Saturday, December 9, 2006
BERGEN COUNTY RECORD
It took all of three days for Andy Pettitte and the Yankees to reunite in the best feel-good story of the winter. Everyone in the Bronx was happy on Friday. Make that ecstatic, especially since Pettitte's homecoming just fattened the odds that Roger Clemens will be wearing pinstripes in 2007, too.
Sources say Clemens' name never came up during talks among the Hendricks brothers, the agents who represent both The Rocket and Pettitte, and the Yankees. But one Bomber executive said, "We're obviously hoping" Pettitte's decision to leave the Astros will influence his Texas buddy, too.
Rocket historians have learned this much over time: there's a precedent for him following Pettitte, as was the case after 2003. Clemens came out of a temporary retirement solely to be Pettitte's teammate in Houston.
Second, Clemens loves the turbo-dollars almost as much as Alex Rodriguez does. He knows he can get a better deal out of the Yankees or the Red Sox than he can from Houston, even if he waits until after the All-Star break. And finally, Clemens is addicted to high-intensity action, and there's likely to be more of it in the Bronx-Fenway corridor than at Minute Maid Park next year.
But whether the Yankees are a greater temptation than the Sox is anyone's guess. No one, not Pettitte, the Hendricks or the giddy executives in the Bronx, knows what's in Clemens' mind right now. The Red Sox don't really have a rotation spot for Clemens, but he obviously would be attracted to the closure that awaits him in Fenway.
Clemens can finish what (and where) he started, and go out having his number retired by the Red Sox. That could be even more compelling than teaming up with Pettitte as Nos. 1 and 2 in the Yankees' rotation.
In the short term, the Bombers get the pitcher (and man) they've been missing since 2003. Pettitte is all things to all people in the Yankee family -- a dependable lefthander with a proven postseason resume, an honest, hard-working athlete who'll add stability and maturity in Joe Torre's clubhouse.
Pettitte is the anti-Carl Pavano, the anti-Kevin Brown, the anti-Randy Johnson, a big-game pitcher who understands what it means to pitch in New York. One American League general manager put it best the other day when he said, "It sounds funny saying it, but Andy Pettitte looks like a Yankee."
The others, miserable and mean-spirited in pinstripes, have all given off the vibe of mercenaries.
But that's not to say Pettitte's return was driven purely by nostalgia. His camp was deep in negotiations with the Astros, too, and broke off talks only after ownership refused to fatten a take-it-or-leave-it offer of one year, $12 million. Pettitte was seeking $14 million from Houston, $2 million less than he ultimately accepted from the Yankees.
It's hard to understand why the Astros would chisel down Pettitte over a mere $2 million, especially after spending $100 million on free agent Carlos Lee. But once the Yankees gave Pettitte a player option for another $16 million for 2008, essentially handing him $32 million, the marriage with the Astros was over.
The Yankees aren't writing that check blindly, though. They had a chance to sign the younger, healthier Ted Lilly, and negotiated with him in earnest until Wednesday. Lilly appealed to the Bombers on several fronts, including the fact that he'd already been New York-tested. But Lilly ultimately failed two key litmus tests.
The first was his innings pitched per nine innings ratio; Lilly lasted less than six innings every time he started. With the bullpen already being counted on to bail out the aging Johnson and Mike Mussina, the last thing the Yankees wanted was a 30-year-old starter who wasn't durable.
Even more disturbing to the Yankees was Lilly's ratio of 12.9 runners per nine innings.
Combining that with his 0.89 ground ball to fly ball ratio last year, nearly the worst in the AL, and his 17.5 pitches per inning (second-worst in the league) and the Yankees went fleeing to Pettitte by Wednesday night.
They know there are risks here, huge ones. Despite making a career-high 35 starts with the Astros last year, and that his second-half ERA was among the three best in the National League, Pettitte is still nursing a tender left arm. One NL scout said, "It's practically a lock" Pettitte will end up on the DL at some point in 2007.
Pettitte himself is sensitive to the Yankees' vulnerability; the lefthander promised he'll decline the 2008 option if he feels a breakdown is imminent. The fact that the Yankees would trust a player with that much money, essentially putting Pettitte on the honor system, speaks volumes about the regard in which they hold him.
There aren't many Yankees who are treated so generously, but that's how the empire was once run. Cash merchants such as Brown and Pavano were preceded by the likes of Paul O'Neill and Tino Martinez and Scott Brosius, back when the winning felt cleaner and less corporate.
Pettitte alone can't turn back the clock to 1998, but he'll make it easier for Yankee fans to remember the early days of the renaissance. Good pitcher, good guy. Smart move.
E-mail: klapisch@northjersey.com
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