Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Penned In

Joba Chamberlain to start in bullpen

I don't know about you, but I don't find it all that surprising. We have a very strong rotation, if we stay healthy, but our bullpen has a lot of questions outside of Rivera, and, it seems, Traber, and, well, we've learned the har way what happens when you don't have a dependable bullpen.

We all know how dominant Joba was in the pen last summer, so we have some idea about what to expect from him this year.

So that leaves our starting five as: Wang, Pettitte, Mussina, Hughes and Kennedy. I'm guessing the rotation will end up being something akin to as it is now, but I like the idea of spacing Hughes and Kennedy out to give the bullpen some rest.

7 comments:

  1. Hi Rebecca! This is Steve, Dan's friend who you met on Saturday. Great blog! I wanted to ask your opinion on something kind of off topic. If I'm not mistaken, CC Sabathia will be a free agent after the 2008 season. I am wondering if the Yankees will have any interest in him and if his future availability has anything to do with the Yankees not trading and then signing Santana. I think that Cashman saw he might be able to get Sabathia, another elite 28 year old lefty, by signing him to a contract this off season. If they had traded for Santana, the Yankees would have had to give up valuable prospects and $137 million.

    Also...I read awhile back on Lohudblogs that Chien Ming Wang actually read his fan mail at spring training so I sent him a letter and a couple of things for him to sign and he sent me back a signed picture and card within two weeks. It's amazing! He is now my favorite Yankees pitcher!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not all all surprised that Joba is starting in the bullpen. I am sure he will move into the starting rotation later in the season.

    Anonymous - CC Sabathia has indicated that he does not want to play in NY.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steve: I don't know what the Yankees thoughts are on Sabathia, but there are certain things we do know:

    1) He won't come cheap. He will likely be the highest-priced pitcher on the free agent market. The Yankees right now, outside of A-Rod, seem to be going the home-grown, low-cost route, so I'm not sure, from a financial standpoint, that they want to make a long term investment with Sabathia.

    1a) Remember Pavano, Igawa and even Randy Johnson.

    2) The Yankees do have a number of pitchers still in the minor leagues that will be ML ready in 2010 or after, including Brackman and Betances. I'm not sure you want Santana to fill a one year gap in '09.


    And that is great about Wang! I'm going to have to send him something now...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Regarding CC- if the Yankees really want him, they'll get him. CC has said that hes not a huge fan of NY, but he'll go to the highest bidder. Also, I'm not sure you can compare CC to Pavano, Igawa and Randy Johnson. Pavano pitched in the NL, while CC has AL success. Also, Pavano is an exception, not the rule. Not every free agent pitcher will get hurt. Igawa pitched in Japan and no the AL central, so there's really no comparison there, and Randy Johnson was like 100 years old when the Yanks got him. I'm not necessarily endorsing a CC signing, because I don't think any pitcher should get more than five years and CC will most likely want more than that, but he is our immediate ace if the Yankees do sign him.

    The Yanks will probably sign at least one big name free agent next winter, considering CC, Teixeira and K-Rod all fit in pretty nicely with the roster. Personally, I'd sign K-Rod and Adam Dunn, because with all the expiring contracts, the Yankees probably still cut the payroll with those signings, and make the team significantly better.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nate: I only mean to bring them up in terms of long term deals that didn't exactly work out.


    Okay, not huge long term deals, but you get the idea.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think that the Yanks will look at free agent signings after this season with so much money coming off the books. I am not so sure that their biggest need will be starting pitching if the "kids" pan out. They may want to sign a K-Rod for the bullpen and keep Joba as a starter. But I think that a bigger need is 1st base and I think that Texiera is who they should target.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I really don't think they should sign Teixeira. He could get close to $25 million per if he has another good year this year. If we sign him, I don't think we get K-Rod. I would sign K-Rod and Adam Dunn. Dunn will get much less than Tex and probably for less years. He is only one year older and not much worse. Also, he provides more versatility, because he can play first as well as the outfield corners (although not too well). This way, Dunn starts in right field in 2009, and when Austin Jackson or Jose Tabata (or both) is ready to get called up, maybe as early as May of 09, Dunn moves to first. In the meantime, a Betemit/Duncan platoon would probably be the equivalent of a league average, or slightly better, first basemen. I think if we sign K-Rod and Dunn, their combined salaries would probably be only about 5-6 million more than one of CC or Tex.

    ReplyDelete