Kei Igawa's first major league start may have been even worse than the numbers indicate. And that's even with him giving up six earned runs on 11 hits in three innings plus four batters. The Tigers had just two (TWO!!) swings and misses against him in 64 pitches. That's brutal.
Yet, after the game, Igawa seemed to have no realization how badly he pitched. He said he wished he had gotten more strikeouts, and that the Tigers found holes with their ground balls. Really?? They launched shots to the outfield all game against him. Joe Girardi said Igawa only commanded his fastball for strikes. Igawa, though, said he thought his changeup was good and slider not too bad.
Hmmm, something's not translating.
Oh, and Jonathan Albaladejo is going on the disabled list. He's headed to New York in the morning to have an MRI on his right elbow.
Comments (31)
Brutal? Its not Brutal....it freakin HILARIOUS!
Yankee pitching is synonomous with comedy. Laughter at its best. The Yankees have the best lineup of young comedians in the world. Thas why the are a World Class Franchise....comedy franchise that is. And the YES network...I gues that stands for Yuks Every Start huh?
Boy that Kei Igawa was surely worth that +40 Million the genius in charge spent dont you think. You know...the same guy that didn't want to trade the guy they just shipped out to Siberia for a Cy Young winner because they didn't want to spend the money. How funny is that? Yeah give Igawa 42M because he has never pitched in the ML before....but the guy who is the top pitcher year after year....nah don't want to spend money on a guy like that!
Cant what to hear what Dumb and Dumber have to say. Oh and what about Tubby the Tuba getting rocked and crying in the dugout huh? Then he has to go back out and make some meaningless strikeout look like the Worls Series final out.
Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me!
See I get an out. Everyone celebrate with me. Pay attention to me. Forget about that loss I gave my team last night. Lokk at me tonight....Ima abig boy tonight.
Now thats comedy at its best. Put a freakin diaper on that dough boy already!
Hey how many wins do the three Phenoms have this year?
Did I hear that right? only One? With how many losses?
I can hear Stank now.....
Oh my god......quick bring up Horne, ah Brackman.....ah...ah...ah Sanchez...ah who the heck are the other worthless guys we've been hyping....I dont care bring them all up. The fans are catching on to our scam!!!
So, tell me again. Where am I wrong?
Hey it seems all the FAT guys are going on the DL. Do they give free food there or something?
Maybe they think it stands for Dessert Line!
Kat,
The question is, what made the front office think this guys was worthy of another shot when he obviously has nothing to show. Then those after game comments. Im starting to see a pattern of imaturity with all these young pitchers they are bringing in. They all seem to have a fragile psyche or something.
Yankees made a decision based on money once again and gave Igawa Stephen White's start and crapped away a game. Mail Igawa back to Japan already -- or just give him away to an NL team. He's worthless. He thought he changeup was good? Seriously? I don't think he threw one all night that didn't float above the batter's head.
Say Hey, are you an angry Yankee fan or a Red Sox troll? I can't tell. If you're the latter, maybe you're just upset about the way Papelbon is pitching lately. His tamper tantrum was very, very mature compared to Joba's sulking. But at least Joba came back with that meaningless strikeout -- Paplebon's comeback was another horrid outing, blowing a game.
As for the "Phantom Three" -- one's the setup man, one's hurt, and one's about to come back up to the bigs sometime soon. I'm sure in a month or two you'll be gagging on their genitalia.
that was brutal. he stinks and thats that!!!!!!!!!!!!
Baileywalk,
Take off the rose colored glasses. I doubt if we will see Hughes and Kennedy do anything meaningful this year. Why the hell cant the Yanks do things the normal way? Let a guy spend a full year at AAA to develop not only his pitches but his maturity. They rush these guys through to cover for the Igawa errors and they are not ready. So they either stink or get hurt. I am tired of it. How about keeping hush hush about our guys until they prove something more than good numbers at AA ball and 2 starts at AAA.
What other organization is the focus of youthful failure more than the Yanks. Reminds me of the Mets Generation K. All hype with little return. Thats the road we are now on.....can we get off it already.
