The Trainwreck

When the Yankees traded for Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan from the Braves in exchange for pitching prospect Arodyz Viscaino, LOOGY Mike Dunn, and everybody's favorite 4th outfielder (Melky Cabrera), the idea was not that the Yankees were trading for an ace. The Yankees did not expect Vazquez to replicate his 2009 numbers, which netted Vazquez a 4th place finish in the NL Cy Young voting. It was a career year for Vazquez; he had never posted a higher K/9 (9.77), and he had only registered a BB/9 lower than his 2009 mark (1.81) once in his entire career. Vazquez also did much of his pitching against an inferior National League. Still, it was not totally preposterous that the Yanks slotted Vazquez into their rotation as their 4th starter.

It is safe to say, however, that Vazquez' performance has not met the expectations of the Yankees' Front Office. By pretty much every measure of a pitcher's performance, from tERA (5.37), to xFIP (4.78), to even plain-old ERA (5.05). Vazquez K/9 has fallen to a pedestrian 7.13, while his BB/9 has skyrocketed to 3.67. And in Saturday's start, Vazquez was pulled after only 3 innings of work and gave up 4 runs and 3 home runs. Vazquez is also posting a career-low ground-ball rate of 34.2% (which is the fourth-lowest in the mark amongst starting pitchers in the AL), while having a career-high fly-ball rate (47.2%) which is the fourth-highest mark in the AL. When so many of the balls hit into play against you, it stands to reason that more of them are going to go for home runs; not including today's start, Vazquez has served up 23 long-balls.

What exactly is wrong with Vazquez? Is he hurt? Is his fastball velocity declining because he's aging (he has recently turned 34)? We simply don't know. One of the few positive things we can point to about this trade is the fact that the Yanks sold high on Melky Cabrera, who is currently lighting NL East pitching on fire to the tune of .263/.322/.374 and has actually been worth -0.5WAR, according to Fangraphs (I'm partial to Fangraphs, but Baseball Reference has Cabrera at 0.0 WAR, not exactly impressive). In addition, Boone Logan has actually pitched passably in the absence of Damaso Marte as the LOOGY (3.40 K/BB ratio against LHP this season). Arodyz Viscaino could indeed pan out as a prospect, but he's still far away from the majors and is currently on the Minor League Disabled List with a partially torn elbow ligament. Vazquez' performance has certainly been disheartening for Yankee fans this season, but it's not like the Yankees traded the farm to get him.