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Over the last week or so, the New York Yankees have seen a breath of fresh air on the mound in the form of Darrell Rasner. He opened his 2008 fantasy baseball campaign with a six inning, 5-hit win against Seattle where he walked zero and struck out four. His second start was against Detroit and he won another with a six inning effort where he only gave up four hits. Rasner’s 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA and a 0.83 WHIP and the Yankees sure have enjoyed the efforts of this 27-year-old. And the media is even starting to mention his name in the same circles as Philip Hughes and Ian Kennedy.

As nice as it may seem to go and sign a young starting pitcher for the Yankees who has only given up nine hits in two starts, I can think of 5 reasons that you may want to wait a little while; just to see what develops.

• Sure Rasner’s strikeout to walk ratio is 5:1, but look at his two starts. In start one he had 4 K’s and 0 walks. In start two he had 1 strikeout and 1 walk. He’s trending in a direction that is very bad for pitchers.
• He’s given up one home run in each of his starts, placing his HR/9 ratio (1.50) in the very bad section of the stat book.
• He’s struck out five batters in twelve innings, also placing his K/9 ratio (3.75) dangerously low.

Now that we’ve spoken about the three areas Rasner has total control over (K’s, BB’s and HR’s allowed) let’s look at one glaring stat about his defense behind him.

• Rasner’s hit rate (BABIP) is 19.5% (.195). He’s getting a lot of help from lucky bounces and fielding effect once his pitches are hit into play. His hit rate will normalize soon, and when it does, his ERA should start climbing.

Finally, let’s talk about Rasner’s place in the Yankee pecking order. He’s always been considered a back of the rotation guy. Some people even see him as a long reliever.

• Rasner’s days seem numbered. He’s making the best of his promotion due to many injuries in the Yankee rotation, but when Hughes and Kennedy are ready to return to the rotation, where will Rasner go?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 7:56 am and is filed under Starting Pitchers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.