The Emergence of David Robertson

Early in the season, high-priced free agent signing Rafael Soriano was struggling, as the eighth inning was never a guarantee. By mid-May, Sori was on the shelf with an injured elbow. Seventh-inning man Joba Chamberlain was pitching to the tune of a 2.83 ERA before he went down, also with an elbow injury. Joba also needed Tommy John surgery and was out for the season. Soriano would be lost for over two months.

Someone needed to step up. That someone was Alabama native David Robertson.

Without his late-inning dominance, the bullpen would be in shambles behind Mariano. The first time All-Star, 26, has been nothing short of spectacular, as his 1.35 ERA and mind-blowing 13.7 K/9 ratio would suggest.





What's the secret behind David's recent success? Well, according to fangraphs.com, about three of every four of his pitches are fastballs. His average fastball is clocked at 93.1 MPH, but has a late jump that makes it seem like it is thrown at 95 or 96 MPH. The rest of his pitches are curveballs, thrown about 13 MPH slower than the fastball, so there is good velocity differential. He will occasionally mix in a hard 87 MPH changeup, but he is known as a fastball-curveball reliever.

His fastball is a valuable pitch, at 1.82 runs above average per 100 pitches. His curveball is also a solid 0.93 runs above average. While his changeup is great when thrown (3.47 runs above average), it shouldn't be paid as much attention because it is thrown only once out of every twenty pitches.

This link does a good job of explaining the above statistics:

http://www.fangraphs.com/library/index.php/pitching/linear-weights/

With Soriano back and looking better then before, the So-Ro-Mo combo can make Yankees games three innings shorter.

David has been lights out for the Yankees this year.