It’s been reported that Adam Warren will be one of the pitchers who replaces the injured Pettitte and Sabathia. Coincidentally, Adam Warren took home the pitching award in our most recent Minor League Players of the Week.

With DJ Mitchell having a rough year at AAA (5.36 ERA, although his peripherals indicate he’ll be fine) and David Phelps still getting stretched out after being shelfed in the Bronx, Adam Warren is the obvious and correct choice.

After a poor start to the season, Warren has been in-form lately, allowing only 7 runs in his last 31 innings (2.03 ERA). So, the Yankees are obviously, to a degree, playing the hot hand.

As we’ve wrote a couple times though, Warren’s early season struggles can be attributed to a sky-high BABIP, because his strikeout and walk rates (6.15 K/9, 2.81 BB/9) are nearly identical to what he did last season at AAA (3.60 ERA). We wrote this on June 3rd, when Warren took home his first MLPW of the season:

The difference this year is the big increase in hits he’s allowing. He’s gone from 8.6 H/9 in 2011 to 11.7 H/9 in 2012. One of the main culprits looks to be a career-high BABIP of .348. The highest BABIP he’s had at any stop in the minors was .309 (at AA). So, Warren’s either experienced some bad luck or he’s getting tattooed. Without batted ball data, it’s tough to tell…but that BABIP seems abnormally high.

Since then, Warren has lowered his ERA from 5.00+ to his current 3.86 (accompanied by a decline in BABIP). He deserves the chance to prove himself at the big league level.

Side note — it’s pretty cool that we interviewed Adam before he reached the Boogie Down. We feel like proud parents.