The Bronx Curse: Javier Vazquez Struggling Once More in New York

Tonight's performance against the Rays sums up Javier Vazquez's Yankee career.

Thirty-four year old righthander Javier Vazquez is 24-19 in his career as a member of the New York Yankees. That’s where the good news ends and the bad begins. He pitched for New York in 2004, went 14-10, and threw nearly 200 innings. Those statistics showed him to be steady, but he was in fact far from it.

In reading what the New York papers wrote, listening to what the even harsher fans said, and delving deeper into his statistics, his one-year stay with the Yankees was a disaster. And his recent, surprising reunion has been worse.

The Yankees offense was behind his win-total in 2004, as his ERA was an unflattering 4.91. His ERA had previously been in the fours, but he rarely missed a start and ate up innings. Inning eaters stick have a habit of sticking around for a while. Take Livan Hernandez, for example. Hernandez, 35, currently pitching for the Washington Nationals, is in his fourteenth year in the league. He has a career 4.40 ERA, but he’s managed to throw 200-plus innings during nine seasons (he pitched 199 innings two other seasons and is one inning away from reaching 200 again this year).

Their careers are very similar, except for Vazquez’s New York connection. Hernandez has pitched 2,933 innings in his career; Vazquez is only approximately three hundred behind in two less seasons. Hernandez has a 166-163 career record; Vazquez has a 152-148 career record. And Vazquez’s ERA is close to Hernandez’s, at 4.24.

Hernandez has spent the entirety of his baseball life in the National League. That’s where Vazquez belongs or, if he continues to pitch in the American League, just out of New York. Excluding his first two seasons in Montreal, when he was in his early twenties and getting used to the majors, his highest ERA’s have come in New York. His 2004 ERA was a run and a half higher than the year before, his final of six seasons in Montreal, and half a run higher than his mark with Arizona in 2005.

Yet, though he has flourished in the National League compared to his time with the Yankees, it isn’t as if the American League has his number. He pitched moderately well during his three-year stint with the Chicago White Sox, and even put up one of his better statistical seasons there, going 15-8 with a 3.74 ERA in 2007. The pressure of New York has just consumed him.

It has gobbled up a lot of talent, and Vazquez is just the latest. And, given his 2004 struggles and obvious discomfort with the Yankees, it was a surprising target that shook the Big Apple. New York was looking for a high-end pitcher, but this one? That was the popular puzzling question among Yankee fans. After all, the last pitch Vazquez had thrown in New York was a grand slam crushed by Johnny Damon in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, one of the two homers he hit off him.

At the time of his trade back to the Yankees, he said, “Hopefully, I can erase those memories.” It was a fool’s hope; he only added to them.

He entered Thursday night’s series finale against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 10-9 record and an ERA hovering close to five. He pitched in relief capacity, which he has done multiple times this year and excelled. In and out of the rotation it has been a sad case of deja vu for the Puerto Rican righthander. Mediocrity, far too many implosions at home, and the dreadful sound of boo birds engrained in his embattled mind.

I have felt bad for the 34-year old throughout this season. And my feelings for what he’s going through reached a new low of sadness after watching what transpired after he entered to begin the seventh inning. New York was behind 8-3 at the time, with starting pitcher and Cy Young candidate CC Sabathia getting shelled for seven runs (six in the sixth inning alone), and the deficit would only grow.

In the late 1990′s to early 2000′s, Atlanta Braves reliever John Rocker was so wild it was scary. Over the last four seasons the wild one has been Dontrelle Willis, a former 22-game winner for the Florida Marlins who has steadily lost command of every pitch. After it leaves his left hand who knows where it’s going. That’s how it was for Vazquez this evening. What a depressing sight.

He walked Ben Zobrist to begin the seventh, then the wheels quickly fell off a train that was already on its last legs. On a 2-2 count to rookie Desmond Jennings, a curveball got away from Vazquez and plunked Jennings flush in the side. Yankees Stadium groaned, but since the Yankees were conceivably still in contention, it was a surprisingly mild one, as if they expected Vazquez to be ineffective. Next up was Willy Aybar, and he too was hit, nailed in the side with a fastball after Vazquez had attained a favorable 1-2 count. Bases loaded, nobody out, and no one sturring in the Yankee pen.

No one was up for New York. It was amazing, and a terrible decision on the Yankees part. Vazquez was all out of sorts, a win was still within reach given the Yankees lineup, and every reliever was sitting in the bullpen. And they still weren’t after Kelly Shoppach strode to the plate and was promptly hit as well, with a first-pitch curveball looping towards his head and ricocheting off his shoulder. This forced in a run. And this was the third straight batter Vazquez had hit to become the eighth pitcher in major league history to have so many hit batsman in succession. No issues were warned by the umpire. Benches didn’t clear. Vazquez just had no sense of location.

He wasn’t replaced, either. Luckily for him he settled down to throw the remaining two-plus innings of the game, striking out three while walking nor hitting anymore batters. He was on the fence to make the postseason roster, the Yankees thinking he could be valuable in long-relief, but this historically bad outing hurts what ever chance he had.

It’s probably better that way. Then he won’t have to walk out to the Yankee Stadium mound to fans ready to boo, with far too many bad memories very fresh in mind. He can watch from home, with people who care about him and want him to succeed, without the pressure of New York breathing down his back. As an impending free agent, he won’t have to don a Yankee jersey again, to play for a team he should have never re-joined. He can go to the National League, or pitch elsewhere in the American League–to be some place where he can succeed.