On the Yankees beat

Communication the least practice skill enhanced by Wang's limited English. Its a long way to South East Asia so keep those pitches away from our guys. It would be better if the batter had a big B on his helmet and the pitch tailed inside.

I'd like to see Wang pitch inside against the opposing team a little more often. If Clemens taught any of these guys anything I hope it's that. Insert PED joke here, I had one lined up but bagged it....

I'd love to see all our pitchers win as many games this year as Wang has done for the past two. Preferably while being as well-behaved on and off the field and learning a Category Three language (goes to level of difficulty) in their spare time, but really any way they could manage it would be fine.

We Yankees fans have taken Wang for granted a bit. Considering we barely heard of him before he came on the scene to help the Yankees out quite a bit the past few years.

I'm as guilty as anyone of thinking Wang's success can't continue but he certainly seems for real. Every time he has had a bad outing I wonder to myself if this is it, if the league has finally figured him out but so far he has hung in there and been a darned good pitcher for our team.

To answer a question from a previous thread, the Yankees rotation for the bulk of the year will look like this:

1. Wang
2. Pettite
3/4. Mussina/IPK
5. Hughes

I put Hughes in the 5 spot not because his performance will be that of a #5, but rather because he has an innings limit. Mussina and IPK are both ready to handle more innings and Moose will go for as long as he's moderately effective. Hughes will outperform Moose, but Moose will get more starts. I think this will be a bit of a bounceback year for Moose. The guy is a competitor and he's in a contract year. I really don't think he's ready to retire. I'm not saying he'll post a sub 4 era (he won't, but maybe for a month or two), but I am saying he won't be the 5+ nightmare we were becoming accustomed to for a while last year. He'll settle somewhere in between and that's good enough for me.

Joba will not get enough starts this year to qualify for "bulk".

BTW: I think the Sox signing Colon to a minor league deal was a good move for them. Low risk and high reward. Someone suggested we try to do that with some of the available FA pitchers (sorry, can't give credit since I can't remember who) and it looks like the Sox listened.

Wang may never win a CY young, or lead the league in K's, but the guy goes into the 7th inning seemingly every start. Let's see if he can learn from this past Oct and continue to grow.

Dru

If you're still interested in joining the fantasy league email me and I'll put you in contact with Sully.

Phucktheredsoxx@yahoo.com

Dru notice the extra X.

Apparently there already was a Phucktheredsox@yahoo so I had to add an extra X.

In case you didn't see Feinsand's article about Ian Kennedy, here's the link:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/02/24/2008-02-24_no_longer_under_the_radar_ian_kennedy_re.html

Diane

I think Ian may surprise us this season. He more than any rookie trotted out last year showed the most command of a fully developed repertoire of pitches.

Until I see Joba and Phil's secondary pitches I'm tempted to say Ian may be the most ready of the 3.

That said it's been reported that Joba's 3rd and 4th pitches are both better than average and can be thrown with the same command as the 2 we saw in all those 8th innings last year.

Well look at that I've gone and done it again...Harping on Phil's change up.

I'll try harder to avoid further redundancy.

PS. Thanks for the link ;-)

I like this bunch and I'm glad they seem not only at ease in their current roles-"franchise savers" but they seem to be enjoying the experience.

That's a good sign.

I liked Kennedy a lot last year and thought he demonstrated the most mature development as a pitcher of the three. Not that I'm saying he's ultimately better, but that at their age two years can make a lot of difference, and it showed in him.

And yes, they are a nice bunch, aren't they?!

We're going to have fun watching this little troika, in whatever format they trot them out ... :-)

Also if I remember correctly Kennedy is about ready for nearly a full load of innings as a starter.

AND THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR GOES TOO....THE ENTIRE yANKEE PITCHING STAFF IN THEIR ROLE AS A MAJOR LEAGUE STARTING STAFF.

Kennedt is ready for a full load of innings. Wow ever think he stinks and won't even make the staff since he has no track record in the bigs? No that never crosses a Yankee fans mind. We heard good stories about him from the same guys who can't say how many pitches he throws, so he is automatically a starting pitcher in our rotation and of course a star. But since that rotation is so pitiful I guess anyone could be in it. Even lets see...Kei Igawa....or Jeff Karstens...or Chase Wright...or Ty Clippard...how about Carl Pavano..... These are the same guys your heros couldnt dosplace last year. Now suddenly they are all starters and or course will perform to the Yankee hype that goes along with every Yankee prospect (see the previous list of disasters).

Hey DRU,

Do the math buddy. Wang and 190 innings for 34 starts equals an average of 5.5 innings per start. How is that getting to the 7th inning almost every start. Do you even watch this team or are you in some kind of a Yankee fantasy bubble? Seemingly every start he doesn't get the job done. Thats the way I see it. Then the star team of Farnsworth Hawkins and Brunery take over.....ohhhhhhh the Pain.

