Why Do the Yankees Struggle to Develop Young Pitchers?

What do Lefty Gomez and Whitey Ford have in common besides being left-handed pitchers?

They are the only pitchers originally signed by the Yankees who are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

As difficult as it might be to believe given that the franchise has 27 World Series titles, more than double the 11 won by the second-place St. Louis Cardinals, the Yankees have had mixed success with developing their own pitchers.

Maybe that's to be expected when they are known as Murderer's Row and the Bronx Bombers.

The Yankees have had some top flight pitchers come through the organization over the years such as Ron Guidry, Mel Stottlemeyer, Andy Pettitte and future Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera. But many of their most noteworthy contributors  began their career elsewhere.

Hall of Famer Red Ruffling, who was 231-124 in 15 years with New York, spent almost six seasons in Boston before coming to the Bronx. Don Larsen, who pitched that perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series, was acquired from Baltimore. Much more recently, Jim Catfish Hunter, David Cone, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina and C.C. Sabathia were originally drafted or signed as undrafted free agents by other teams.

Michael Pineda, a rookie with the Seattle Mariners last season, makes the list in 2012..

That's why Yankee fans may want to temper their enthusiasm about those good young arms in the farm system. The Yankees have high hopes for Dellin Betances, Manny Banuelos, D.J. Mitchell and David Phelps, among others.

But pitchers are a risky business. The Mets built their franchise around Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Nolan Ryan, Jon Matlack and Dwight Gooden, but even a pitching-oriented organization can swing and miss sometimes.

Look no farther than Generation K with Paul Wilson, Jason Isringhausen and Bill Pulsipher. Only Isringhausen endured, and that was when he was converted to a reliever. 

The Yankees have Sabathia and Pineda at the top of their rotation but are counting on home-grown Ivan Nova to produce a solid No. 2/3 starter. He was 16-4 last season. Is he for real or a one-hit wonder?

Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes have seen their potential possibly squandered in a never-ending ordeal of pitch counts and indecision over whether they're starers or relievers. Chamberlain is recovering from Tommy John surgery (By the way, John is another successful Yankee who was 91-60 in eight years, but started with the White Sox and then went to the Dodgers).

The Yankees are still trying to determine whether Hughes, now in his sixth year, is the starter who was 18-8 in 2010 or the reliever who was 8-3 in 44 appearances in '08.

They will give him every chance especially after letting Ian Kennedy get away.

So who do we think rank among the best of the Yankees acquisitions over the years?

Here are a few who come to mind: 

Sabathia May Be the Best Acquisition of All

SS Sabathia is a career in progress, but so far, the Yankees have no regrets signing him as a free agent after the 2008 season. Sabathia has anchored the pitching staff and given the Yankees the top-of-rotation starter they hoped he would be.

He is 59-23 in three seasons in New York and has averaged a little over 230 innings a season. Although he's only 30 and built for the long haul, the Yankees might think about reducing his work load a bit to extend his longevity.

Sabathia has the shown the mental, physical and emotional makeup to survive and thrive in New York and barring an expected career-shortening injury, he has the opportunity to go down in Yankee lore as perhaps the best pitcher to wear pinstripes.

Ruffing Was a Diamond in the Ruff

Yankees-Red Sox rivalry? It probably wasn't a big factor when Boston traded Ruffing to the Yankees in 1930. After all, the Red Sox did sell Babe Ruth to the Yankees as well.

Only 25, Ruffing turned around his career in the Bronx. After five losing seasons in Boston in which he was a 20-plus game loser twice, he flourished in pinstripes winning 231 games. He won 20 games four years in a row, and like most pitchers in his generation, he usually finished what he started.

He left Boston executives with red faces to match their socks.

Tommy John's Surgery Gave Pitchers New Life

How groundbreaking was the surgery that now bears his name? It enabled Tommy John to pitch for 26 years in the majors. He was already a ripe old 36 when he joined the Yankees for the first time in 1979. All he did was go 22-9 and 21-9 to join a legion of left-handers who thrived at old Yankee Stadium. 

