Joe Girardi seeks relief from numbers game in bullpen

BY MARK FEINSAND
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Monday, March 24th 2008, 4:00 AM

BRADENTON, Fla. - One week. Three spots. Eleven pitchers.

That will be Joe Girardi's concern over the next seven days, as the Yankees manager looks to fill out his bullpen for the start of the regular season.

Going into the final week of camp, the only spots already decided belong to Mariano Rivera, Joba Chamberlain, LaTroy Hawkins and Kyle Farnsworth.

"This is an important week," Girardi said.

Ideally, Girardi would like to take a long reliever, a lefthander and one other pitcher north, but several candidates have had spectacular springs, making it a difficult choice for the manager and his pitching coach, Dave Eiland.

"I knew there would be heavy competition for those last few spots," Girardi said. "I think the bullpen is probably the hardest decision to make because everyone has thrown so well. That's a good problem to have."

Girardi said the final decisions likely will be announced during the Friday-Saturday series against the Marlins, though he admitted he and his coaching staff probably will have their minds made up before then.

The two leading candidates for the long relief spot are Jeff Karstens and Darrell Rasner, though Kei Igawa remains in the mix as well. Rasner threw four shutout innings Friday, though his spring has been inconsistent, as he has walked eight batters in 12-1/3 innings, posting a 5.84ERA.

"I have a chance and I'm going to leave it all out there," Rasner said after his last start. "Every day is important, especially this last week. I've got to compete."

"You catch yourself thinking about it sometimes, but when I'm out there, I'm not thinking about it at all," Karstens said. "You hurt yourself when you do that."

Karstens may have hurt himself with his outing yesterday, as he allowed four runs on seven hits in three innings against the Pirates. After pitching well early in the spring, Karstens has hit a few bumps.

"Before today, I was feeling all right; after today, you never know," said Karstens, whose ERA for the spring now stands at 9.64. "I threw better at the beginning than at the end. I wish it was the other way around, but that's the way it goes."

Billy Traber has been one of the biggest surprises of camp, making seven appearances without allowing an earned run. Traber, a non-roster invitee who spent the past two years with the Nationals, has given up just four hits and walked one in 6-2/3 innings this spring, all but assuring himself of the lefty bullpen spot come Opening Day.

"He's started, he's relieved, but he's never really been a lefthanded specialist," Girardi said. "He's done pretty good."

That leaves one final spot up for grabs among Jonathan Albaladejo, Chris Britton, Brian Bruney, Ross Ohlendorf, Scott Patterson, Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras. All seven have minor-league options.

Britton, Bruney and Ohlendorf have made strong cases. Britton has allowed one run in five outings, while Bruney has given up two runs over seven appearances. Ohlendorf has also opened eyes with his hard sinker, allowing just two earned runs in eight games.

Patterson has trumped them all, throwing six scoreless innings in six games. He has allowed just one hit and hasn't walked a batter, striking out five while holding hitters to a .056 average.

If there is one drawback for Patterson, it's the fact that he has never pitched above Double-A, but Girardi doesn't believe a pitcher has to have big-league experience in order to be successful at the highest level.

"He's done a good job," Girardi said. "We keep running him out there and he keeps competing with the other guys. He's been as good as anyone in camp."

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