Is Vazquez against Detroit the smart play?
May 4, 2010, 3:30 pm by iYankees · 91 Comments
As you now know, the Yankees will skip Javier Vazquez’s next start against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The point of the skipped start is to allow the embattled right-hander to “clear his head” and give him time to work on his problematic mechanics in low-pressure side sessions, rather than in front of a frenzied Fenway crowd. Therefore, instead of facing the Red Sox, Vazquez will face the Detroit Tigers early next week at Comerica Park.
Yesterday, I had questioned the move thinking that the Tigers were a better offensive team than the Sox, which could spell disaster for Vazquez. However, upon a review of the numbers, that does not appear to be the case. For instance, the Tigers and the Sawx have identical wOBAs of .351, plus, the two teams are pretty close with regards to wRC (the Tigers, with a 146 mark, have a slight edge over Boston’s 142). Though it might be true that the Tigers are slightly better at this point in time, there isn’t a tremendous gap between their offense and Boston’s offense. For that reason, I feel pretty comfortable with the Yankees’ decision to bump Vazquez back a bit, as there does not appear to be a clear advantage when facing either team.
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