Yankees have hurt Wang

Don't you just love the title? It's a double entendre! I swear, even though I'm trying to become a serious published writer, there was NO WAY I was passing up the opportunity to get that comedic title in there. But, with that out of the way, now it's time to get down to the business at hand. A lot has happened in sports since the last I posted. Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, Billy Mays and Steve McNair have all passed away (stay tuned for a Steve Mcnair post later this week), the Yankees have surged their way back up the standings and currently sit 1 game behind Boston and oh yeah, I'm now a published writer! (more on that a little later as well).

The Yankees are currently auditioning for the role of a new 5th starter, with the latest injury to the oft-maligned Chien-Ming Wang. I don't want to say that he's injury prone, but, in his 5 year major league career, he's found himself on the disabled list multiple times with various injuries (shoulder, hamstring, foot, hip and now shoulder again) in 4 seasons. If that isn't "injury prone", I don't really know what is. Now, I'm not voting him to the starting rotation of the "Carl Pavano All-Stars" (People who find themselves on the DL more than they find themselves on the field), but he's slowly creeping up to that status.

It is a shame though, because Wang was FINALLY starting to string together some decent to moderately good outings. In his last 4 starts, Wang was starting to show glimpses of his former self inducing groundballs and keeping his team competitive, going 20.2 innings and lowering his ERA from 13.92, to a more respectable (And better than Oliver Perez!!!!!) 9.64 ERA. Is it great? Hell no. Is it the worst on the team? Hell yes. Was he pitching like the back of his baseball card says? Actually, almost.

The question that remains to be answered, is where do we go from here? Who is going to step in and fill the spot in the rotation that the two-time 19 game winner has left open now? Phil Hughes? Not a chance. He's in the bull pen for the foreseeable future. If, for some reason, a CC Sabathia or an A.J. Burnett were somehow injured and had to miss a significant portion of time, then you'd see Hughes stretched out and put back into the rotation. But, we're not trying to replace our ace, we're trying to replace a pitcher with a 1 - 6 record and an ERA more bloated than John Kruk's waistline.

That being said, I've listened to all of the interviews the Yankees coaching staff and front office have given and I've looked at all the stats of our minor league affiliates and I've come up with 3 candidates who I think would make the logical choice to fill in as a spot starter until Wang returns in a few weeks.

The first candidate standing in at 6'3 and weighing 225lbs, his scouting report boasts him as having a nice sinking fastball and the ability to throw his curveball and changeup for strikes, but left handers give him trouble at the major league level and he projects to be a 5th starter or middle reliever at best (which is what we need from him anyway), hailing from Los Angeles, California, he is....SERGIO MITRE! (any idea who that is?)

(really? No clue still?).....Well, Mitre is a former 7th round selection of the Chicago Cubs and has posted a career record of 10 - 23 with a 5.36 ERA. Obviously he's not going to light up the stat sheets with 0's, but maybe the Yankees can catch lightning in a bottle (a la Aaron Small) and get a few useful starts out of him. He's 3 weeks removed from his off-season 50 game steroid suspension and nearly 12 months removed from Tommy John Surgery. He's made 5 starts at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre for the Yankees and has posted a 2 - 1 record with a 3.26 era in 30.1 innings of work. He's allowed less than a hit per inning and has shown impeccable control allowing only 3 walks. Obviously since he's less than a year removed from major reconstructive elbow surgery (normal rehabilitation time is 12 to 18 months) the odds of Mitre helping the Yankees in the long-term boasts to be more possible (since the Yankees have him under contract for 2010 as well) than he does in the interim. But, given how well he's performed over the past month since being activated, might as well give him a little taste of the Bronx this season and have him come out for spring training next year poised to make the team. Could he be our starter on Thursday? I'd put the odds at 60/40.

Our next candidate stands 6'1 and weighs in at a respectable 210lbs, he is the three-time Central League strikeout champion, three-time all-star, a former MVP and Eiji Sawamura Award winner, hailing from Oarai, Japan, he is...Kei Igawa!!! (really...I'm not kidding....I swear to God he's still being paid by us).

Hear me out on this one, I'm not choking, I'm not trying to pull a fast one over you. I realize the Yankees paid $26 million for the right to negotiate that 5 year $20 million contract with the Yankees almost 2 and a half years ago (actually 2 and a half years to the day now that I've checked) and he's only posted a 2 - 4 record with a 6.66 ERA during his always brief call-ups to the Bronx, but, for the past two seasons at Scranton, he has shown on a consistent basis he can get hitters out. He has without question been the most accomplished pitcher of the International League over the course of the last 18 months.

Is that something to be proud of? Well, not really. But, it's a start. There's going to be a time that the Yankees will need to see if they can muster any form of success out of Igawa. I know they've tried him for brief periods in 2007 and a little bit last season as well, only to have it blow up in their face as a colossal failure. But, I have a feeling this time would be different. Is he going to be the MVP caliber pitcher he was in Japan? Let's put it this way, there's a better chance of Michael Jackson moon-walking into my bedroom right now than Igawa has of being THAT good. (was that Michael Jackson joke too soon? Who cares, I liked it). But, I certainly think he can be serviceable and give the Yankees what they need; a body who can throw strikes and eat innings. This season at Scranton, Igawa has posted a record of 6 - 3 with a very respectable 3.80 ERA in 85 innings. He has shown incredible control boasting nearly a 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio and has shown the ability to challenge hitters on a consistent basis, which is something the Yankees are desperately lacking. Is Igawa the answer? Maybe. I'd hinge my bets and put the odds at 70 / 30 that you WON'T be seeing Igawa tow the rubber for the Yankees any time soon.