Igawa and Betemit: perfect together.
They should definitely pitch and play third base for the same team. Just not this one.
Remind me again who decides who to bring up to the big club?
igawa...
granted, i haven't been following baseball as long as some of y'all (around 15 years), but i HAVE NEVER seen a worse pitcher than this idiot getting constantly called up 2 years in a a row.
i mean, if this is the best our farm system can send up there then cashman should resign immidiately. it was complete BP last night, they were smacking him around, luckily some balls were actually caught, although as mr. igawa said: "a few ground balls that just found holes...", yep, idiot - holes in the outfield fence...
i find it hard to understand how cashman gets so much credit, yet for several years in a row now, the yanks have the EXACT same defeciencies:
1) short rotation with question marks around no. 4 + 5
(and tell me everyone has a soft rotation down there - the sox have been solid using their 5+6 pitchers, the angels lead their division without their 1+2!! pitchers, and we can't find anyone???)
2) no lefty in the bullpen. this is really ridicolous, cashman's inability to find someone for that spot. granted, while he was busy posting for igawa (a decision that on its own would cost many a GMs their job), the sox got okajima.
3) overhyped prospects. clippard, wright, desalvo, rasner, karstens et al have already shown their worth. kennedy is on the cusp, hopefully his remarks do not indicate a character flaw, hughes looks to be harden without the killer stuff. prospects are there not only to graduate but also to facilitate trades. sabathia, tex, blanton, maybe oswalt, all may become available. get some of them over here!
Dessert Line....now thats funny at least.
Did I actually hear Michael Kay last night talking about the positive aspect of Albaladejos injury....saying well at least its an elbow since nobody worries about elbow injuries because now people come back from elbow surgery like nothing was wrong?
Boy now THAT is wearing rose colored glasses. But Kay is about the biggest idiot in a broadcast both around these days so what else can you expect.
Gil,
Your preaching to the choir on Cashman. I have been pointing out how this guy has been about the worst GM in baseball for years yet he somehow gets a pass on everything. Not to worry though....I think the Santana debacle will be his undoing. As Chip has pointed out....Cashmans fate lies in the hands of the kid pitchers. Right now that fate is looking mighty bleak!
I think I called it over a year ago on Igawa? He SUCKS and is a waste of body heat and $46 million. Nice to see all of you Lilly hating, Igawa lovers come on board NOW though.
Rick,
Try not to make yourself completely ridiculous in your desire to gloat.
Nobody here was an Igawa lover.
Nobody here wastes energy hating a nonentity like Lilly; indifference is about as much as anybody can muster.
And the two are and always have been completely unrelated.
Your good points would be a lot easier to see if you didn't have such a passionate need to make somebody -- anybody -- look bad.
Doesn't Lilly have 3 more wins than Kennedy Igawa and Hughes combined this year?
The decision to sign Igawa went beyond talent, it went as part of marketing and relations with the Japanese with the hope that he would perform well. He's underperformed the Yankee expectations, but there was more to it than just let's sign Igawa over Lilly. I didn't support either, but that's another conversation.
As far as the Red Sox finding Okajima, they got really lucky there. They had low to no expectations for him and more or less brought him on to help make Dice K feel more comfortable. He just turned out to be a diamond in the rough.
As far as Igawa being the best the team has, no, that's not the case, but you have to look at it from a 40 man roster perspective. The Yanks decided that they had to give him a shot with the big club this year before shuffling the 40 man. Now that he's imploded, I wouldn't be surprised if his next start went to Chase Wright. I know, Chase is only pitching at AA, but Chase is on the 40 man and Chase pitched 7 strong innings for Trenton last night, not giving up an earned run. When you consider that IPK is pitching on Sunday and wouldn't be ready for the next start slotted for Igawa on Wednesday. Girardi has said Igawa will get that start, but he still has time to change his mind and swap in Chase Wright. Chase is by no means a savior, but I'd rather see him out there than Igawa.
