Thoughts: I-Rod Trade August 8, 2008
Posted by Pablo Zevallos in Kyle Farnsworth, Pudge Rodriguez.add a comment
Well, it was bound to happen that Jorge Posada would call his season quits due to his injury. It finaly happened July 22, which meant that the team needed another starting catcher or Jose Molina’s pathetic bat would have to start for the rest of the season, a thought I shuddered at. Well, by surprise, GM Brian Cashman pulled off a surprise when he dealt surging RHP Kyle Farnsworth for C Ivan Rodriguez. Farnsworth Rodriguez posted a .295/.338/.417 line for Detroit with 5 HR and 32 RBI in 302 ABs for Detroit. For the Yankeees, Farnsworth posted a 43/17 K/BB rate with a 1.35 WHIP and 3.65 in 44.1IP. While Farnsworth’s numbers aren’t particularly impressive, he was finally getting comfortable in the set-up role he was signed to complete, but he just wasn’t reliable.
In his breakthrough season, the Yankees and Yankee fans still didn’t trust Farnsworth in his job. The Yankees have other pitchers capable of filling Farnsworth’s place (a mix of Jose Veras and Edwar Ramirez), making him expendable. I-Rod fills a need as a huge offensive upgrade over Molina without a significant defensive loss. Getting anything for Farnsworth with 2005 and 2006 on his resume is an accomplishment, and a respectable albeit declining player is a solid return.
Andy Pettitte Declines Option; Tejada to Yankees? November 11, 2007
Posted by Pablo Zevallos in Andy Pettitte, Chicago White Sox, Joe Crede, Johan Santana, Johnny Damon, Kyle Farnsworth, Melky Cabrera, Miguel Tejada, Mike Mussina.add a comment
On Wednesday, Andy Pettitte declined his $16M player option for 2008. This was a move purely to allow him time to decide whether to retire or not. With this, we see that the drama last winter was not all posturing and fake, but real deliberation. The Yankees, in short, would be screwed without having Pettitte on their team, as he provides a healthy lefty who always competes, especially in big games. He is a stopper, but no ace. Now, the Yankees would have Ian Kennedy to take his place in the rotation, but that would force Mike Mussina to start (ugh).
On Thursday, a rumor surfaced: Miguel Tejada to the Yankees. I am not enamored with that deal. In Tejada we have a declining, now league average shortstop that would only be average at third at best, who would not excel in a left-handed hitters’ park, and makes $13 M over the next two years. Even if it takes Kyle Farnsworth off our backs, I’d rather get rid of him for something else than Tejada, considering that it would also take Melky Cabrera in that deal. We can see that Cabrera is increasingly available, but I like what he offers and would only trade him in a Miguel Cabrera situation–Yes, I would rather see him in New York if it were for Johan Santana, because I am not enamored with Santana for reasons I will explain in another post.
Crede-for-Damon dead? It looks like Joe Crede for Johnny Damon talk is dying. Good. This would have been a mismatched trade, and the Yankees certainly would have been on the losing end. Besides, the White Sox have to decide what to do with the man–offer him arbitration (in which he would likely make the roughly $4M he did last year if he accepts), non-tender him, or re-sign him long term and move Josh Fields to LF. No matter what they do, the White Sox aren’t going anywhere next year, either.
94-68, 1st in Wild Card September 30, 2007
Posted by Pablo Zevallos in Bronson Sardhina, Chris Britton, Edwar Ramirez, Joe Torre, Jose Veras, Kyle Farnsworth, Ross Ohlendorf.add a comment
The Yankees have won the last two nights, 11-10 and 10-4, respectively, to get 94 wins and end the hunt for a playoff roster. Ross Ohlendorf, despite allowing a run and two hits in 1.1 innings, probably sealed his playoff roster spot. Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez, and Chris Britton probably have to duke it out for the last one. With Britton’s outing today, he probably has eliminated Ramirez. Veras, who has two mop-up saves, did moderately well in both of those appearances, but Britton, his loss nonwithstanding, has done a better job. I hope Britton gets the nod, but, as I have pointed out before, Joe Torre rides out AAAA relievers as long as they can (i.e. C.J. Nitkowski, Sean Henn, need I go further?). My feeling from these last four days is that, like it or not, Veras will make the roster but stink up the joint in the playoffs.