What a jike these guys are. 3/4 of this staff couldn't pitch for the Marlins. I thought the Yankees were supposed to be good. What happened. When did Cone Clemens and Wells become Mussina Wang and Hughes? Now thats a laugher.

Yes almost as funny as the senior citizens the Muts trot out on the field..lets see...

LF - Moises Alou??? Are you kidding me? Is he really just 42??
CF - Beltran...paying top dollar for a CF that cannot stay healthy, knees are already bothering him and the season hasn’t started. You know he’s really a .270 hitter and is a major choke artist. The Muts paid him after he made that run in Houston. Strike 3 looking?? How did that feel Say??
RF - Ryan Church??? You have to be joking right??

And who is backing up that rag tag group, he better be good. Oh, no more Lastings? Endy Chavez is the backup when one of these guys go down??? Yeahhhh, is he still 150 lbs?

1B - Delgado, are you expecting a 38 year old to improve? What did he hit .240 last year???
2B - Castillo - Another do nothing guy on the wrong side of 30.
SS – Reyes - Can you say overrated? He's the 3rd ranked SS in the AL East. Hanley and Rollins are much better. Oh lets trade Lastings because we dont want him to affect Jose???? WOW, he must have his head on straight. What happened to him at the end of last year?
3B – Wright - The only true player on the roster. At the end of the year he hit well and when all the reporters were looking for someone to interview...Reyes and the other boys were saying "No Halba Inglese", David was the only stand up guy.
C - Schneider?? Castro??? LOL WOW

I already went over the overpriced senior citizens you have in the rotation...if not for Johan ( which Im glad you guys got so that the Sox didnt get him ), you would be worse than last year. What was Maine’s ERA in the 2nd half? 5?

Oh and you gave away all your "prospects" in that Santana deal so there is NO help on the way.

Good luck with that though, hey I hear the Muts might sign Julio Franco again,,,then bring in Ricky Henderson. They fit right into Omar's plan.

For a team that hasn’t won a WS in 22 years…..got blown out against my team in the WS only 8 years ago ( 3-1..almost a sweep,,,damn )…….and just suffered the biggest regular season collapse in MLB history only 6 months ago…..you sure have a lot of stuff to say about a team that has owned the Muts….has made the playoffs 13 years in a row….will have one of the youngest rotations and bullpens in the entire league…won 4 WS since your last one….has the league MVP….currently has a MUCH better roster from top to bottom….and has a top 5 minor league system compared to the Mets who are near the bottom of the entire league….

No wonder all my Mets friends have been really quiet this offseason, seems like you are living in fantasy land. So keep running your mouth Say Hey…I can do this all day.

Diane - you're correct. Ian won the MiLB pitcher of the year for the entire minors. His innings and age say he has the best shot at maintaining the innings for a #3 in our rotation ( 180 in ). We need to get Ian, Phil and Joba their innings this year no matter what. So when we open up in the new stadium.

Wang
Joba
Phil
Ian

80% of our rotation will be cheap, homegrown and under 30. Then we can go out and get a CC Sabathia or Sheets if we want. If not there are MORE guys on the way like Horne, Brackman, Betances...or we could make Sanchez a starter. He was ranked ahead of Verlander and Zumaya in the Tigers system. Before we got him he was the starting pitcher for the minor league all star game. He's still only 24 and is nasty! We will have plenty of options to fill out the rotation and the bullpen in the next couple years. The money saved after shedding Giambi, Moose, Andy, Abreu, Farny, Hawkins...will give us the ability to get Teixeria and whoever else we want. The new dynasty is on the horizon!!!!!

I LOVE THE NEW YORK YANKEES!!!

ME TOO, ARENT THEY GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

= )

the yankees have the best rotation in all of baseball. TAKE BACK EVERYTHING ELSE I SAID. I AM DUMB, therefore, you can never take me seriously again. I will never troll this board again, because I realize how stupid it was. I'm sorry everyone, good luck this season, and GO YANKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!

THATS THE SPIRIT!!!

By the way...I "did the math buddy"

Wang = 30 starts...199innings..or 6.63 innings a start.

Lets have some more fun with numbers!!!

Pitches per inning....top 3 in the MLB

Maddux
Hudson
Wang

Johan is #20

No other Met was in the top 70. Perez was 71 and Maine was 74. Maine was worse than Oli in that cat??? Almost 20 per inning? WOW!!!! That cant be good.

Dru

You want in or what?

Folks, I think Yankees Season ticket plans go on sale at 10 AM today....sell your houses and pick up a ticket!

Mike...Im in brother! Thanks for the invite.

LaTroy Hawkins seems to be flavor of the day today. Kat has a story on him in this paper and here's a link to Kepner's report in the Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/sports/baseball/25yankees.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Brian Cashman is on 1050 ESPN RADIO

w/ Max Kellerman

Brian Cashman is on 1050 ESPN RADIO

w/ Max Kellerman