Kennedy headed to DL; Joba could start next week

by anaconda on May 28, 2008 6:05 AM EDT in New York Yankees News

Pete Abe reports that Ian Kennedy will be sent back to New York for an MRI and will be placed on the 15-day DL with the strained lat muscle he suffered in the middle of an unbelievably wet and sloppy night for the Yankees.

I would expect Chris Britton to get another call-up tonight from the "Scranton Shuttle Bus Crew" as Kennedy is officially placed on the DL and I wouldn't be at all surprised if "Dead Man Walking" Morgan Ensberg finally gets the proverbial boot in favor of Jason Lane.

This move is certainly coming as evidenced by Ensberg's lack of plate appearances against left handers in recent days in addition to Lane's increase in reps at First Base at Scranton in recent days.

In other news, with Joba Chamberlain scheduled to throw 50-55 pitches in relief on Wednesday, speculation is that he could make his first major league start next week in Kennedy's now vacated slot in the rotation.

Now I understand that it might be difficult to stretch his pitch count past 60 pitches in a relief role, but I think this transition to the rotation is happening way too fast. Tomorrow's outing will be just his third relief appearance in a span of 8 days and has not thrown more than 40 pitches in any outing as of this writing.

I'm aware that the Yankee hierarchy has more experience stretching out pitchers' arms than I do, but I have to question their sanity with speeding up this very delicate process with the Golden Boy of the organization after Girardi hinted on May 21 that this transition could take as long as 3-4 weeks.

As every PA regular knows, I'm 100% behind the Joba to the rotation plan. But I also want to see this kid physically ready to make that switch because he's no use to this organization sitting on the DL with his Trinity Brothers - Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes.

Here's hoping that Joba makes a smooth transition and my present concerns prove to be an overreaction.

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Britton

Why don’t we send up Dan Giese? He’s been great both as a reliever and starter for Scranton. He blew his most recent start, but he’ll be ready on June 1 for another. How about we start him in Kennedy’s place, limit him to 5 innings, and piggyback Joba with him? Or start Joba, keep him to his pitch limit, and use Giese in long relief. We ought to send Ohlendorf down as well, and bring up Scott Patterson. I realize both of these moves would require putting Giese and Patterson on the 40-man first. I don’t think Jeff Marquez and Billy Traber are ready for prime-time, so they can be taken off.

And why is it that our bench, which in spring training we thought would be one of the strongest in baseball and better than it’s been in years, is so useless? We ought to send Shelley back down, bring Ben Broussard, Cody Ransom or the AG, and Brett Gardner up, and trade Ensberg and Betemit for whatever we can find. I’m joking (sort of), but it’s frustrating that Betemit and Duncan aren’t providing the pop they did when they joined the team last season.

"If you lived in my grandfather's house...and you wanted to eat, you had to be a Yankees fan." --Joe Biden

by SenorSwanky on May 28, 2008 3:28 PM EDT reply actions