Now, there is another interesting alternative here. Kyle Farnsworth may have tweaked his groin on a pitch in the ninth inning. He seems to always be nicked up, and that, along with his crappy attitude and bad pitching, may keep him from making the postseason roster. Big deal? Well, maybe bigger than you think. I will take a chance here, and risk being disowned by you in the blogging community. Here it is: 7th inning, 5-0 against a staggering Cleveland offense being dominated by [insert Game 3 starter here], and the Yankees are facing Jake Westbrook. Farnsworth’s pitched in the playoffs already. Would you trust him there instead of Chris Britton? Yes. Britton, a strikeout pitcher in the minors this season, has only struck out 3 in 6.2 innings (covering a span of a month, or 7 games. Bad enough that he pitches less than an inning a game without being a specialist, but he also has 6.00 ERA over that span. Moreover, most of those runs come in mop-up situations, the only situation he or Farnsworth would be used for. Before I give more stats, I will state here that a blowout, in this case, specifies a loss of three runs or more when more than 8 runs have been scored by the other team. Mean while, dating back to July, Farnsworth has a 4.50 era in 10 innings while pitching in a blowout. Would I still take Britton? YES, because Britton has pitched well in tight ball games. But Farnsworth makes $6.67 mil, and Torre has something against Britton anyway…
The other note
- Bronson Sardihna has all but locked up a playoff spot with a great performance since his cameo.
Yankees Lose to Tampa, Seattle September 3, 2007
Posted by Pablo Zevallos in Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte, Austin Jackson, Chris Britton, Edwar Ramirez, GCL Yankees, Ichiro, Kyle Farnsworth, Marcos Vechionacci, Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, Trenton Thunder.add a comment
Andy Pettitte had a nice outing until the seventh, where he served up a fat one to Carlos Pena and he homered as the Yankees lost, 8-2. Melky Cabrera singled in a run and Bobby Abreu tripled in Johnny Damon for the only Yankee runs. On the flip side, Edwar Ramirez pitched, and gave up homers to Josh Wilson and Akinori Iwamura. His fastball is decent and changeup are nice, but he needs to add another pitch–maybe a slider or curveball. Maybe Mo can teach his successor the cutter.
Today, I went to the game, and Rocket was just terrible. His command was spotty, and he served up 8 hits in 4 innings, as well as a homer to Ichiro. His fastball was back down to 89-90, bottoming out at 87 and topping out at 91. His pitches didn’t have much break, but he threw a nice 86 mph splitter to strike out Kenji Johjima in the second.
Mike Mussina relieved–not sure how 7 hits in 3.2 innings can be relief in my heart, but…he gave up 2 runs and 3 doubles before being pulled for Chris Britton. Kyle Farnsworth-less pitched an inning of electric stuff, K’ing 2.
A-Rod singled in a run in the first, and also burned Ichiro trying to stretch a single to a double…after that, it was all Mariners.
Vechionnaci Promoted As I pointed out on August 16th, I speculated that Marcos Vechionnaci, the slick-fielding Yankee shortstop would be promoted to AA due to his advanced fielding and hot hitting. A couple of days ago, he was promoted for the stretch run for AA, which I am glad to see.
Jackson Promoted The Yankees’ beast prospect was promoted to AAA for the stretch run. I’m anxious to see what he does there, because he can begin next year AA and ascend to MLB, almost like Joba and IPK did this year.
Rookie Yanks are GCL Champions The GCL Yankees beat the GCL Dodgers to win the Gulf Coast League Championship. Kudos to them and to Jesus Montero, who seems to have fully recovered from his ankle injury and hit his 4th homer.
Yankees Stink Up the Joint in Toronto August 9, 2007
Posted by Pablo Zevallos in Blue Jays, Chien-Ming Wang, Hideki Matsui, Jeff Karstens, Kyle Farnsworth, Robinson Cano, Ron Villone.1 comment so far
Man…the Yankees were just overmatched against their best starting pitcher, Chien-Ming Wang. In case you haven’t heard, the Yankees lost 15-4 last night to the Toronto Blue Jays, with Wang giving up 8 runs (5 earned) in 2.2 innings. His ERA went up to only 3.94, which shows you how well he has pitched. Yet, Jeff Karstens had another bad long relief outing and Ron Villone (1.1 IP, 2 ER) and Kyle Farnsworth (perfect 9th…wow) finished up the job.
Robinson Cano and Hideki Matsui continued their hot hitting, with Cano belting two HR’s and Matsui one.
