The headline on this AP story at FoxSports says “Igawa gets rocked again.” Kei Igawa’s line yesterday: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 5 K. Sure, he couldn’t find the strike zone with any consistency. But rocked again? That would imply runs and hits. What game were they watching?
Kiheimahanaomauiakeo
And I thought Melquisedec was tough. That up there is Bronson Sardinha’s 20-letter middle name, which means “protector of Kihei, Maui.”
Great googley moogley.
(hat tip to Ed Price)
The Karstens conundrum
Jeff Karstens wasn’t supposed to do this. He wasn’t an All Star in Japan; he doesn’t have an onerous four-year, $39.95 million contract. Karstens, a 19th-round draft pick in 2003, is 24 and doesn’t even make a dent on the Yankees top prospect list.
But Jeff Karstens is making things very difficult for the Yankees this Spring Training. It is a difficulty that many teams would love to have.
In three appearances – two starts, one relief showing – Karstens in 3-0 with a 0.00 ERA. He’s thrown 9 innings of 5-hit baseball racking up 9 strike outs and walking no one. And after an off-season of tough condition, Karstens is hitting his spots with a fastball in the 90s. Last night, during a one-hit, four-inning effort against the Twins, he was flashing two effective off-speed pitches as well.
For the Yanks, their rotation – while shaky – is seemingly filled. Some combination of Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina will fill out the top three slots, and the expensive duo of Kei Igawa and Carl Pavano are slated for the last three slots. But Karstens has shown better poise and better stuff this Spring than Pavano and Igawa.
While Spring Training stats are by and large meaningless, some numbers are telling. Karstens’ zero walks shows he’s not afraid to pound the strike zone and that his control has been stellar so far. Meanwhile, Pavano has looked merely pedestrian in two trips to the Hill, and Igawa hasn’t shown any control even if his strike out rate is high in few innings.
Of course, none of this pitchers has thrown anything close to a significant number of innings. But Karstens looks strong out of the gate. He’s throwing, as Newsday’s new beat reporter Kat O’Brien noted, with a purpose, and he seems comfortable in Big League camp. He doesn’t need to earn his teammates’ trust or the fans’ belief that he can be good. We saw him last year; we know that he can throw.
As Peter Abraham noted, all eyes will be on Kei Igawa this evening. If he can’t show some command and effectiveness today, the Yanks may consider long and hard giving Karstens a rotation spot. He’s certainly earned it.
If nothing else, Karstens is yet another reminder that the Yankees don’t need to and shouldn’t be spending obscene amounts of money on fringe pitchers. Their signing of Igawa was a knee-jerk reaction to the Matsuzaka bidding war, but they have an ample number of candidates to fill out that five slot in the rotation. I hope money and that so-called veteran presence that Joe Torre seems to favor doesn’t trump ability.
Based on cash considerations, the Yankees have invested a lot in Pavano and Igawa. Based on Spring Training performance – indeed an unreliable indicator – Karstens deserves that rotation spot.
Image of Jeff Karstens pitching during the 2006 season courtesy of MLB.com.
Manny being Manny being a Jewish wife
Not to harp on our enemies to north, but Paul Lukas has a gem of a piece up on his Uniwatch Blog today. Manny Ramirez has been spotted wearing a snood, the traditional headgear of Orthodox Jewish wives. And style experts in Boston don’t like it.
‘So, Ben, how am I doing today?’
Intrepid blogger Curt Schilling posted an interview today. With himself. That he conducted in the first person. We don’t even need to think to make fun of Curt’s blog.
What part of “shut up and play” doesn’t he understand?
As should be well-known by now (because this is one of those water cooler topics), Alex discussed opting out of his contract with Mike and the Mad Dog yesterday at Legends Field. Per Pete Abraham, Alex was the one who brought up the subject.
I’ve always tried to defend him, mainly because I thought the fans were being way too unreasonable. At this point, though, I’m ready to give up. If he’s going to say the things he said, he’d better put up the numbers to back it up. And until he does, there’s nothing else to talk about.
Can we put a gag on this guy?
Update: Ken Rosenthal has the same idea.
Trimming the fat
Via Pete Abraham, the following prospects were cut and sent across the street to minor league camp:
Eric Duncan: 1 for 10, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Brett Gardner: 1 for 9, 2 R, 0 XBH (surprised?), 1 RBI, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 SB
Alberto Gonzalez: 5 for 15, 1 R, 0 XBH, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
Juan Miranda: 2 for 5, 0 R, 0 XBH, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K – all or nothing baby, every out he made was a K…
Jose Tabata: 6 for 13, 4 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 3 K
Steven Jackson: 3.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 4 BB, 2 K
Jeff Kennard: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
Kevin Whelan: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K
Gotta love the numbers Tabata put up, but you do have to take them with a grain of salt: most of the games he played in were as a late inning replacement with young minor leaguers like himself on the mound. He wasn’t out there mashing against the Brad Lidges and Joe Nathans, heck even the Craig Hansens and Ryan Wagners of the world most of the time. Glad to see the hand isn’t an issue.
Phil Hughes will be hittin’ the bricks later today after throwing a bullpen session. I’m guessin the same is true of Mr. Clippard.
Bronson Sardinha (10 for 24, 4 R, 1 2B, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 0 BB, 2K) and Mighty Matt DeSalvo (6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 1 K) are the biggest prospects still with the big league club, not counting Hughes and Clippard.
Update: I overlooked Darrell Rasner (7.1 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K) and Jeff Karstens (5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K) as prospects still with the big boys. I forgot about them because of their ML experience, plus the fact that I just can’t see either in the minors for very long in 2007.