YANKEES 101

After surprising the Yankees brethren by announcing his comeback following a year away from baseball, which of course was due to his retirement in February of 2011, left-hander Andy Pettitte showed he had some good pitching left in him in 2012.

Despite suffering a broken ankle that kept him out for two months, Pettitte ascertained a 5-4 record with an ERA of 2.87, striking out 69 batters in a little over 75 innings cumulatively pitched. Moreover, he showed he could still work late into games, only working five innings or less three times in 12 of his starts. Additionally, he displayed his traditionally strong post-season prowess, working consistent outings in the American League Division Series and the American League Championship Series respectively.

Needless to say, and as per report by Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com, it's not surprising to hear Pettitte find his "fountain of youth" and look to achieve big goals in 2013,

“Heck, I want to win 20 games," the 41-year-old Pettitte said.”

However, while Pettitte continues to have big aspirations, he does acknowledge his recovery time does take a little longer,

“I feel like I'm better now than I was at age 30," Pettitte said. "Obviously, things hurt a little bit more. It takes a little bit longer to recover. As far as being able to put the ball where I want it to go and read swings and handle things that come along during the course of the game, I don't know if I am overshooting here, but I wouldn't come back if I didn't think I could do what I've been doing. That's what I expect."

In regards to the previous speculation that Pettitte wanted to pitch for Team USA in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, despite Pettitte's desire to represent his country, he understood the organization's apprehension towards doing so,

“I've never gotten a chance to play for my country," Pettitte said. "Some people might think that it is not that big of a deal, but it was a big deal for me."

Needless to say, with Pettitte deciding at the midway point of spring training last year that he wanted to come back, the fact that he had abbreviated time in Tampa last season and would've had the same limited time this year in Tampa due to the WBC, the organization's hesitation towards him participating made sense. 

The 41-year-old southpaw threw his first session of the spring yesterday. In regards to after 2013, he has yet to decide what's in store.

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