Our last candidate steps in weighing 218lbs and stands at 6'3. Boasting a career record of 6 - 1 with a 2.19 ERA, hailing from San Luis Rio Colorado (I swear did they just combine St. Louis, Rio and Colorado into one town?) Mexico, he is; ALFREDO "ACE" ACEVES!!! Ta da, here's your most likely candidate to start on Thursday. Arguably one of the best relievers the Yankees have today not named Rivera or Hughes, Aceves is the most likely candidate to get the nod on Thursday afternoon in Minnesota. He's been a starter his entire career, including 7 spot starts with the Yankees last season (including his first career win and start last August against the Angels where he allowed 1 run in 7 innings).

Out of sheer necessity the Yankees were forced to use Aceves out of the bullpen, first in a long relief/mop up role, where after continued success he found himself thrust into the role of being an effective middle reliever. It was only a mere 48 hours ago that Aceves found himself earning his first career save pitching 4 innings of 1 hit ball to preserve a 10 - 8 Yankees win over the Toronto Blue Jays. In essence, Aceves is the 2009 version of Ramiro Mendoza. He doesn't have incredibly over-powering stuff, but throw strikes, attacks the zone and has a strong presence on the mound, much like Ramiro Mendoza did for the Yankees in the late 90's. The only pitfall to starting Aceves is that you'd have to take him out of the bullpen for the short-term, which would create a caveat of sorts, since he's one of our few reliable relievers now that Brian Bruney forgot what the strike zone was. Also, because Aceves has pitched so often in relief for the Yankees, he won't be able to provide the length that Mitre or Igawa would, seeing as though Aceves hasn't thrown more than 50 pitches since his season debut this year on May 4th (where he threw 70 pitches in 4.1 innings against Boston). So, the Yankees would be incredibly hard pressed to throw Aceves more than 60 pitches since he would tire quickly after that point. Despite that, I'd say it's an 85/15 chance that you WILL see Aceves getting the start on Thursday afternoon.

Do I think that is the right decision should the Yankees go that route? No, I don't. I happen to think you shouldn't mess with what works. Right now, the Yankees bullpen of Aceves, Coke and Hughes serving as the bridge to Mariano Rivera is working beautifully. Everybody is pitching tremendous and they all know the roles they serve. Coke is the reliable lefty out of the pen (a modern day Mike Stanton if you will), Hughes is the righty with the nasty hook (a more electric Jeff Nelson without the fake to third, throw to first move) and Aceves is the effective middle reliever who can go 2 or 3 innings at a time when the starter fails to go past the 5th inning (a new and improved Ramiro Mendoza). Will this bullpen chain of command continue to work for the rest of the season? Only time will tell that, but why would you mess with what works? Sure, Aceves could step in on Thursday and toss 6 innings of 1 hit ball, but, he could also let up 5 runs in 3 innings and completely deflate all of the confidence he has built up in his relief outings. Why would the Yankees want to mess with what's working right now?

In my opinion, the Yankees would be best suited to throw out Mitre or Igawa (my preference would be Igawa, because you have to find out if you can recoup some of that investment one of these days) on Thursday, because you're not trying to replace CC Sabathia. We're just looking for a stop gap to a 1 - 6 pitcher. You could throw me out there for God sake's and get the same mixed results the Yankees are just hoping to get from that spot in the rotation. Let the rehabbing Mitre or the Ghost of Kei Igawa get the start, leave Aceves in the pen to clean up their mess and don't screw with what got you back to being the hottest team in baseball the last 3 weeks.

There you have it. Three candidates the Yankees can replace Chien-Ming Wang with over the next month or so until he returns. I think Mitre, Igawa or Aceves are all more than capable of getting the job done, but I'd very much like to see Mitre get some more innings under his belt at Scranton as he rehabs from his injury, Aceves stay in the bullpen where he's most valuable to our success and Kei Igawa get the long awaited call to the Bronx Bombers. Will the Yankees do that? Probably not. You'll probably be seeing Ace on Thursday, but whether it works or not, I'll still be pining for Kei Igawa to re-emerge in the Bronx sometime soon. Hopefully in the past year we haven't seen him he's gotten his over-bite fixed by an Orthodontist.

Well, before I get to my signature sign off, let me just say it's always a pleasure to rant and know that the true few who read this blog actually enjoy what they read (or at least lie to me and say they do). And in my quest to attain a level of notoriety for my rants, I've gotten the opportunity to publish articles on E-Sports .com, a world-wide sports writing website. It's not Sports Illustrated or ESPN just yet, but it's baby steps. Let's consider it the minor leagues as I continue to wait for my call up to the big club.

Despite all that, don't think I'll be forgetting about my faithful blog followers. Even though I'll be continuing with Grad school, searching for a job and posting weekly on E-sports, don't think I'll be going on another long-term hiatus from Ramey Rants. In fact, I plan on posting a lot more, because frankly, I have a lot more complaining to do. So, be on the look out for blogs galore. And now you can even find me on twitter at twitter.com/rameyrants. And as I said, expect to find new posts almost daily here and don't forget to check me out on E-Sports .com (I'll be posting different stories there that you won't be seeing here...hey, I'm trying to start a career, I've gotta get a good rating on there so I can be a featured columnist).

With that, as always, until next time...