Yankees Editorial: Have The Yankees Found The Next Ron Guidry?

Every New York Yankees fan knows the story. You know, the one that says Yankees manager Billy Martin once supposedly went to the mound in spring training to ask a young Ron Guidry a simple question-is there anybody that he can get out?

Guidry had reportedly been smacked around that day, giving up one hard hit after another. There was no sharp breaking slider, no wicked fastball, no nothing, except for his uncertain future in pinstripes. But thankfully, the Yankees had patience with Guidry. And the rest is history.

Few could have envisioned at the time the career that Guidry would ultimately have. It just didn´t seem possible, even though he showed occasional signs of greatness. And now, as we look forward to spring training, could it be that the Yankees have found a pitcher who may have the ¨stuff¨ to make lightning strike twice? [related category]

That pitcher is newly acquired Nathan Eovaldi. He comes to the Yanks because the Marlins simply gave up on him. They were tired of his inconsistency, despite his 100 mph fastball. He put up a solid first half of 2014, with an ERA before the All Star Game of 3.31. At times, like Guidry did early on, he appeared totally dominant, blowing one batter away after another.

But after the All Star Game, Eovaldi crumbled. His  ERA balloned to 5.51. So why should Joe Girardi and Larry Rothschild think that will change? Can they get him on the same path that Guidry took?

A look at his stats reveals some interesting things. First, Eovaldi pitched significantly better in day games. His ERA in 2014 was 3.33  during the day versus 4.97 at night. . So whenever possible, the Yankees may alter their rotation to allow him to pitch during the day.

And it is not a secret that many pitchers show a drop in effectiveness during their third time through the batting order. But this has been an even bigger problem for Eovaldi. His ERA worked out to 3.64 after two times around. But it jumped to 7.07  during the third time through the order.

So Girardi should not hesitate to pull him after the seventh inning. The eighth is when teams batted .429 against him. Don´t even play around and wait for runners to get on base. Just get him out of there.

Now I know what you´re thinking. The Yankees never had to do any of this with Guidry. Plus, those stats are not comparable. And you´re right. But during his flashes of dominance, the way he sent batters back to the dugout does conjour up memories of Guidry in ´78.

The reality is, Eovaldi may eventually prove to be a long reliever instead of a starter. And let´s face it, he needs to be much more consistent before he can earn legitimate comparisons to Louisiana Lightning. But if he can get it together, three or four innings of Guidry-like quality would certainly be welcome, wouldn´t it?

Both the Yankees and Eovaldi would certainly be happy with that. And they should be. Because there may never be another pitcher like Ron Guidry.

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