It's not very often that a team sends a starting pitcher to the mound who they have never met before, but that's exactly what the Yankees will do on Saturday, as left-hander Brad Halsey makes his Major League debut against the Dodgers. 

Halsey, who is starting in place of the injured Mike Mussina, has never even been in camp with the Yankees during Spring Training, but his impressive numbers at Triple-A convinced the organization to give him his first chance at the big league level.

"We invite so many people to Spring Training and then they send us someone we've never seen," said manager Joe Torre, who recently spoke with Columbus skipper Bucky Dent about Halsey. "He's pitched at Triple-A, and his manager feels very good about sending him up here. He can really handle his stuff."

Halsey was 6-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 13 starts at Triple-A this season, allowing just one earned run in his last 29 innings. He was selected by the Yankees in the eighth round of the 2002 draft, one of four pitchers selected by New York that year from the University of Texas.

Halsey will be the second pitcher to make his big-league debut this season for the Yankees, following Alex Graman, who was hit hard by the White Sox in April. New York hopes that Halsey's start looks more like last year's debut of Brandon Claussen, who allowed one earned run over 6 1/3 innings in a win over the Mets.

"The reports that I get on him are that he's very confident," Torre said. "[Columbus pitching coach] Neil Allen matched him to Clausen, and you remember the job he did. We had no clue what that was going to be like at Shea Stadium, and he held together very well."

Neither Torre nor pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre has talked to Halsey, but they will do their best to make sure that he is calm and confident for his big day.

"We'll point him in the right direction," Torre said. "It will depend on what the anxiety is, and we'll tell that when we meet him. Once he's around Mel, that's about as good a security blanket as you can find. It's still 60 feet, six inches, so don't make more of it than it is.