TAMPA — For the record, I hate conventional wisdom. I hate echoing what everyone else says just because after a while anything repeated over and over kind of sounds like indisputable fact, even if it is nonsense.
So forgive me if I do not buy the notion that coming back as the No. 4 starter will make Javier Vazquez’s second life as a Yankee easier than a 2004 stint, when the Yanks believed they had enlisted their future ace.
Being the No. 4 starter on the Yankees comes with more pressure than being the No. 1 guy on at least 20 clubs. Just look at how Joba Chamberlain was viewed last year when every start was a mandate on his future.
Brian Cashman often says the Yankees don’t play one 162-game season, but rather 162 one-game seasons. Such is the lingering impact of George Steinbrenner’s legacy, and the passion of the fans and media that follow this organization.
Eventually the Yankees’ No. 4 starter winds up pitching on national TV against the Mets in a game invested with more tension and plot lines than an entire Kansas City Royals season. Joe Girardi has lined up — barring injuries — CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte to start in the season-opening series in Fenway. But that is not a No. 4 starter reprieve.
In May, for example, the Yanks have a seven-game trip through Boston and Detroit, meaning Vazquez will get the Red Sox or Johnny Damon or both. Being the No. 4 starter at that point will deflect about as much pressure as a winning smile.
“It doesn’t matter if you are not the No. 1 here,” Vazquez said. “You have to win. That is the way it is.”
So what will matter for Vazquez is extinguishing another bit of conventional wisdom: That he is soft. That reputation was born as Vazquez went from All-Star to second-half dud in 2004, culminating in infamy when he surrendered an ALCS Game 7 grand slam to Damon that pretty much assured the Red Sox’s historic comeback.
But does he deserve that rap or is that conventional wisdom dubious, as well? After all, Jorge Posada said he did not find out Vazquez’s shoulder was sore in the second half until last year, when Vazquez’s father told him.
Friends of Vazquez say he hid the injury for a noble reason: to help the team. The Yankees’ rotation, after all, was turning to the Alex Gramans, Tanyon Sturtzes and Brad Halseys late in that season because Mike Mussina was disabled with a bad elbow, Kevin Brown and Orlando Hernandez were being held together by rubber bands, and the patience for Jose Contreras evaporated and he was traded for Esteban Loaiza. Vazquez thought he had to pitch or the team was in big trouble.
In general, teammates know who is afraid or not. And there was not even an off-the-record smack down of Vazquez in 2004. Plus, there were open arms for his return, which there would not be if his manhood were at issue. Do you think Carl Pavano would receive open arms? Among the Yankees, Vazquez is considered a hard worker and a good teammate.
“You don’t throw 200 innings a year for 10 years if you are not tough,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said.
Nevertheless, Vazquez’s toughness has been questioned by someone in uniform: White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Of course, Guillen also ran Nick Swisher out of town and into the Yankees’ happy arms last year. But, to be fair to Guillen, Vazquez also pitched brutally down the stretch and in the playoffs in ’08.
So do 2004 and 2008 characterize Vazquez? Or is it a small sample size? Remember that Sabathia came to the Yanks last year with a 7.92 postseason ERA (five starts) before dispelling the — drum roll — conventional wisdom that he did not have the stomach for the big games.
Now Vazquez can imitate Sabathia, show his 10.34 postseason ERA (four games, two starts) does not define him just as surely as being a No. 4 starter for the Yankees does not protect him.