Jul
09
Melancon up for bullpen relief
ByAfter the Yanks’ victory-by-bullpen over the Twins this afternoon, Joe Girardi hinted that he would ask Brian Cashman for some bullpen relief. The Yankees have obliged, and as Chad Jennings reports, Mark Melancon will rejoin the Big League club in Anaheim. No word yet on the corresponding move, but assume it will be either David Robertson or Jonathan Albaladejo. More on this after Mike’s DotF post.
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Hooray Melancon
I agree with Tom Zig, Horray Melancon. I also think that the Yanks should send down Tomko, although I know that will never happen. Tomko is a veteran, regardless if you think he is proven or not. I just think that Tomko needs a rewiring, as the Yanks have a bunch of young arms in the bullpen, and Tomko is of an older nature. A couple of games down in the minors might get him used to the young nature of the pen again and may even revitalize his career. he is on average 6-7 years older than most of the normal guys in the pen. that says a lot when your playing in the majors, as that is 6-7 seasons ahead. i am not saying tomko is bad, i think he is an average middle relief and above average long relief pitcher, but i think he could benefit from getting used to the young mentality that the yanks pen permeates.
huge improvement of the bullpen is a huge reason why these yanks have turned it around. cashman and the like are giving these arms a shot at the big league level, kind of like a couple of years ago when they had, basically, a completely different bullpen. i remember when their bullpen was horrendous, the randy johnson-gary sheffield days. they couldnt get any one out or even through a strike down the plate. i felt like throwing up again, after i just finished throwing up after the starting pitchers’ 3-5 inning performance. it was horrendous.
on that 2005 yankees team, they had an overrated chacon that they picked up around mid-season, paul quantrill whom couldnt hit the backside of a barn, a declining steve karsay, a who-the-hell-is aaron small and tanyon sturtze, an a i-have-the-fastest-fastball-and-can-strike-anyone-out scott proctor, alex graham?, and butterbean’s brother colter bean. these guys all had names for themselves already, and couldnt throw anything down the plate. and when they did, teams crushed them. not to mention the starters on that team, kevin brown and carl pavano and the like, that were horrendous from the start of the season right up until the last pitch.
consider that team, and look at what he have today, the masterful bruney, the-when-i’m-on-i’m-extremely-dangerous phil coke, the hugh of my eye phil hughes, the new ramiro mendoza alfredo aceves, an upside albaladejo, and an improving david robertson. these are all guys that i think, by the end of the season, either this year or next, will definetly have had made a name for themselves. there still performing at the big league level and will eventually, earn that big contract that cano will eventually get. and if that doesnt work out, we have guys like melancon that can come in and excel.
so, let me reiterate the main point of this message. i believe tomko would excel at a higher level if he realizes the mentality of the bullpen and where their at. there all young studs, in baseball terms, looking for that huge contract. none of those studs have more than 5 years of baseball experience. he could be like a masterful yoda, giving wisdom to all of that young talent. but until then, i think he should be the one that gets sent down, but i know will never happen cause of his big league experience. why send down albaladejo or robertson when they are trying to improve or already improving? thats all i gotta say.
and for a coming out of left field comment, if i were the GM of the Yankees, i wouldnt even send down tomko, i would send down ransom since now we have hinske to play 3B and OF, we wouldnt even need ransom for this series before the all star break. just to throw that out there.
let me know what u guys think.
At this point, definitely not Robertson right? Even though he has struggled a bit recently.
Jonathan Albaladejo has shown that he can play a pseudo long-man, a la Brett Tomko, so, hopefully it is a DFA of the latter.
Tomko would be too much to hope for, no? Seriously, I can see his role.
My bet is Albaladejo.
Nice.
They have to let tomko finish that phil hughes painting first, then they can dfa him…
We should let him work on it during games. The sooner the better.
BRILLIANT! Why didn’t i think of that!
Pfft the Yankees have $$$$$$$, just bring Picasso back from the dead and have him finish the painting.
It won’t be Tomko. The idea behind this move is to have a few pitchers available tomorrow night since Hughes, Coke, Albaladejo, Robertson and Aceves all pitched today. Coke and Hughes went on back-to-back days too. So right now, they have just Bruney and Tomko for tomorrow night.
