River Avenue Blues

Monday Musings: This week’s pitching rotation

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RAB Note: There’s no Down on the Farm for Sunday because there were no games. Two were rained out; two teams had scheduled off days.

So I got my wish on Sunday: The Yanks were rained out, thus saving us the agony of another Kei Igawa start. Almost.

The Baseball Gods, you see, are fickle. While the Yanks’ rain out meant a rejuggled rotation, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees were also rained out, and Ian Kennedy’s start will be pushed back from Sunday to Monday. Thus, instead of being the potential starter for Friday’s game had he done well in AAA yesterday, Kennedy wouldn’t be set to start again until Saturday, and the Yanks are left searching for another starter. Curses!

Already, this is shaping up to be the topic of the week. Yankee bloggers, sick of writing about fist pumps and David Wells, have turned to everyone’s favorite game, Guess the Starting Pitcher. Our first two contestants were Peter Abraham and Cliff Corcoran. They both come to the same conclusion: Anybody but Igawa. And I don’t have a better answer.

Right now, what we do know is that Kei Igawa is not and probably never will be a legitimate Major League pitcher. Buster Olney said as much on Saturday:

Kei Igawa threw 64 pitches Friday, and Detroit swung and missed only twice and mustered 11 hits in 19 at-bats against the left-hander, a mere .579 batting average. Heard this evaluation from one Yankees’ source: Igawa doesn’t have the raw stuff to pitch in the majors.

Kei Igawa is just flat-out terrible, and that is no longer news. So the Yanks have myriad options open to them. They could have Kennedy throw a side session tomorrow and bring him up next week. They could go with a AAA starter like Dan Giese or Steven White and hope to catch lightening in a bottle for a day. They could go with last year’s sacrificial lamb Chase Wright. They could — but probably won’t after Jonathan Albaladejo’s injury — ask Ross Ohlendorf to throw a three- or four-inning start with a patchwork of bullpen pitchers behind him picking up the slack.

Right now, we just don’t know, and until the Yankees announce something, I’m sure everyone writing on the Yankees will spend the week speculating. So what do you do, RAB readers? I’m at a loss for this one, but I’d settle for just about anyone other than Kei Igawa.

Detroit’s abandoned stadium riles up passions

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While the Yankees have plans to tear down Yankee Stadium soon after their new ballpark opens next year, Detroit is still trying to figure out what to do with Tiger Stadium. The historic stadium has sat unused since Comerica Park opened in 1999, and some Detroit fans want to keep the oldest parts of the stadium. If they can raise the money soon, the stadium will stay. Check out this nifty slideshow that goes with Joe LaPointe’s article.

Yanks eyeing Vandy’s Jacobson

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Via the NYYFans forum comes word that the Yanks have sent a staffer from their psychological profiling department to meet (and evaluate) Vanderbilt RHP Brett Jacobson. Saber-Scouting’s first ever post was a scouting report of Jacobson, who is 1-3, 5.80 ERA with 39 hits and 16 walks allowed in 35.2 IP. He’s struck out 32 and picked up 4 saves while serving as coach Tim Corbin’s “moment of truth” reliever. Jacobson was the Commodores’ swingman/number three starter last year behind 2007 top overall pick David Price and current ace Mike Minor. The original article implies that the Yanks are looking at Jacobson in the first round, but that would be an overdraft. He should still be around when the Yanks pick in the second round, #75 overall.

Game 39: Hit a home run; bat clean-up; get rained out

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I’m pretty sure that Joe Girardi is now messing with us.

On a day when it’s supposed to rain for all eternity in Detroit, the Yankees’ manager has installed Derek Jeter in the cleanup spot for the second time in his career. The last time Jeter, who has just one home run on the season, hit in the four spot was on July 10, 1999 when the Yanks lost a heartbreaker to the Mets. Mariano Rivera gave up two runs in the bottom of the 9th to blow the save, and Jeter went 0 for 4 with a walk.

It probably won’t matter much though because the tarp’s on the field, and reports from Detroit say that the game will be long delayed if it’s played at all. The Yanks could be, depending upon the outcome out of Scranton today, been saved from a Kei Igawa start.

Here’s your lineup:

Damon LF
Cabrera CF
Abreu DH
Jeter SS
Giambi 1B
Duncan RF
Cano 2B
Molina C
Gonzalez 3B

Pettitte P

*** YANKEES-TIGERS RAINED OUT***
The Yankees and Tigers are rained out today. The Yankees are not scheduled to return to Detroit but could land in Detroit on a mutual off day. According to the YES Network, the next four starters are Andy Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina and Darrell Rasner. The Yanks will skip Kei Igawa’s Wednesday start and deal with Friday when the time is right.

But there’s some bad news too: The Scranton game was postponed. So Ian Kennedy’s scheduled start will be pushed back a day, and he wouldn’t be ready to pitch on Friday. Fate, it seems, is trying to hand the Yankees another Kei Igawa outing. The Mets would go to town on Igawa though. I shudder to think of the possibilities.

Now get off the computer, and go spend some time with your mothers. It is, after all, Mother’s Day.

Update by Mike (1:35): Not only was Triple-A Scranton rained out, as Ben mentioned above, but Double-A Trenton was also washed out. High-A Tampa and Low-A Charleston both have scheduled off days, so no DotF today.

Tell your mom I said hi. (kidding)

Olbermann loves the new Yankee Stadium

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For your Sunday morning viewing pleasure, may I present to you Keith Olbermann? The MSNBC pundit took a break from politics to discuss baseball this week. In particular, he got a super-secret tour of the new stadium construction site, and as you’ll see, he’s very excited about the new Yankee Stadium. Enjoy the video, and the hat tip on this one goes out to Bugs and Cranks.