'm not disagreeing with anyone, just pointing out that the Yanks would have to juggle the roster a bit to give someone like Steven White a start. He's deserving though and each time the Yanks promote someone else and he feels slighted (IPK last year and Igawa this year), he goes out and throws a gem for SWB. With IPK last year, White actually had the better numbers at SWB.
With all the shuffling of pitchers between SWB and the Yanks, the SWB Yanks started Heath Phillips again last night for another spot start. He didn't fair well, but the relief pitchers came on strong starting with Steven Jackson, going 3.1 only giving up 1 run and striking out 3. Patterson came in as the closer pitching 1.1 and striking out 3. Garnder was 0/3 in the game, but walked twice and stole 2.
McAllister had a terrible outing last night showing why I don't think the Yanks will rush him along this year. He pitched 3, gave up 11 hits, 2 walks, and 8 runs.
Di: My point about White and not being very talkative is that a player who is hiding from fans by putting his hood up on his hoodie at a minor league game is probably not going to respond well to the media and pressures of pitching in NY for the Yankees. I've never discounted his performance, but it doesn't mean I have to like him. There are some players that I just don't like. I still hope they do well for the Yanks, but I don't like them.
Happy news, Cano is 7/19 and batting .308 in the month of May.
Poor Chris Britton. He was optioned to make room for Igawa and flew out to meet up with the SWB team. Pretty much, he landed and found out that he was recalled to replace the injured Albajedo. Right back on a plane for him.
Early reports say Albalejedo may be out the remainder of the season...hope that MRI shows something more encouraging.
Diane
Just having me a little fun. ;-)
P.S. There were Igawa lovers. Please don't make me go back through the archives and copy them here?
Nudge
Yes, I think your numbers are correct or factual! And, I believe Lilly had about 12-13 more wins last year than Igawa.
HYD,
as usual, thanks for the insightful analysis!
i admit, when i lash out i don't always consider all the facts such as the 40 men roster etc...
having said that, and you being such an expert on the minors, do we have a real STUD grooming down there? i feel we have a lot of potential no. 4s and 5s who could be serviceable if all works out.
it's obvious we don't have another david price (unbe-friggin-lievable) or krenshaw, but it seems like we don't even have someone like masterson. right or wrong?
Today's lineup on Pete Abe's blog shows Betemit at 3b again.
Did Ensberg die?
I cannot remember the ins and outs of the Lilly Free Agency and the Yankees non response. But I can recall watching Igawa on You Tube if thats correct. Every pitch that he through was up in the zone in Japan. Now after one year of American refinement he's still throwing up in the zone and making every Yankee fan throwup when he pitches. I was against the signing then and I'm against him taking the place of someone else but unfortunately, everytime we parade him out to the mound. His value goes down.
He must be worth two players in Florida high A ball from the any team playing in the state.
Betemint looked bad at third but he would probably get a card from the Mexican Matador Union in a heartbeat. Boy, this team is seeking new lowes everyday. Hopefully we can get a few wins and Arod will be back. If arod and Posada have set backs. This team could be history. I know its early but some disturbing play by guys filling in makes me concerned.
LOL, Larry --
Igawa throws up and we throw up.
Yankees took a chance on Igawa and it didn't work out. Doesn't mean they were wrong to try.
I will always applaud a team taking a chance on an unknown rather than running to embrace mediocridy (ie Ted Lilly).
On another note - Good to see the Marlins finally spending some of those revenue sharing dollars - they just locked up Hanley Ramirez for 6 years $70 million.
Gil: The thing about our system is that we have a LOT of high ceiling pitchers. That's been our drafting style. When you look at someone like Betances, he has electric stuff, but erratic control. If he can tame his control, he could really turn the corner and be a monster. He's young and until recently was still growing, so it was throwing off his mechanics. He's only in low A now, so he's not close to joining the team,b ut he does have great stuff.
Brackman, while on the 60 day DL rehabbing from TJ surgery, is another high ceiling guy that is expected to make an impact sooner, which is why he's on the 40 man roster and was signed to a ML contract after being drafted. If he recovers well from TJ, we could see him have an impact in late 2009 or 2010 (I say 2009 because Yahoo is reporting he may impact the 2009 starting rotation, so I'm assuming they know more about his progress with rehab than I currently do).
