Back to Work

It's been 6 days since I last posted. Wow. That's a rarity. It seems that the occupation of fatherhood has kept me from the business of Yankees blogging. I suppose the lining in the silver cloud of non-posting has been the relative lack of news in Yankees Universe recently. Man, I can't wait until pitchers and catchers in less than a month.

I'm back to blogging today, and back to work tomorrow morning, so I'm hoping the productivity increases as the season draws nearer by the day. Today, I'll just recap some of the minor things in the news and in lightning style make a comment or two. Here we go:

1. The Braves scoop Gonzalez and Craig Wilson.

This is a double-whammy for Yankee fans, albeit a minor one. On the first roster move, I think the Yankees were better off for having kept Melky in pinstripes, although I never hated the trade that was being bounced around. Having Melky in the Bronx, or at least available for a larger trade down the road, is a good thing. On the second roster move, Craig Wilson never got a good shake in the Bronx and I wish he were the guy manning first next year. Mister Mxyzptlk may be a tough at bat to watch this year, and part of me hopes the Red Sox find a way to make him say his name backwards so he can return to whatever mid-90s netherworld dimension he left his glove in.

2. Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs are on different financial pages.

Zambrano wants Zito-esque money($18 million) to extend his contract with the Cubbies. Speculation is that if he doesn't get that before opening day, he will in fact test the free agent waters in the offseason. Anyone who reads here regularly will know that I'm a big Zambrano fan. I know he walks the ballpark sometimes and I know he's thrown way too many pitches at his age, but he's a very good ballplayer. This is the note from his Wikipedia entry describing his repertoire and propensity for walking batters:

"His pitches come out of a slinging, three-quarters to low three-quarters delivery. His main pitch is his hard, moving two-seam & four-seam fastball that clocks anywhere from 94-98 mph, but usually settling around 96 or 97 mph. Carlos has a heavy cannonball of a sinker that he likes to throw with a split grip. This pitch usually winds up getting beaten into the ground by the batter which is one reason Zambrano likes pitching at Chicago's Wrigley Field with its tall, thick grass. He always makes sure to mix in plenty of sharp-breaking sliders & splits to keep hitters from sitting on his fastball. He has also developed a change-up that he throws mostly to left-handed batters. His main weakness is a lack of pinpoint control, leading to a tendency to surrender walks. Nevertheless, Zambrano seems to be hurt less by giving up walks than most pitchers, due to the fact that batters hit many more ground balls than fly balls against him. This can be attributed to the sinking movement of his fastball. He rarely surrenders home runs (65 in his career) and often induces double plays."

His career ERA+ is 133 and he'll only be 26 this season. Zambrano is 23 innings short of qualifying for the "active leaderboard" in the ERA+ category, but should he be included, only Pedro, Clemens, Santana, Oswalt, Randy Johnson, and Greg Maddux would be above him, and Roy Halladay at 130 just below. Pedro, Clemens, Johnson, and Maddux are all way past their best days, so Zambrano ranks as one of 4 pitchers at this level (above 130), in his prime.

I hope he hits the open market, cause he'd look good in the Bronx. More on Zambrano as the season progresses.....

3. The rotation.

I'll wrap things here today, so I can continue with a stream of thoughts over the next few days. The rotation will be the main point of focus this season, with a lot of question marks, and probably a high degree of volatility from a fan perspective. Every shaky outing that the Yankees starters put out there will be met with a kind of "See, I told you so." angst that frankly annoys me. There are a lot of fans (probably the same group that boos A-Rod) that are looking for a reason to be pissed off at the Yanks. They are Yankee fans, to be sure, but they are pessimists at heart and actually need the stress to fuel them and redirect their personal trials and tribulations onto sports. I suppose that's okay. Whatever gets you through the night. Me, I'm excited about the prospect of seeing any number of our young prospects hit the Bronx this season. Clemens or no Clemens, I am more excited about Phil Hughes, Humberto Sanchez, and Ross Ohlendorf. Hughes is the future, without a doubt, but Sanchez also intrigues me. I found this YouTube clip from the 2006 Futures Game. He strikes out Stephen Drew on a nasty breaking pitch, gets Howie Kendrick to bounce out weakly, and strikes out Alex Gordon looking on the same big curve that got Drew to start the inning.



Who knows, maybe we don't need Zambrano in the end. In just a few short years maybe we trot out Hughes, Wang, Sanchez, Betances, and Joba Chamberlain every week. I would love that. See you tomorrow....