Yankees claim Cody Eppley off waivers

by 28 Comments

2012 RAB Staff Predictions
Pineda played catch today, reported no problems with shoulder

The Yankees have claimed right-handed reliever Cody Eppley off waivers from the Rangers, the team announced. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Empire State and effectively replaces the traded George Kontos on the relief depth chart. The Yankees had an open 40-man roster spot, so no other move was necessary.

The 26-year-old Eppley is a big tall guy (listed at a 6-foot-5) with a low arm slot, replying on an upper-80s fastball and a sweepy upper-70s slider. He has a history of crushing right-handed batters, holding them to a .217/.301/.279 batting line with a 26.7% strikeout rate in Triple-A last season. In his big league debut with Texas last season, he gave up eight runs in nine innings. Here’s some video.

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2012 RAB Staff Predictions
Pineda played catch today, reported no problems with shoulder
  • Mister D

    I guess we now know what the plan was.

  • Justin Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (formerly Rainbow Connection)

    So he’s a ROOGY?

    • Havok9120

      Kinda sounds that way, doesn’t it?

      • Mister D

        I’ve never really understood why ROOGYs weren’t a thing.

        • STONE COLD Austin Romine

          Colter Bean and Ramon Ramirez (pre-2008) say hello.

          • Mister Delaware

            Colter Bean faced like 10 guys in his career. Thats like me asking why handicapped players never became a thing and someone responding with “Jim Abbott and Pete Gray”. Yes, there are exceptions, but by and large its accepted that some lefties exist only to face lefties while the inverse doesn’t really happen.

        • Steve (different one)

          Jeff Nelson, at least in his later years.

        • RetroRob

          They exist, but on the whole, righthanded batters are less vulnerable to being neutralized by righthanded pitchers than lefthanded batters are with lefthanded pitchers.

          • Mister Delaware

            Less, but still pronounced. Last year the average OBP was .321, righty-on-righty .308 and lefty-on-lefty .302. Possible the gap gets even smaller if guys who get rocked by lefties but kill righties hung around rather than being castoff?

            • Mister Delaware

              In this instance, I wanted “cast off” rather than “castoff”.

            • RetroRob

              I think it’s a bit more complex. Those numbers are of course the final result of all matchups and do not indicate talent level.

              A little less than ten perecent of the population is lefthanded, yet approximately 30% of all MLB players are coming from that 10%. LH’d hitters don’t face as many lefty pitchers as RH’d hitters face righty pitchers, especially during the development process. Both are more comfortable facing righties because they see them much more. This opens the door for fringy left-handed pitchers to stick around for an eternity based on simply being lefthanded and especially to face LH’d batters. We’re much less likely to see fringy righthanded pitchers stick around in the bullpen because there is a much greater talent base to pick from. 67% of MLB players coming from the 90% for righties, as opposed to 30% coming from 10%.

              There are going to be more superior righthanded pitchers, capable of getting both lefty and righty batters out, thus eliminating the need for ROOGY’s. Outside of some extreme righthanded side armers, there is just no room in MLB for ROOGY’s because there is just too much talent to pick from. The same can not be said for lefties and LOOGY’s. The path to the major leagues is much “easier” for a lefty.

  • Kevin G.

    We just won the 2012 World Series

  • SevenAces

    A sidearm roogy, uncommon sighting for stateside baseball.

  • jsbrendog

    THIS IS UNNACCEPTABOO!!!

    cashman sucks@! he trades a fungible borderline major league reliever for a back up catcher then replaces him with a fungible borderline major league reliever?!?!?!?!

    OUTRAGE!!!!!11!11111!!!1ELEVENTY!!1!11!1!

    • pat

      Season Ticket Status: CANCELED WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE

      • jsbrendog

        this was one of my all time favorites

    • Justin Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (formerly Rainbow Connection)

      AND he demoted the most hated player on the team! What a jerk!!!

  • Justin Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (formerly Rainbow Connection)

    Is the site broken or was my comment deleted?

    • Justin Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (formerly Rainbow Connection)

      Aha! It was temporarily broken, I guess. Now I see it.

    • Robinson Tilapia

      You were designated for assignment.

  • Greg

    So through all of this movement, the Yankees end up getting better defensively in the backup catcher spot.

  • mustang

    Yes! we just replace the great lose of Kontos.

    Go Cash! All is well in Yankee land again ( until the next trade of course)

    • RetroRob

      I’d rather have George Kontos than Cody Eppley.

      I’d rather have Cervelli on the MLB roster than Stewart.

      In both cases it’s a reduction in overall talent. Yet I’m not argying against the trade since the reduction in talent is offset by the increase in depth at a position that could hurt the Yankees if Martin was to go down. As I said yesterday, this deal had nothing to do with Cervelli and his talent. It’s simply about depth and the Yankees sacrificed an arm for the comfort of that depth.

  • http://fendersonandhampton.com Cuso

    Delivery very similar to Jeff Nelson, although the ball comes out differently

  • lance bass

    sweepy

  • Billy

    He’s a big tall guy with a low arm slot guy? Replying on… please proofread

    • RetroRob

      The same can be said to you.

  • Eric

    Cody is a personal friend of mine, so my viewpoint may be skewed, but I really like this move. With the exception of one disaster inning against the Yankees on mothers day he has dominated every level of competition. Ydnkees got a good bullpen arm going forward.