Pettitte's Fantasy Value…
January 27th, 2009
The New York Yankees today re-signed Andy Pettitte to a 1 year, $5.5MM deal with the potential to reach $12MM if Pettitte reaches certain incentives. Pettitte returns to the Yankees as their 4th starter behind CC Sabathia, Chien-Ming Wang and AJ Burnett. He should be no higher than your 4th pitcher on your fantasy team either.
Pettitte, who will be 37 in June had a dismal 2nd half last year going 4-7 with a 5.35 era. However, he still managed to win 14 games on the season. With the Yankees offense figuring to score a lot of runs yet again in 2009, Pettitte should have no problem reaching the 13-14 win mark in 2009. At this point in his career, wins will be only category Pettitte will be valuable in.
Pettitte’s BAA (Batting avg. against) has increased every year since 2004 and his era was almost a half a run higher (4.54) last year than in was in 2007. This trend would make you think his era would increase yet again in 2009. Last year also marked the 3rd straight year Pettitte gave up 230+ hits. Yet another trend that should be expected to continue in 2009.
Here what you should expect from Pettitte in 2009:
W – 13
L – 12
era – 4.80
IP – 195
H – 234
K – 140
How come we didn’t get a great value deal post for the Yankees? This could be possibly the first time ever, the Yanks pulled a deal off the table ($10 million contract), then got the player to sign for less ($5.5 million contract- althought there are “incentives”). This seems to almost mirror the Sox signing Smoltz or any other reclamation project other teams have tried.