iris Is Wise; Pitching . . . Bench . . .

No Writer's Strike Here!

I was away from the PC . . . when I came back, iris had left Me the following instant messages:

--Not sure if you saw this, but
--Jose Vizcaino has a bad elbow, is getting an MRI on it
--The image on the MRI is going to show Joe Torre waving for the bullpen

I love that girl . . .


And another from the iris file . . .

We were watching a game last Sunday and Jason Lane was playing. "Who's this guy?" iris said. I didn't know -- teams always have 157 guys at spring training. I looked him up and saw that Jason Lane is not a high average hitter. OK, must have some power. Hmmm . . . nope. All righty then, he's got speed! Checking . . . checking . . . nope, no speed. As I'm checking all this, Lane makes a throw in from the outfield to home plate. Not in time. Hm, so let's get this straight:

--No average
--No power
--No speed
--No arm

Wow! The very rare zero-tool player!

Problem is, Lane is going nuts during this game. In the space of half an hour or so he hits a home run and a triple.

At that moment iris nails it.

"i know who he is . . . he's this year's Josh Phelps!"

And it dawns on Me.

Yep. Josh Phelps . . . the guy who comes to spring training, hits the tar out of the ball, and makes the team over better players who unfortunately didn't have as good a spring. Of course once the season starts he totally sucks, thus messing up the bench for half a season.

Thankfully Lane has cooled off some. Morgan Ensberg, however, might still turn out to be this year's Josh Phelps.


Speaking of the Bench . . .

According to John Sterling on the Yankees' radiocast today, the Yankees for some ridiculous reason are going to carry twelve pitchers. To Me that shows a total lack of trust in the bullpen, but OK, they don't have too many off-days in April, so twelve pitchers it is.

That leaves 13 position players. So let's see . . .

Damon Melky Abreu across the outfield. Matsui DH. Giambi, Cano Jeter, A-Rod, Posada, Molina. That's ten.

Benemit. Duncan. And . . . ?

According to Suzyn Waldman, the decision on that 13th guy depends on how well Benemit can play shortstop. If Benemit can play SS acceptably, then most likely lucky #13 will be an outfielder (Jason "Zero Tool" Lane, anyone?). If not, then that thirteenth position player will have to be someone who can handle SS. (Alberto Gonzalez?)

To me that doesn't make so much sense, since we already have two guys, Matsui and Duncan, who can play the outfield. I think the 25th guy should be a speed/bunter/pinch-runner type who can fill in at SS if need be. I don't fancy the pinch-running stylings of Duncan, Benemit, or Gonzalez.


I can't stop thinking about it. Twelve Pitchers?

Sorry, but I need to work out this twelve pitchers thing. Do we even have twelve pitchers we really want to keep around?

Pettite, Mussina, Wang, Hughes, Kennedy.

Mariano, Joba, Farnsworth, Hawkins. There's nine.

Karstens is the long man? Ten.

So, pick any two:

Bruney, Britton, Ramirez, Henn, Ohlendorf, Veras, Albaladejo, Igawa, Chase Wright (note that if you don't pick Wright or Igawa or Henn there's no lefty in the pen, if that matters to you)

From that list I like Britton and Ohlendorf. Now that Torre is gone perhaps Britton will get a semblance of a legit shot at showing what he can do. To carry eleven pitchers, I pick between Britton and Ohlendorf, based on the spring.

The real issue is the existence of Farnsworth and Hawkins on this roster. Without these two dead weights, you could have Britton and Ohlendorf and a lefty and you have eleven pitchers instead of a bloated twelve.


Center Field Update.

Melky was 1-2 today, raising his average this spring to .417. The combined average of all the other center fielders is about .062. End of update.