I think this is an audition too for Melancon. Throw strikes; get outs; and the Yanks will DFA Tomko for whomever they send down in 10 days when they can recall him.
Totally agree. Perfect timing with the AS-Break too. My bet is Albie or D-Rob.
Phranchise.
If Ace is going to make the next scheduled start on 7/21, wouldn’t it be wise to send him down? Of course, if plans are for someone else to make the start, then no way you send him down.
sory my stupid question but:
what the advantage on calling Melancon to improve the BP, since Aceves isn’t avaliable to the Angels series, and then send down another BP arm?
It’s about rested arms for tomorrow. Coke, Hughes, Ace, D-Rob and maybe even Mo are all unavailable tomorrow. Really, all that is left out there for tomorrow is Tomko and Bruney. By bringing up Melancon, there are three arms for tomorrow.
1st Place Baby!!! Hopefully the Sox have another meltdown tomorrow!!!
I’m glad to see Melancon up again, but I’d much rather it be Tomko than Albaladejo or Robertson. I wouldn’t know who I would pick if it was between Albaladejo and Robertson. If Robertson was sent down, would he then be out of options? In that case I would rather pick Albaladejo, just for that reason, though I’m not sure if he is out of options as well…
I hope it’s Hughes going down during the break. Perfect timing to stretch him out in AAA and be ready to start post break
Shhh. You stole the theme of the midnight post.
haha
Crap I didn’t even think of that!
Genious!
How’d I steal it if I said it first?!?
Mike and I were IMing about it a few minutes before.
Actually, I stole it from him after he emailed me.
Didn’t Girardi effectively rule him out for that?
Not that the Yankees have to telegraph their plans, but still.
who knows? maybe they know something about Wang that we don’t.
just like when wang wasn’t injured…right?
Well, that really depends on what they expect regarding Wang and his injury.
And if they do expect CMW back relatively shortly, I expect – and want – them to leave Phil Hughes in the bullpen and go with Alfredo Aceves or Sergio Mitre in the rotation until CMW returns.
Which would mean sending Aceves down, letting him get a start in the minors over the break, and making the next 5th starter start if neccessary able to go about 90 pitches.
I kinda hope they use Melancon, BUT if Joba decides to pitch a complete game shutout, I won’t be opposed…
Great that they brought up Melancon. I was hoping earlier today the he’ be called up if the Yankees made a move. Hopefully he’s here to stay.
Tomko sucks but he serves his purpose as a mop up guy. I wouldn’t mind keeping him around as a last option type of guy. Albaladejo should go down.
Robertson will go down because he has stopped throwing strikes. He’ll come back fairly soon.
i agree. as happy as i am that melancon is back up, im sad d-rob is most likely going back down.
It will be Robertson. Saturday he walked a few guys and today was just awful. The potential is there for him to be a good reliever. Let’s hope he gets the message and comes up throwing strikes. Mr. Melancon- do not ruin your chances- get in their and throw strikes
Awful is relative. He threw 6 or 7 pitches at the knees that would often be terrific pitches but Timmons had a high K zone. The umpire was consistent and Robertson should have adjusted sooner but I hesitate to call it awful. I’d bet Girardi and Eiland told him he did a good job, keep it right there, 9 outta 10 those are strikes.
Hopefully Melancon can do much better than his first tour of duty at the bigs. Melancon has a chance to be an impactful pitcher in the bp.
Does anyone but me see the difference between the Yankees with Phil Hughes in the bullpen and with him not in the bullpen. Keep him there this year and then trade McCalister for Soria next year.
uh… no?
?
I’d love to see Soria here, but good luck swinging that.
+1
Trading for Soria?
Haven’t we learned our lesson yet with Karsay & Farnsworth?
At least we avoided the trifecta with B.J. Ryan.
Jury is still out on Marte, though.
http://i435.photobucket.com/al.....tton-1.jpg
Yeah, because all relievers are created equal. Soria is much better than the guys you named ever were.
[...] two hours ago, Chad Jennings broke the news that Mark Melancon is heading to Anaheim to help spell the overworked Yankee relievers. After the Yankees basically got through [...]