Lefty Gomez, Whitey Ford, Ron Guidry and Tommy John were success stories because the Yankees leaned toward lefties to keep teams from taking advantage of the short right-field porch. John left and then returned to New York, finishing with 91 victories in a Yankee uniform and 288 for his career—seventh best among left-handers in baseball history.

But give a lot of credit to Dr. Frank Jobe, the orthopedic surgeon who performed the surgery on John's left elbow in 1974 that revolutionized sports medicine. John needed 18 months to recover but was even a better pitcher after the procedure in which a tendon is used to replace the elbow ligament that failed.

Clemens Becomes Yankees' 'Canadian Import'

The Rocket man discovered the Fountain of Youth when a seemingly washed up pitcher for the Boston Red Sox signed with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1997. But Roger Clemens won 20 games in each of his two years north of the border before doing the unthinkable and accepting a trade to the Yankees.

He gave the Bronx Bombers five winning seasons—winning 77 games and two World Series rings. Like John, he was also 36 when he came to New York, but unlike John, speculation swirls around Clemens about whether his career longevity and revival was aided by performance enhancing drugs.

With or without pharmaceutical help, not many pitchers win 354 games during their career as Clemens did in establishing himself as the dominant pitcher of his generation.

Mussina Logged Plenty of Innings in Pinstripes

Mike Mussina might have been one of the more unappreciated Yankee free-agent signings. He gave them eight solid years, averaging 31 starts, 194 innings and 15 victories. He was 20-9 at the age of 39 in 2008—his final season. The drawback was that the Yankees lost twice in the World Series during his tenure, and that's how this franchise measures success.

Mussina wasn't flashy, but 270 career victories have earned him consideration for the Hall of Fame. He was 123-72 with the Yankees.

History will remember him as one of the most dependable and durable pitchers to wear the most famous uniform in baseball.     

How Yankee Fans Became Cone Heads

David Cone was acquired by the Mets in 1987 in a multi-player trade that was essentially Cone coming to New York and catcher Ed Hearn going to Kansas City.

That began a love affair between New Yorkers and Cone that transcended whether Cone was wearing the orange and blue of the Mets or Yankee pinstripes. He was 81-51 in seven years with the Mets but was traded to Toronto when the Mets fell on hard times in 1995.

The Blue Jays dealt him to the Yankees the same year, and Cone was home again, even if it was the Bronx and not Queens. He gave the Yankees four solid seasons and won 20 games in 1998 when they won the World Series.

He earned two more rings with the Yankees and pitched a perfect game on July 18, 1999, against the Montreal Expos at Yankee Stadium. He was 36 years old.

Hunter Was the Biggest Catch of Free Agency

After 10 glorious seasons with the Kansas City/Oakland A's, Jim "Catfish" Hunter became the first prominent free agent in baseball, and there was Yankees owner George Steinbrenner ready, willing and financially able to hook Catfish in the winter of 1974.

Hunter won was 23-14 in 1975, his first year with the Yankees, and was 17-15 in '76. Unfortunately, the 257innings he averaged in his first 12 seasons took a toll, and Catfish was a shell of what he once was in his last three years in New york.

He retired after the 1979 season when he was only 33, but that did not diminish how much fans and fellow players liked him. Hunter won five World Series rings with the A's and Yankees and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1987.   

Sabathia Has Lived Up to the Hype

He's a workhorse on the Yankees staff, anchoring the rotation and giving the Bronx Bombers one of the most durable and consistent pitchers in the game. He also follows in the long line of left-handers to wear the Yankees' uniform.

In three seasons in New York, Sabathia is 59-23 and averaged more than 230 innings. He's built for the long haul, but the Yankees might want to shorten some games for him to preserve his longevity.

Only 30, Sabathia has the physical, emotional and mental makeup to continue thriving in New York, and perhaps, be remembered as one of, if not, the best Yankee pitcher of all.