As far as guys closer to the big league club, this is the list:
Horne - a former first round pick, he was drafted 3 times, the Yanks got him in the 11th round and the only reason he didn't go back to college for a 5th year was because the Yanks gave him 3rd round money. He had surgery while in college, so that slowed him down a bit and he's on the DL now, but he throws heat and was the Eastern League pitcher of the year last year.
Marquez - he's kind of like Wang Jr. with a hard sinker and he's starting to pitch well this year after a slow start. He's not a front line guy even at his ceiling, but he could be productive in the majors.
White - He puts up the numbers, but his maturity has been questioned and he's not really "seasoned", which is why I think the Yanks have consistenly shyed away from giving him a promotion/spot start.
Wright - With this Yankee club, he's probably destined to become a lefty reliever, but may warrant a spot start again as I mentioned earlier.
McCutchen - Here's a guy who really shouldn't be in AA. He should be pitching at AAA, but it's just too crowded there He doesn't have "dominant stuff", but he can dominant a line up the way that Wang does. There were some who talked about him going to the bullpen, but for him, it really doesn't make sense. He lacks a killer "out" pitch, but does throw 4 pitches and consistenly goes 6/7 innings.
The others who will probably at best be long men:
Karstens - should be back from the DL soon...he's on the 40 man, so he could get spot starts
Giese - he's been pitching great for SWB as a starter since Horne got hurt (ERA 1.38), but inspite of that, there has still been talks of sending him back to the bullpen to make room for McCutchen. That to me says that Giese could have a shot at being the long man for the Yanks in the near future, especially since bullpen arms just keep getting hurt.
We have other good arms, but none that we can expect to make an impact any time soon. The hard thing for the Yanks has been where they draft. They get the guys that are hard to sign or have a known flaw that will probably keep them from reaching their otherwise high ceiling. One thing that has benefitted the Red Sox was letting some of their FAs sign elsewhere and collecting those picks, plus a year outside of the playoffs. The Yanks on the other hand, generally sign FAs and lose picks. I find too often that the same people that complain that we don't have good prospects are the same people that love for us to sign FAs, which then hurts our ability to draft the higher quality prospects.
Now Gil, I'm going to correct a common mistake on your third point:
"3) overhyped prospects. clippard, wright, desalvo, rasner, karstens et al have already shown their worth. kennedy is on the cusp,"
All of the guys you listed there before Kennedy were not overhyped, they were just the guys we had that were physically ready to pitchin a ML game. No one should have claimed they were going to be future locks in the rotation, just guys that were putting up good numbers in the minors (AA for Clippard, Wright, and DeSalvo) and because of the rash of injuries the Yanks suffered, these guys were thrown into the fire long before they were ready. Anyone that was over hyping these guys didn't know anything about them aside from the stat line they read and that the Yanks were pitching them in the major leagues, so a bunch of people started making false assumptions. Those guys were the end of the old Yankee way, when they didn't care as much about player development as they do now. The lower ranks of the system had more talent, but the lower ranks aren't ready to contribute anything to the ML club. You can't call Kennedy on the cusp of being overhyped. He dominated the minors last year everywhere he went, but he was also rushed through the system, so he didn't get the ideal development along the way, as a pitcher and as a professional. Give the kid a chance and I'm pretty sure you'll be happy with the long term return.
Small observation on worthless pitcher:
Did anyone else notice that the discrepancy between Igawa's lower body and his upper body seems to have decreased?
Maybe I was hallucinating, but it seemed to me that before he had a highly developed lower body and the upper body of a ten year old, making him look almost deformed out there.
Probably not even worth making the observation since I hope never to see him on the mound in our uni again...
HYD,
thanks for the comments, great reading as usual.
i still don't know why cashman drafts and trades for guys with TJ injuries (sanchez, brackman), but whatever. let's hope some of the high ceiling guys you mentioned actually make it there.
Moeller catching again today. Hope NOT to see him in urgent conference between innings with Girardi and Eiland like yesterday, when they looked like they were deciding which one would dial 911.