duch as their age doesn’t matter, he would cost less and he has experience in the American League.