New/old Yankees lefty Andy Pettitte, who enjoyed a successful 50-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday, is scheduled to face hitters on Friday, reports Bryan Hoch of MLB.com.
"We just have to watch his legs," Manager Joe Girardi said of Pettitte's aggressive schedule. "[That's] the most important part. He's thrown probably eight or nine bullpens, probably more than a lot of guys had thrown when they got here."
Pettitte had been staying in shape while at home in Texas, which likely has something to do with his ability to adapt quickly. Still, Pettitte's original six-week timeframe remains unchanged for the time being.
In light of reports that
In order to get a handle on this, let's have a quick look at what some notable forecasting systems are saying about Pettitte now that he's out of retirement. To help us, we'll turn to three different projection doo-hickeys: Dan Szymborski's ZiPS, the Marcel system and finally the hive mind of FanGraphs.com readers. Without getting into to how the sausage is made (it usually entails all sorts of dreadful math-y things), here's what comes out of the wash regarding Pettitte's fortunes in 2012:
| System | Innings | ERA | W-L |
| ZiPS | 125.1 | 4.45 | 8-7 |
| Marcel | 73.0 | 4.07 | 5-3 |
| FanGraphs Readers | 138.0 | 4.00 | 12-7 |
As you can see, even ZiPS, the most pessimistic of the systems, tabs Pettitte for something around a league-average ERA (once you adjust for park effects). In other words, Pettitte, according to these projections, will probably fare better than
We already knew this was a sensible, low-risk addition by the Yankees, and these particular forecasters are inclined to agree.
