What do you get when you walk 37 guys and strike out 39 in 50 innings while pitching to an ERA worse than league average and getting sent down to AAA in August? Well, if you’re Brian Bruney, the answer is a raise amounting to nearly 100 percent. Bruney and the Yanks settled their salary dispute before arbitration, and the righty’s take will jump from $395,500 to $725,000 in 2008. He’s getting rewarded for not doing his job. In other news, Phil Hughes saw an alligator. It’s a slow news week.

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Not a huge milestone, but today is the day teams and players exchange arbitration figures. Wilson Betemit, Chien-Ming Wang, Brian Bruney, and Robinson Cano are due raises. Teams and players can negotiate contacts up until the hearing, so today is just a formality. As PeteAbe notes, the Yanks never give out long-term contracts to arbitration guys. They even went to a hearing with Derek Jeter before the ‘99 season — and lost.

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It’s non-tender day, one of the more exciting days of the post-Winter Meetings off-season. The Yankees have four such decisions to make: Robinson Cano, Chien-Ming Wang, Wilson Betemit, and Brian Bruney. Tendering contracts to the first three is a no-brainer. There has been some debate about the erratic Bruney, though.

According to Mark Feinsand, the Yanks plan to tender Bruney and have him compete for a bullpen spot in Spring Training. Given his up-and-down 2007, Bruney won’t be in for a serious raise, so the only issue in tendering him is finding other places on the 40-man roster for Alex Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera, and LaTroy Hawkins.

The Yanks likely won’t be players in the newly-created free agent market, as they’re having a hard enough time finding three spots. So while they’ll go and check out Kris Benson’s throwing session, chances are minuscule that they’ll make a serious offer. Same goes for the non-tendered reliever Matt Wise, and projected non-tender Mark Prior.

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How far did Brian Bruney fall?

A year ago, he pitched in three of the four ALDS games. Yesterday, the Yankees told him to go home, opting to not include the right-handed reliever around like they did with Ross Ohlendorf, Chris Britton and Jose Veras. (sic)

“I was shocked,” Bruney said.

Never mind the sentence in that quote that isn’t English. That’s The New York Post for ya.

Instead let’s focus on the good news: After six months of trying, we finally got the Yankees to recognize that Chris Britton is better than Brian Bruney!

Inexplicably, Brian Bruney threw 50.0 innings for the Yanks this year. His 4.68 ERA isn’t terrible unti you consider the 10.61 ERA he’s sported since the beginning of August. He was sent down to the minors to work on his command and still managed to sport a K:BB ratio of nearly 1:1 this season. He didn’t show a willingness to work on his pitching but did sport a nifty bad attitude.

Meanwhile, while Jose Veras (5.79, 1:1 K:BB, 9.1 IP) didn’t show much, he seems to be one of Joe Torre’s Guys. Britton threw 12.2 innings with a 3.55 ERA, and Ohlendorf, very impressive in 6.1 innings, struck out 9 and threw strikes.

So as information about the postseason roster trickles out, at least we won’t be subjected to Brian Bruney in the postseason. No word yet on Ron “I let all my inherited runners score” Villone yet.

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I too would like to keep Brian Bruney an arm’s length away from pitching ever again for the Yanks. (Photo courtesy of Bombers Beat)

On the one hand, it’s hard to get too worked up over last night’s loss. On a night when the Yanks’ pitching staff hands out 11 walks and Kei Igawa throws the ugliest five shut-out innings you’ll ever see, it’s tough to expect a loss.

Furthermore, the Yanks, in need of just one win to clinch a postseason berth, will record that victory before the season is out. And seeing Alex Rodriguez crush a grand slam is a comforting thought for those of us a bit worried by his recent dearth of power.

But on the other hand, haven’t we seen this before? A Yanks starter struggles through five innings with the lead, and Joe Torre cannot once again put together a good combination of relievers to hold a five-run lead for four innings.

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Roster changes abound before the Yanks face the Tigers this weekend. Brian Bruney’s exile to Scranton ended today as the Yanks recalled the righty. Bruney managed to give up 4 runs in 6 IP in AAA. In a corresponding move, the Yanks put Ron Villone on the DL with what Peter Abraham reports as a “lower back strain.” I prefer to call that a “You suck, but Joe Torre won’t let us release you” injury. Meanwhile, the Yanks’ best relief option continues to toil away at AAA while Bruney gets another chance to prove that he has no control.

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According to Pete Abraham, Brian Bruney is back. He wasn’t overly impressive in Scranton, but he’s certainly better than Villone and Henn, one of whom is the likely victim here. Bets are on Henn, clearly, because he can be sent to AAA without repercussion.

Update: PeteAbe says that Villone is not on the lineup card. He didn’t say whether Bruney was or not, but hopefully this means we’ve seen the last of “he who lets all inherited runners score.”

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