It’s Time For Vidal Nuno To Go And Let The Yankees Win Without Him

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The Yankees’ starting pitching has not been their strong suit this season. Injuries have forced the Yankees into starting pitchers like Vidal Nuno. As a result, the Yankees know they have to score a ton every 5^th day. The stats haven’t been pretty. Nuno now has 12 starts for the Yankees. On the season, he has an ERA of 5.88, a WHIP of 1.46, and has given up 15 home runs. It’s amazing that he has only lost 4 games this season.

As I mentioned in an article 2 months ago, Nuno’s pitching mechanics are not sound whatsoever. He has the kind of mistakes that most coaches teach their pitchers to avoid when they are 14. However, Nuno is pitching without a strong sense of what makes a pitcher successful. His lower body doesn’t drive towards the plate, and he does not follow through with his glove arm. Pitching like that may work for a couple pitchers that will light up the gun at 98 no matter what they do, but for a guy that is struggling to get his fastball over 90 miles per hour, Nuno needs sound mechanics.

Another issue for Nuno is his inability to pitch to lefties. When a lefty pitcher cannot get lefties out, he is basically a useless pitcher. Personally, when I was pitching early in my youth, I literally hit every lefty I faced for a season and a half. Being a lefty pitcher, I felt that facing a lefty, closed me off and I hit them every time. Then, I realized that was my most glaring issue as a pitcher, and made it my focus point moving forward. As a result, I became unhittable to lefties, even moving to the left of the rubber to get that ‘Randy Johnson ball is being released from behind the batter’ effect. For Nuno to get to the majors, and still walk 5.24 lefties per nine innings defies logic. He has taken the one element of his game that should be given to him, and made it his enemy.

Nuno does not overpower like C.C. Sabathia used to. He does not trick like Masahiro Tanaka does. He’s a slow pitching lefty, that is just filler until the Yankees can find any other option. Apparently, Larry Rothschild does not care enough to fix Nuno, so the rest of the team has to deal with his lack of pitching ability. Expect him to no longer be with the team before the All Star break.