Well, the Yanks have come to terms with Latroy Hawkins for 1 year. Unfortunately, LaTroy was only good for 3 years and we're 3 years removed from his last good year.
It appears as though Cashman is trying to rebuild the 2004 Cubs bullpen, so expect a flush offer to draw Mike Remlinger and Kent Mercker out of retirement before Spring Training begins. If this were only 2003, we'd have the best bullpen in the bigs. As it stands we'll need a couple of the kids to step it up as the "bridge" to Mo or else we'll get sucked out in the first round yet again.
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The more I look at the sad shape of the bullpen - and really, with Igawa, Pettitte and Mussina part of the rotation, you can't expect ANY of them to go past six full innnings on a regular basis -- I wonder how they can possibly keep Joba out of there. It seems CRAZY not to use Joba in the bullpen. He makes three pitchers a week that much stronger, that much more dominating, that much more likely to secure a win. How can that be less important than his untested ability every five days? And doesn't he need more pitches to be a starter?
He has more pitches; there's just no reason to use them as a reliever. The only issue for me is whether he's durable enough.
Over the course of a 162 game season, it is conceivable to me that Joba working out of the bullpen COULD result in more wins than Joba working out of the rotation. But if the team thinks they are strong enough to get to the playoffs regardless, they have to think about what will win when they get there. And if Joba is what they think he is -- that means having him start. Dominant starting pitching is what wins come playoff time.
As for Igawa, do you really expect him to be anything more than an emergency starter? If the season started today I think it goes Wang, Pettitte, Moose, Joba, Hughes. Kennedy is next in line after that, and assuming Moose gets hurt should step right into the rotation. My guess is Igawa battles it out with Sean Henn in Spring Training to see if either of them can nail down the lefty reliever role out of the bullpen.
As I've said before on this blog, I like Igawa out of the pen. Just look at his first inning numbers from last season. He started 12 games and only gave up 4 runs in those 12 first innings. He came out of the bullpen twice: once for 1/3 scoreless inning in September after Bruney had blown the game and in his best game of the year against the Red Sox on April 28th after Karstens had his leg broken. Igawa threw 6 scoreless innings that day including holding the Sox in the first inning with inherited runners on first and second. Put is all together and his 2007 ERA for his first inning of work was 2.70 which is exactly the kind of lefty relief pitcher we so desperately need.
Joe, I meant Wang, not Igawa in the starting rotation. And by all means, Pete, put Igawa's ass in the bullpen. And Joe, I never want to start planning for the post-season in April. Play the player where they will be the most productive to GET to the post-season. Further, how rare is an electric, lights out middle reliever who can replace Rivera in three years time as the closer? (And don't we all agree that Rivera was the MVP during our last dynasty?) Joba has been ELECTRIC as a middle reliever, spine-chillingly good. Why mess with that because he MIGHT be an excellent starter? I still say middle relief is more important than a starter in today's game with even the best pitches rarely going past six innings.
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