Chamberlain's first relief start last night. Faced three batters, struck out one looking and two swinging. Hit 100MPH twice. One more tomorrow night and rumor is he will be NY friday. He's given up 27 BBs and had 128 SOs in 86 innings this year.
Yeah, it was but 13 of those SOs and 0 BBs were at Scranton in 6 innings. Appears he is still improving. Still for a first year pitcher just out of college it's pretty impressive.
Those numbers are great, but I have doubts as to how ready he is for the majors. There are not a lot of hitters in the minors who can hit 100 MPH pitching, and that means you can get away with making mistakes, and get by on velocity alone a lot of times. Those same mistakes in the majors turn into 3 run bombs. As a comparison, the Red Sox top prospect Clay Buchholz has posted almost identical numbers- 137 K, 34 BB in 98 innings between AA and recently AAA. I don't want him called up yet either.
I trust Schilling down the stretch a lot more than I do Lester and especially Gabbard who I think is having an Aaron Small type run that is not indicative of what his career will be. I could be wrong, but he hasn't shown me anything that indicates I am. Schilling is a proven big game pitcher, and that means a lot during a playoff run. If the Sox were to make the playoffs, there is no way Gabbard or Lester starts a playoff game. It would most likely be Lester who was sent back down. As for Donnelly, that one is easy. Delcarmen goes back to AAA until the September call ups. I never said anywhere that Hughes doesn't have talent. Nowhere. Stop putting words in my mouth and get your facts straight before you open yours. All I said was he's very inexperienced, which he is. Is he better than Igawa? Of course, but just about anyone would be better than Igawa. I said it when Hughes was called up (and you can go find it if you'd like) that he has tons of talent and potential but I think it's too early for him to be called up. I stand by that, especially after missing so much time. He'd be MUCH better off going back to AAA until at least September. Fixed that for you. Which doesn't do much since Torre shuns the existence of the bench. I addressed my opinion on Chamberlain above, but it's essentially the same as with Hughes. He should spend more time in AAA, especially considering he's transitioning into a reliever.
You have that luxury, we do not. We won't know what he can do at this level until we see him. That much is agreed.
That makes a spot for Chamberlain in the pen. Wish it had been Farnsworth instead but nobody wants his contract.
I liked Proctor. Sad to see him go, although he has had and up and down year like the rest of the pen.
ugh why do we need betemit? So were going to subtract Proctor for Joba. Proctor is effective when he isnt used every damn day. I dont get this deal at all. We need to add arms to the pen not subtract them
Right, but in terms of improving actual, realized team performance... what do those two get you? Whether Gabbard pitching well is a fluke or not, the point is that games in which Schilling will pitch will not get you much better return (if any) than the games in which Gabbard has already pitched. You're hedging your bets that Schilling will pitch better in future games that Gabbard is not as likely to pitch well in. I'm not sure that Donnelly is an improvement over Delcarmen, though. Manny might not be ready, but he's got a hell of an arm and has looked fairly dominant in his appearances this year (game against Tampa notwithstanding). ??? I didn't accuse you of saying Hughes doesn't have talent. And what facts do I not have straight? My point was only that EVEN IF YOU DID want to say Hughes isn't that good, or that he's a rookie, or whatever, he is still a VAST improvement to the Yankee rotation, mostly as a function of who he is replacing. This is not saying that you actually pooh-poohed his talent... but rather IF you did... or, here, let's make it less personal: Even if "someone" did want to downplay what Hughes brings to the Yanks for whatever reason, that "someone" still couldn't argue that Hughes is anything but a huge improvement over Igawa. And yes, just about anyone would be. Hello, and welcome to the point. Hughes, by virtue of not being Igawa, greatly improves the Yankee rotation. Large talent differential and lots of room to improve on results. I could go either way on whether Hughes should be up or not. I don't really think it will be damaging to him to be in the majors. His 2007 inning limit and pitch count plan for him isn't in danger, thanks to the injury. It's a funny place to find a silver lining, but now they don't have to worry about how fresh his arm will be in September, which would've been a concern if he stayed healthy. And I'm not 100% sold that he has anything more to learn in AAA. If they kept him at Scranton, it would only be to be super-super-cautious with his recovery, and to make sure they could monitor him without the pressure of needing to win a game. Do I mind being super-super-cautious with a guy who has the potential to anchor a rotation for the next ten years? No... which is why I say I could go either way about bringing him up. But you can't be cautious to a fault, either. If he's healthy and recovered, then he's healthy and recovered. Of course, that was not what was being addressed in my initial post. I thought we were discussing the amount of talent being added if no trades were made, and more importantly, the talent differential. Yes, I think Karstens is bad, too. Absolute trash? Erm.... no. But an adequate long man for the 'pen. Of course, there's been a reason for that. No bench players worth putting in, so he shuns the bench. Nice little positive feedback loop. If the bench had a little more talent, though, you'd see bench players getting more time. It's not like Torre's inherently averse to using bench players (see: Ruben Sierra). Adding Giambi back to the team increases the talent on the bench rather dramatically. I don't disagree. But my opinion on those moves have more to do with the player's long-term development and not whether they can/cannot perform at the major-league level. And, again, their long-term development - while relevant to the larger picture of approval/disapproval of team moves - is completely irrelevant in the context of discussing the likely potential talent differentials of the 2007 Sox and 2007 Yankees if they make no trades and rely only on internal moves.
Confirmed http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2955753 He should do great in the weak NL west. Haha..maybe he will be the one to give up Bond's 756th HR..that would be really sad.
This deal sucks. We need bullpen help. So we trade Proctor for another first baseman-dh type when we already have Phillips. Ugh there has to be another shoe to drop.
Yanks turn down Horne for Gagne (Wheres FirstTimeCaller, cash is building w/ good young arms in the process of trying to win now) Gagne very likely going to Brewers.. Mets and Sox out of the mix
