On the Yankees beat

Wouldn't a September 1st game have the advantage that the Yanks could have up to 15 players up from AA and AAA?

(I realize that they would not call up so many, what with playoffs in the minors, but you get my point).

Plus, A-Rod and Posada will surely be back by then....

Detroit could have just as many players up - and odds are that Alex (at least) and probably Posada will be back in time for a July 24 game too..

So am I to believe that the Yanks would consider 2 AAA games by Kennedy as a pitching epiphany? How about a month or two instead of a game or two. What could possibly be resolved after 2 games against AAA team? But then again the Yanks don't really seem to believe in the concept of sequential development...for them its a good review by Baseball America and right into the rotation.

I read someone responding to Ant's questioning where are our pitching prospects he's heard about and you are wasting your breath. Even though you gave a good and thorough run down, he either wont read it or wont pay attention to it and we'll see the same rant again. I've given him a response; DRU has; and I think Chip has as well. There may be others I'm forgetting and I'm sorry for that, but my point is, he's ranting for the sake of ranting, hoping someone might actually listen or consider him an intelligent baseball opinion.

Rick: You talk about tough people that don't run away, but I often find you hiding when your ideas are challenged and gloating when you get something right. To me, someone who truly is mentally tough, doesn't need to run around saying, "I told you so", because they're confident in who they are, have been right before, will be right again, and just go about doing what they do. So, if that's why you're calling yourself stupid, then I'm on board, else, from what I've heard, you're a pretty nice guy and an avid sports fan.

Nudge: I don't think it's saying that IPK is "fixed" or anything as much as it's saying "we've seen enough of Igawa".

Yeah, I'm sure the front office made their decision based on what Baseball America or Baseball Prospectus said (figuratively speaking) instead of watching him dominate three levels of the minors last season in addition to three very good starts for the major league club last September.

He wasn't just good last season - he was dominant.

His combined minor league stats in 2007:

146 IP -- 12-3, 1.91 ERA, 91 H, 50 BB, 163 K

Growing pains are to be expected. Kennedy lost his mojo in April and wasn't aggressive enough in the zone. Maybe he needed a kick in the pants and a wakeup call to turn him around.

Even Mickey Mantle needed a kick in the pants before he became Mickey Mantle. And no, I'm not comparing the talent levels of The Mick to Ian Kennedy. The point is that the little things can make someone click and turn their season around.

Rasner has proved for two starts that you don't need especially good stuff to win some games and Kennedy has a far better makeup and far better stuff than Rasner does.

That's not to say that Rasner is going to win a lot of games for this team because I think it's just a matter of time before reality sets in and he starts getting knocked around. But he's playing an important role for this team right now while the team lacked a little stability in the back of the rotation.

Hopefully, the Yanks are catching lightning in a bottle for a month or two and will take advantage of it ala Aaron Small or Shawn Chacon. I don't see Rasner as a long term solution by any means.

Kat,
I see Cablevision just bought Newsday, best of luck with your job, I hope they don't mess up a good thing!

Maybe it'll even be an improvement. You guys who live out there can march on the IT department and demonstrate against the dreaded security system, now that it's local ownership!

I have two pitching questions, and hope the brain trust here can help me out.

1. What's up with Scott Patterson? Haven't heard a word, and he looked like an interesting possibility. Does he have a future here?

2. Please be patient with this one, I actually want to know. Leaving aside money and politics, what is there about Kei Igawa that makes team officials even a little bit optimistic? Is there something that goes on in Minor League settings that just disappears when he gets to the big club? Has anybody here seen him pitch in person during his minor league stays? I have looked, sincerely looked, for something there, but have only seen him in televised big league games where, as far as I can tell, he varies mainly between laughable and pathetic. I would be glad if someone could tell me what it is that I am missing. Seriously.

Diane: The Yankees feel the 46 mil investment is worth the chance on turning him around and become a righty. This will take three years at each stop on the minor league plateaus. Since, he has 3 years including this one on his contract. We may never see him again. Hows that for a possibility of the Yankee thouhgts on him.

Diane: The Yankees feel the 46 mil investment is worth the chance on turning him around and become a righty. This will take three years at each stop on the minor league plateaus. Since, he has 3 years including this one on his contract. We may never see him again. Hows that for a possibility of the Yankee thouhgts on him.

Diane,
I'm afraid the Yanks were thinking more about countering the Red Sox acquisition of Matsuzaka than acquiring a good ballplayer when they signed Igawa. I looked at Igawa's Japanese League stats when his name started to surface and he did nothing to impress me and had done plenty to worry me, such as issuing way too many walks.

The only thing I can think of that gave the Yanks any hope for him athletically is that he is left handed.

Patterson: He's having a decent season at SWB. While he is giving up a hit per inning (almost), he is also striking out one batter per inning and not giving up too many walks. He started the season very well by not giving up any runs in his first five appearances but now has hit a bit of a rough patch as he has been hit pretty hard in 3 of his last 5 appearances.

Jim A.,

Thanks for the Patterson update, I was curious, and if his name had cropped up here lately, I missed it.

Regarding Igawa, maybe I'm looking for some clue that just doesn't exist.

If anything, and I may be stating the obvious, Igawa will be a leverage point for Yanks brass in countering any significant demand from Cashman in discussing a new contract (if and when that happens). I've always been an advoacate for Cash in many areas, but the underlying and ultimate factor is the horrendous signings of (gulp) Pavano and Igawa.

The same question can be asked for Pavano -Why hasn't he been released? Thought of him pitching come August? Isn't he on the mend for quite some time?

Re: Cashman: He's going to have a lot to answer for, especially if the Santana non-trade outcomes don't start looking a whole lot better before the season is over.

