Yeah, ask him if he knows any good lefties for the Yanks' bullpen while you're at it!

For those of you have didn't get the reference in the title, its a quote from Entourage, one of the best shows in T.V. right now. I bring it up because, obviously, lefties has been something that has been lacking in the Yankees' bullpen for awhile now. At the start of the season, we had zero left handed relievers, and Pettite was the only lefty on the whole staff. Having these lefties is important, especially with the short porch out in right (hey, kind of like my blog title!).

As the 2008 season comes to a close, another area that the Yanks need to look at (albeit not as much) is the bullpen. This was a pleasant surprise for the 2008 Yanks, since the bullpen turned out to be a strength for us, something it has not been for years. With the mid-season acquisition of Damaso Marte and the eventual call-up of Phil Coke, we finally have a couple lefties for our 'pen.

Phil Coke is easy. He's young, cheap, left handed, and was surprisingly effective at the major league level. Coke pitched 14.2 innings in 12 games since his call-up, and has surrendered only one earned run and collected 14 strikeouts against only two walks, good for a 0.61 ERA. Very, very impressive numbers to say the least. Obviously, Coke will be given every opportunity to make the 25-man roster out of spring training. Hopefully he can repeat his performance, which I believe he will to an extent. Coke was drafted as kind of a long shot prospect, as we didn't take him until the 26th round back in 2002. However, since 2006 he has been putting up impressive numbers. Spanning from A Charleston all the way to the majors since 2006, Coke has an average ERA of 2.92 with 320 strikeouts in 363.1 innings. The only issue really, is to keep him in the bullpen, or move him back to a starter, which is what he was in the minors.

I think we can keep Coke in the bullpen. He's already had success there on the major league level, seems to have the right kind of mentality for a relief pitcher, and, quite frankly, we have enough starting pitching depth to allow that, especially if we sign a starter in the next couple of months.

Now Damaso Marte has been a bit more controversial. My two cents: pick up his option. The guy is 33 years old and has a career ERA of 3.29, which spans across eight years of MLB servie time. You know what that tells me? It tells me that Marte is a good pitcher who struggles early in his Yankee career. What most people don't know, however, is that Marte was allowed to throw 42 pithes in the span of a single game on August 4th! You just can't let a single-inning pitcher like Marte do that. Marte later admitted that he was pitching through pain for awhile afterwards. Marte was then shut down for a week or so. Since then, Marte has posted a 3.55 ERA in 12.2 innings with 15 strikeouts. In 9 appearanes in the month of September, Marte pitched 6.2 innings, giving up only 1 earned run (1.35 ERA) and logged 7 strikeouts.

His option is for $6 million. Let's be honest...that is pocket change for the Yankees. Despite Marte's early struggles, I will give him the benefit of the doubt because of his alleged forearm tightness. The Yankees are not going to get a lefty reliever better than Marte, especially one that is willing to give up the 9th inning. We would be foolish not to pick up that option. If Marte can pitch to his career 3.29 ERA all of next season (assuming he is utilized properly), our bullpen could be one of the toughest in the league.