Kyle Farnsworth, “experienced” reliever, just came into a 1-1 game. Three batters later, the score turned in the Blue Jays’ favor. This overpaid piece of crap’s continued presence in close games is the number one reason why Joe Torre shouldn’t be managing and why his managerial decisions are going to cost the Yankees a playoff spot this year. The pieces are there; the strategist on the bench is not.
Fat guy in a little coat…fat guy in a little coat…
Check out who the Yanks signed.
The Yanks have had some success signing Indy guys recently (Justin Christian, Scott Patterson, and the great Edwar Ramirez come to mind), so lets not write this guy off an organizational player just yet.
Hughes or Joba?
This is a couple of days old, so you may have seen it already. My bad for missing it.
Anywho, John Sickels asks a pretty interesting question over at his blog:
True or False:
Joba Chamberlain will win more major league games in his career than Phil Hughes. Discuss.
I recommend checking out the discussion in the comments, there’s some good stuff there.
As for me, I say FALSE because, well, Hughes is the better pitcher. His control is better, his command is better, his secondary stuff is better, he’s been healthier (Phil’s had some pretty fluky injuries), and I like his delivery better. Hughes has a chance to have one of those “15+ wins a year for 15 straight years” kind of runs. That said, Joba’s got a chance to do some serious damage, like 250+ K in a year.
Long story short, I think Hughes has a longer career with more wins, while Joba has a greater peak with more “holy crap” moments. Â
Notes on a good Yankee win
How about that? Yesterday, I predicted a five-inning, four-run game from Kei Igawa and the man nearly delivered. While it only took him 357 115 pitches to make it through five innings and he surrendered two more home runs in the process, Igawa kept the Yanks in the game, and the bats delivered a win. I love it when I’m right.
Meanwhile, we should be elated with the Yanks’ performance of late. Since the All Star Break, the team is 4-1 and 9-4 in July. They are six games behind the Indians in the loss column for the Wild Card (seven out overall) and are playing crisp baseball. Since there’s not much else to say about tonight’s game specifically — other than beware Troy Glaus, that is — I wanted to drop in a few notes and observations about the Bombers of late.
Jesus debut-eth
Austin Jackson’s incredible run with High-A Tampa has earned him the #4 spot on BA’s Hot Sheet, where he’s joined in the top 10 by . . . oh who am I kidding, you know who. I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that personal fave Phil Coke was named FSL Pitcher of the Week. Props go out to former Yankee farmhand Randy Ruiz, who honored his old mates by launching a 3-run job off a certain Red Sawx prospect (who’s stats really aren’t that much better than Ian Patrick Kennedy’s, by the way) tonight.
Oh, and if Torre is going to steadfastly refuse to use Edwar Ramirez, just send him back to Triple-A so he can get some regular work. This is effin’ ridiculous. Stats after the jump…
Why Pags why?
Sheesh, and I though Steven Lombardi was a pessimist!
(hat tip to Pete Abraham)
(I’m just messin’ Steve, but would it kill ya to see the little ray of sunshine in Yanks’ universe every once in a while?)
Elbow woes for Betances
From the SI Advance:
Right-hander Dellin Betances left after three innings because of tightness in his throwing elbow, overshadowing what was an already forgettable 7-2 loss to the Vermont Lake Monsters yesterday at the Richmond County Bank Ballpark at St. George.
“We took him out because he was complaining of stiffness in his elbow. We wanted to error on the side of caution,” said Staten Island manager Mike Gillespie of Betances, a highly-touted 6-foot-9 prospect out of Grand Street Campus HS in Brooklyn, who received a $1 million signing bonus in June of 2006.
“He’ll be seeing the doctor (today),” said Gillespie of Betances, who was making his sixth start of the season for Staten Island yesterday after pitching last year for the Gulf Coast Yankees. “The good news was that he wasn’t complaining of pain. We’ll just keep our fingers crossed. There’s no real reason to think he’s done (for the season), but we’re a little bit worried.”
(hat tip to BAPR+)
Update: I had some time to think about it (mostly because my boss was looming over my shoulder), and I’m just thankful it’s not his shoulder. Elbows are relatively easy to fix (but they have a crazy long recovery time), and this is his first trouble with it (as far as I know). I remain optimistic, and hope this isn’t a precursor to something more serious down the road.
Update Part Deux: I find it pretty funny that an injury like this would be devastating to most team’s farm systems, but the Yanks have so much pitching depth these days that they can absorb the injury without missing a beat. In the words of my Italian grandfather: Beautiful, fuckin’ beautiful.