Pettitte and Cano: Suprise Domination

I love Andy Pettitte. I’ve said  it before and I’ll say it again until the day he decides to retire. His is the only player-jersey I own (purchased after his 1-0 shut out of the Braves in Game 5 of the 1996 World Series, my favorite contemporary Yankee game, and last worn during game 6 of the 2009 World Series as I sat in the second tier of the Stadium watching Pettitte gut out another World Series clincher). I love him because he’s build a great major league career on guts, grit, focus and intensity instead of innately great stuff. But among the Yankees off to staggering great early starts, Pettitte is the second most surprising.

Even in his best years–1996 when he was 21-8 and finished second in the Cy Young voting (losing to Pat Hentgen)–he didn’t get off to a starts like this. Well, okay, sometimes he did, like in 1997. Pettitte finished that year 12-8 with a 2.88 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, finishing that season the way he started it (that April he was 5-0 in 6 starts with a 2.32 ERA and a .238 batting average against). He had a great year in Houston in 2005, going 17-9 with a 2.30 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP but he was coming off injury that year and actually got off to a lousy start, dominating in the second half.

I expected Pettitte, now 38 years old, to pitch well this year, basically doing what he always does–pitching with guts and grit, giving up a lot of hits but saving himself with pick offs and ground ball double plays induced by his cutter, keeping the ball in the ball park to limit any damage. But Pettitte’s doing a lot more than that. He’s given up 7 fewer hits than innings pitched in 4 start with a WHIP of 1.07. Opponents are hitting .216 against him. And he’s making it look easy.

Can he keep it up? Sure he can. Will he? I don’t know. But barring injury there’s no reason for he can’t–it’s not like he’s a 38 year old power pitcher who has lost the mph gap between his fastball and his breaking pitches. He’s basically a sinker/slider (er, cutter) pitcher who pitched on brains and guts–two attributed that tend to get better, not worse with age.

Meanwhile, the first most surprising thing to me about the Yankees start is the emergence of Robinson Cano as a big time run producer. In previous years, I watched Cano’s at bats with runners in score position with anger, frustration and dismay. The kid seemed not even to be trying in those spots. The at bats were supremely undisciplined–it seemed like the kid was always batting in an 0-2 hole–and the results were supremely disappointing.

Cano looks like a different hitter this year, batting .300 with runners on and .333 with runners in scoring position. He’s been more selective at the plate, which shows in his OBP (over .400 for the first time I can remember in his career) and his walk totals (he has 6 already–20% of the total number of walks he drew last year although the season is only 10% complete). And perhaps he’s beginning to provide some protection from A-rod as word gets around the league (Alex has no IBBs yet this year). About the only bad thing I can say about Cano is that he’s only hitting .269 against lefties although he has half his homers against them. Cano is raking righties at a .413 clip. I’m happy to say it looks like I was profoundly wrong about Cano hitting in the 5th spot.

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