Re: Igawa: The reason I was leaving politics out of it is that, even assuming that the only motivation in acquiring a Japanese pitcher was as Jim A. describes, I thought Igawa AS HE HAS PERFORMED HERE was unlikely to have been the best pitcher left in Japan after Boston departed with their two. So my reasoning (apparently faulty) was that there must have been something to distinguish Igawa from the field, something I was missing.

Maybe not.

Hey Viper,

How many starts in AAA for IPK last year?

Ill answer that for you. A grand total of...........6! 1-1 record!

Now that may justify a September call up for most teams....but to Cashman thats called a gaurenteed rotation spot next year no matter what.

How many ML starts this year?

Ill answer that too. 5 with a 0-2 record and 8.32 ERA.

Of course when he bombs everyone says its early and hes only had a few starts...blah blah blah. But when hes had success in only a few starts you dont hear....lets not get too excited hes only pitched a few starts and it is against AAA hitters. No you hear the saem hype about a starting rotation with him as the #2 guy for the next 10 years and WS championships. The knife cuts both ways

So no he did not dominate at AAA. He had 6 starts and good results. Starting the year there would have confirmed his 6 starts last year....but desperation again drives the Yanks pitching decisions just like last year Hughes debacle. That resulted in a 2 year sey back and still they don't know what they have. All they need now is to put Joba in the rotation to kill off the final of the 3 phenom fantasy starters theory. Its hard to think of a way they could have screwed this thing up morre than they did.

I was one of the posters here who liked what I saw of Kennedy last year. One of the things I thought he seemed to be able to do better than most youngsters was think on the mound and adjust. That is why I have been riled by what I've seen this year. He seemed paralyzed on the mound and stuck repeating his mistakes. When he went back down and had one good start and came out of it claiming AAA hitting was just like MLB hitting I was sick because it seemed to show that what I had thought was a real asset -- his thinking -- was a deficit instead.

I still think he can pitch in the big leagues but someone has got to get through his head that the pitching that can take him through a whole start against AAA hitting will take him only once through an MLB lineup. That's why he starts looking bad after two innings. Until he faces that and figures out a plan for what he's going to do as the same mature, experienced hitters come up a second and third time against him, he's doomed.

Diane,

I would not give up on him. But I would like to see him remain at AAA for 2 months to really get his head straightned out as well as any "work" he needs to do on his appraoch and delivery. But unfortunately the Yanks have made themselves slaves to the NOW even though they claim they haven't. So the pitching of Kei Igawa has more affect than the pitching of Ian Kennedy. So I expect them to rush him back up ASAP and him to fail again.This problem of immediate gratification will kill the development of young pitchers faster than anything.

Dice-K: 6-0

Not too shabby!

Did the Red Sox beat their own record from last year when they hit first place early and stayed their the whole year long all the way until they were crowned World Champs?

Looks like history is going to repeat itself. No one in the division can hold a candle to the Sox!

Have fun iun Tampa! Should be the tell-all-tell-all for the Yanks regarding the rest of the season.

Too bad you can't pray for rain down in the Dome!

When you're happy for rain-outs for your team. You can't be doing to well!

I am not so sure that Kennedy was all that rushed. Hughes I'll give you.

What I've been wondering about Kennedy is whether he needed a different pitching coach to help him make that last step. Maybe Eiland had done all he could for Kennedy. Remember he too is new in his job at this level. Not that he isn't a talented hard-working coach who deserves a chance up here. But a fresh eye, especially one accustomed to coaching pitchers against MLB hitting, might have been a good thing for Kennedy. Just thinking.

HYD,
Rick Keyes' company has limited their employees internet activity to 10 Mins per day as of a couple of months ago, that is the reason you don't see him on here as much as you used too. Believe me, I know Rick well enough by now to know that he would not be hiding from anyone on the blog if he was proven wrong about something, he just doesn't have the internet access that he once did. He also is out on the road for work a number of days per week which also limits his blog availability.

Just FYI, I'm not taking any sides in your issues, just trying to make Rick's position a little more clear.

Carry on my friends.

Jim: Thanks, that helps on one front, but not on the "I told you so" front and how I think it goes against his "mentally tough" stance.

Di: Patterson recorded his first save this past week. He may now be the SWB closer with Veras on the Yanks. Hughes and Kennedy were both rushed, but in different ways. In an ideal situation, Hughes would have spent a good part of 2007 in SWB, but the Yanks poor rotation and injuries last year called him up earlier than originally planned and we all have seen how that has happened. As far as Kennedy, he was rushed too. He went through all levels of the minors and into the majors in one season. To me, for someone that isn't/wasn't a can't miss prospect, that is rushed. I still think he'll be successful, but I'd rather see White getthat next start than IPK. I've said for days that Chase would make sense too though, based on his timing in the rotation. I love McCutchen, but I'd like to see him get some time at SWB first. I highly doubt it would be Giese since he's not on the 40 man. Not sure if McCutchen is on the 40 man.

Nudge: I agree that the Yanks are making mistakes with the young pitchers and a big part of that has to fall on Cashman. Now, I'm a Cash supporter, but he realizes he's in a tough place right now. He doesn't have a contract beyond this year and he's made his name based on youth. Fortunately for him Melky is having a great year, but he needs young pitchers to perform.

With all of the injuries the Yanks have had up and down the system (the numbers are alarming), some kind of change needs to be considered. It seems like it goes beyond just being a fluke coincidence. I'd say go after the strength, training, and conditioning people, but I'm pretty sure that was done last year? I really don't know the answer, but something seems eerily wrong here.