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Sleeper Candidate for the Yankees Starting Rotation


By Mike Silva ~ January 24th, 2011. Filed under: Mike Silva, New York Yankees.

Last night on 1240 AM WGBB, NYBD contributor Joe Delgrippo and I talked Yankees baseball during the last 30 minutes of the show.

We chatted about the Brian Cashman/Steinbrenner feud, the Andrew Jones signing, and Tampa’s recent acquisition of Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon. Joe also brought up a sleeper candidate for the starting rotation that no one is talking about.

If there was a minor leaguer with the following numbers, would you want him competing for the fifth spot in the rotation?

Year Lev W L ERA G GS CG SHO IP H ER HR BB SO WHIP BB/9 SO/9
2007 AAA-A+ 6 5 3.49 13 13 0 0 77.1 75 30 10 18 77 1.203 2.1 9.0
2007 A+ 1 1 2.00 2 2 0 0 9.0 7 2 0 3 6 1.111 3.0 6.0
2007 AAA 5 4 3.69 11 11 0 0 68.1 68 28 10 15 71 1.215 2.0 9.4
2008 AAA 14 6 3.45 26 24 2 0 156.1 141 60 15 45 117 1.190 2.6 6.7
2009 AAA 10 8 4.15 26 26 1 0 145.1 165 67 21 40 105 1.411 2.5 6.5
2010 AAA 3 4 4.32 22 10 0 0 77.0 81 37 9 23 68 1.351 2.7 7.9
4 Seasons 33 23 3.83 87 73 3 0 456.0 462 194 55 126 367 1.289 2.5 7.2
AAA (4 seasons) 32 22 3.87 85 71 3 0 447.0 455 192 55 123 361 1.293 2.5 7.3
A+ (1 season) 1 1 2.00 2 2 0 0 9.0 7 2 0 3 6 1.111 3.0 6.0
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/24/2011.

That player would be Kei Igawa, who is on the final year of a 5 year/$20 million dollar deal.

Joe believes that Igawa has never been given a credible shot with the Yankees. He’s watched Igawa at bit, and believes his changeup is good enough to make him a decent backend of the rotation starter. Of course, Igawa is in the Yankees dog house and the likelihood of this happening is slim. When the other options are the oft injured Mark Prior or journeyman Sergio Mitre, what do they have to lose?

In four years with the Yankees, Igawa has made only 12 starts and hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2008. His strikeout rate was decent in 2007 (7.0), but he hasn’t enjoyed the same command in the big leagues as in Triple-A (4.9 walks per nine). If he could get his walks down to his minor league levels (2.5), he might have a shot at sticking. You are paying him $4 million dollars this year so why not give him a shot to earn that money?

This, of course, is assuming that Andy Pettitte is not coming back, which is still very much a mystery.

To hear Joe talk about Igawa download the replay and fast forward to the 41 minute mark. To hear the entire Yankees segment, fast forward to the 30 minute mark.

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com
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6 Responses to Sleeper Candidate for the Yankees Starting Rotation

  1. Paul Catalano
    January 24th, 2011 at 11:38 am

    Just don’t see it. I think, if the Yankees chip in some money, he might be a trade deadline chip for a National League team who are desperate. If the Yankee chip in say, 2 mill, maybe a NL team would go for it.

  2. CAYANKSFAN
    January 24th, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    No, No, No, No!!!!

  3. Pinstripes7
    January 25th, 2011 at 7:21 am

    I have a better idea, give Igawa his $4,000,000 and a bus ticket.

  4. Russ
    January 25th, 2011 at 8:06 pm

    Did anyone hear Francessa on the breakfast with Cashman? He started talking about all the pitching prospects in the system and couldn’t even pronounce either Benuelos or Betances names. How does the supposed #1 sports guy in the NY media not know the names of the Yankees top 2 pitching prospects? It’s even worse since he’s a Yankee fan. It was a total embarrassment, like he had never even heard of them before today.

    It sounded like he was being possessed by the ghost of Mad Dog Russo.

  5. Mike Silva
    January 25th, 2011 at 8:41 pm

    Russ

    Were you at the breakfast?

  6. Russ
    January 25th, 2011 at 11:02 pm

    No, he opened the show talking about the highlights of the Q&A.

    He could not say either kid’s name as in he was sounding them out like he never heard of them before. It was a jaw dropping radio moment.

    Then he talked about how Cashman said that all 10 SPs at AAA & AA are legit prospects and no filler followed by his repeating that 3 times in short order.

    His deal with the rapid fire repeating of comments is just so bad. It’s a total crutch but he pretends he’s doing it to make you pay attention, pay attention because he just put forth some important bit of wisdom, bit of wisdom, bit of wisdom.

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