The myth of the Yankees inability to develop pitching

Shhh, Nova doesnt know the Yankees can't develop Starting pitching

The Yankees cannot develop pitchers....thats the narrative, their organization is incapable of developing a single good pitcher which is why they need to buy pitchers. The problem of course is that its a total myth, the Yankees have been developing pitchers consistently the last few years but people have been looking at the failure of Joba Chamberlain as a starting pitcher and saying that the Yankee organization is incapable of developing pitchers. Yes the Yankees messed up Joba in 2009 with their stupid Joba rules,  he had that amazing run in 2008 but he needed more development time after pitching only half a season in the minors. He had great stuff and the Yankees rushed him and they got burned, it happens to everybody, for all the praise the Rays get for player development they have a ton of draft busts or players that underwhelmed or burned out. Part of the problem is that New York is different, somebody can pitch through a bad year if you play in Minnesota or San Diego, but in New York you do badly and your out the door. I talked about this in the first A True Yankee podcast, but people seem to have this idea that teams should develop these ace pitchers, but the only team who seems to develop pitchers out of nothing is the Rays; its a crap shoot, some pitching prospects succeed some don't. The Giants trio of Lincium, Cain and Bumbgardner being good isnt a sign of how good they are at developing pitchers, these guys were all 1st round draft picks that were expected to be good. The Yankees had their big three in Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and despite the idea that the big three was a bust they are all successful Major league pitcher, I know the Killer B's have been a bust but not all prospects work out.

Lets also take a look at the starting pitchers that were developed in the Yankees system the last few years: Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Zach Mcallister, Ivan Nova, David Phelps, Hector Noesi, Chien-Ming Wang, Jeff Karstens, Ted Lilly. Ian Kennedy was the highest draft pick of any of these pitchers at 21st overall so the Yankees miss out on the cream of the crop in terms of pitching talent, but still if you include Jose Quintana then the Yankees account for 10 of the 150 Starting pitchers in baseball right now or two full team rotations, that seems pretty good to me.

To be fair this talk has died down a little since Nova came on the scene and Hughes turned his season around but I wonder if people will still be talking about this stuff in the next few years as the Yankees look to rely more on their homegrown players to keep costs down. If in 2013 the rotation is 3/5 homegrown pitchers is it still gonna be said the Yankees cannot develop pitchers. Lets also be clear in that the Yankees have been been better than anyone in finding Power arms late in the draft and turning them into great bullpen pieces. Part of the problem is that the Yankees have a fan base and media following that wants five aces and anything less than that is not going to be good enough. The fact that the Yankees have not only survived their starting pitcher injuries but have flourished is a testament to their pitching depth and you get depth by developing pitchers. If you wanna read a little bit more detail about this topic check out this article written by Greg Corcoran of Bronx baseball daily.