Shaking Out the Opening Day Roster

by jscape2000 on Dec 19, 2007 2:12 PM EST in New York Yankees News

Chad Jennings has the details.

Juan Miranda will start the year splitting 1B/DH with Eric Duncan.

[Farm director Mark] Newman said the Yankees still have high hopes for Duncan, and he put Duncan's age in nice perspective.

"Last year he was a college senior playing Triple-A," Newman said.

Mark Melancon and JB Cox will be ready for Opening Day, but will likely start the season down to in Tampa to avoid the chilly Northeast April.

Humberto Sanchez won't be ready for opening day. I'd been holding out hope he'd be ready to play. He reached AAA as a starter with the Tigers before the Sheffield trade, and I think that he could be Joba-esque out of the pen.

Nick Green will be in camp. If the Yankees decide to carry an extra infielder (in addition to Betemit and Duncan), Green will have competition with Alberto Gonzalez for that spot.

All hands will be on deck for the Yankee bullpen, both in Spring Training and all season.

Basically, it looks like spring training will be a free-for-all for the final few spots in the major league bullpen. Newman said some of those minor league starters will have a real chance to win one of those spots. Competing for the big league bullpen, though, doesn't mean those pitchers will be converted to relievers in the minor leagues. Newman said he would be comfortable calling a minor league starter straight from the Triple-A rotation into the major league bullpen. At the same time, he wouldn't rule out another Joba Chamberlain situation, where a starter gets a few minor league relief appearances before going to the big leagues as a reliever. The situation is, as he put it, fluid.

I like this approach to building the pen. I'm excited for Spring Training.

It's December 19th, and it's snowing in Scranton. Damn it.

Update [2007-12-20 1:37:3 by jscape2000]: Sweet. The Royals signed Ron Mahay. Which means the Yankees didn't.

I couldn't be happier.

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Makes a great point

"And the relief pitching market at the major league level is not a real good one," Newman said. "It's real easy to pay a lot of money and not get a lot of predictability out of the guys you sign."

This certainly appears to be the case, so I expect that unless we pick up a quality relief arm, we likely will see most of these guys next season.

I've had coaches who believe that being a relief pitcher is the quickest way to the MLB. I don't know that I agree, but I will say it's the quickest way find out if you've got the stomach for it and have what it takes to stay.

"Baseball is the background music of my life." -George Will

by Ronster22 on Dec 19, 2007 2:55 PM EST reply actions

So you're excited that we're currently looking at

a bullpen bridge to Mariano that has a bad setup man who was demoted last season behind Joba and a bad Viz in Farnsworth, followed by an awful Veras, a washed up Hawkins and Ohlendorf with less than a handful of major league experience? You're now going from Joba who pitched at an incredibly high level and helped propel them into the playoffs to a guy who has basically been a complete failure here. And you're banking on guys in the minors who aren't near the level of Joba to be their saviors? And we still don't know if they'll even have a quality lefty coming out of the pen? I'm sure the Red Sox and Indians are quaking in their boots that the Yankees will be able to match them out of the pen. By the way, did you ever why wonder why the cluelass Cash never looked into Jose Valverde? This will mark the 8th straight season Cash will have failed to build a quality bullpen.

by andyroth on Dec 19, 2007 5:29 PM EST reply actions

Re:

Why do you continue to argue the same damn thing over and over again?

You know Jscape's stance on the topic and your rants aren't going to change his mind.

Agree to disagree and move on.

by anaconda on Dec 19, 2007 5:36 PM EST up reply actions

Just a reminder

Damn, I thought he was gone, but if we ignore him he will go away eventually.

Fear the Evil Empire

by pfistyunc on Dec 20, 2007 3:13 PM EST up reply actions

Valverde?

You want to acquire him when his trade value is at its absolute highest? You think he would be as effective a set-up man as he was closer? After a 5.84 era two years ago? Moving from the NL West to the AL East? AND wasting another guaranteed bullpen spot on someone who has been erratic, at best. Your bullpen plan is far from flawless.

"It's great to be young and a Yankee"

by stillmonster on Dec 19, 2007 6:41 PM EST up reply actions

Well, you see

What I'm excited about is that we won't need one guy to be the savior.

Ohlendorf, Britton, and Jonny A only have to post WHIPs better than Bruney (1.62 in 50IP), Proctor (1.51 in 54.1IP), and Viz (1.45 in 75.1IP). Since league average WHIP as about 1.4, if my trio perform to only league average they'll allow 21 fewer baserunners in the same number of innings. If they pitch to a 1.3 (combined) that's 40 fewer baserunners.

It's like the Bull Durham rant about one hit a week seperating the All-Stars from the scrubs. All we need to do is convert one extra out per week from the combined work of 3 different pitchers. It seems simple, but it's hard to do.

But, you're welcome to list the GMs who added at least 2 league average veterans from outside their farm systems last offseason.

The only effective way to build a pen is with a lot of internal options. I'm excited to see the plans Cash has laid since seizing control during the 2005/2006 offseason finally come to fruition.

"Have faith in the Yankees, my son. Think of the great DiMaggio."

by jscape2000 on Dec 20, 2007 2:38 AM EST up reply actions