Myers DFA’d, Jim Brower up August 6, 2007
Posted by Pablo Zevallos in Jim Brower, Joba Chamberlain, Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Myers, Paul Quantril, Scott Proctor, Steve Karsay, Tanyon Sturtze.add a comment
Mike Myers was designated for assignment today, as most of you know. Although he was a PA rep, a nice guy, and did take one for the team while pitching in blowouts, his job as a lefty specialist didn’t cut it. He allowed lefties to bat at the tune of .312 with 8 XBH. However, righty Jim Brower was called up, instead of Joba the Hutt or even Edwar Ramirez. Yes, he was the SWB closer, but please, the guy is a 34-year-old journeyman, with a career ERA in line with Krazy Kile’s. And, although Edwar was roughed-up in his last outing with the big club, he should have been promoted. However, it may be more than the naked eye.
As first analyzed by River Ave. Blues, the Yankees may have traded Scott Proctor to save his arm from fatigue and possible surgery, since he had great, live stuff and Joe Torre was overworking him. The Yankees may be trying to protect their live and precious arms of the future by bringing up Brower to see how Torre uses him. Joba will be called up inevitably because the Yankee needs him in and Farnsworth out, but maybe Brian Cashman is trying to see if Torre can discipline his use of trusty relievers (Steve Karsay, Tanyon Sturtze, and Paul Quantrill ruined their careers after their time with the Yankees) and use Brower.
On the other hand, it may be that Torre won’t use a live, young, and useful arm very often in the first place, because he wants veteran arms (Brower) and trusts them more. Exihibit A: Edwar Ramirez didn’t pitch in 2 weeks at one point.
You decide.
A Pinstriped Logjam II: Who to send down when Joba comes up? August 3, 2007
Posted by Pablo Zevallos in Brian Bruney, Chris Britton, Edwar Ramirez, Jason Giambi, Jim Brower, Joba Chamberlain, Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Myers, Sean Henn.1 comment so far
Joba Chamberlain is being converted into a reliever to help the Yankees this season down the stretch. No doubt that they could use him, but, like when Giambi comes back, this creates a bullpen logjam as well. These are the probable candidates to be DFA’d, or optioned, to make room for The Hutt.
(All statistics according to ESPN.com)
| B. Bruney 48G | 2W | 1L | 0SV | 5HLD | 40.2 IP |
35H | 15ER | 2HR | 29BB | 29K | 6.42K/9 | 1.57WHIP |
3.32ERA |
See those walks? Typical of a guy with a high heater. Doesn’t have much of an offspeed or breaking pitch either–just mostly fastballs. As mentioned in the previous Logjam Edition, he has as many walks as K’s, and a man with his heater should strike out a man an inning, not 6.42/9. The WHIP is very high–and Torre doesn’t have much confidence in him, as can be told by the innings to games ratio. He has also been used in mop-up issues, and has given up a lot of runs of late.
| K. Farnsworth 46G | 1W | 1L | 0SV | 11HLD | 43.1IP | 49H | 7HR | 21BB | 29K | 6.02K/9 | 1.62 WHIP |
4.78ERA |
Now, here we’re not talking about a man who just has a 100MPH fastball, but has a nasty slider and good bite to his splitter…but has no command or control. His attitude sucks, and he could be traded, and, if Cashman is that desperate, DFA’d. Also, if he would pitch a full-fledged 215 innings as a starter, he would give up 35 HR’s, which would have led the American league last year…not good
| Sean Henn 21G | 2W | 0L | 0SV | 2HLD | 25.1IP | 22H | 3HR | 16BB | 19K | 6.75K/9 | 1.50WHIP | 4.26ERA |
Nothing really wrong with him. Throws decently hard (93-94MPH), is a lefty, giving him more chances at The Show. However, he’s a long man/starter, a Ron Villone type, so he could succeed Villone next year when he leaves. He has a good slider, a decent changeup, but gives up a lot of walks and has a high WHIP as a result. If he can lower his walks and baserunners his ERA will lower as well. More strikeout should be expected.
| Mike Myers 52G | 0W | 2L | 0SV | 4HLD | 39.0IP | 35H | 3HR | 15BB | 19K | 4.38K/9 | 1.28WHIP | 2.54ERA |
This man is a sidearming 38 years old, and has a 77MPH fastball, as well as a 68MPH slider with less sweep than before. He has a .296 BAA against lefties, with .358OBP, and he’s supposed to be a lefty specialist. However, he has .187 BAA against righties, with a .262OBP. Weird, eh? There are NL teams interested in him, and he can very easily be claimed. He is in the last year of his contract, and should retire at the end of this year.
Easily, or two of these men can be demoted, and then Joba can be promoted with another truly deserving Scranton reliever–Jim Brower, Chris Britton, or Edwar Ramirez
