Buster Olney On How The Yankees Should Use Severino In The Playoffs [AUDIO]
How do the Yankees view their starting rotation into the post-season? Buster Olney broke down the individuals how the Pinstripes should use them.
"I think [Masahiro Tanaka] the best option for the wildcard game. When you think about some of the other guys that you could start, Michael Pineda, on his best days he’s great and then he has some days when he’s absolutely terrible. I think with Luis Severino, you love the stuff, but you wonder he would respond to that sort of stage.
"I think it’s smarter for them to hold [Severino] back and use him in perhaps a relief situation in the wild card game rather than have him make that start. I think because of Tanaka’s experience and because he’s a guy who wants the ball in a big situation, he’s the guy you want on the mound.
"And I’ll never forget the story that Casey McGee told me about Tanaka pitching in the Japan World Series before he signed with the Yankees, he threw in game six, it was a complete game, and they were going to play game 7 the next day, and Casey McGee is watching Tanaka get stretched out the next day and he’s looking at him going, ‘Are you really going to pitch tonight?’ and he said, "If we have the lead, I’m getting the ball’ and he did and that is the mentality that you want in a wildcard game."
ESPN's Buster Olney joins 'Armen and Levack' every Thursday at 5:15p ET, sponsored by All Star Wine and Spirits.