1. CC Sabathia
2. AJ Burnett
3. Andy Pettitte
4. Javier Vazquez
5. Phil Hughes
6. Sergio Mitre o_O
7. Your guess is as good as mine but mostly people you really don’t want to think about.

If Mitre is in the pen as the long-man, that puts him at #6. Chad Gaudin was unconditionally released for what seem to be financial reasons. Joba Chamberlain and Alfredo Aceves will then be in mostly one-inning roles that means they can’t just jump out and start when AJ Burnett finally has that injury we were waiting for all last year.

In perfect world land, I’d have the depth chart look something like this:

1. CC Sabathia
2. AJ Burnett
3. Andy Pettitte
4. Javier Vazquez
5. Phil Hughes
6. Joba Chamberlain
7. Sergio Mitre
8. Alfredo Aceves

Aceves is sort of a dream here, and he’d be limited in his first time out but when you reach 8th on the depth chart that is extreme emergency territory.

The important difference is Joba Chamberlain at #6. He really should be sixth on the depth chart because there’s no way you can get me drunk enough to believe that Mitre is a better option. Plus, in the future we want Joba to live up to as much of his potential in the starting rotation as possible. To be blunt: He should spend as much of his last option year in AAA as needed to continue working on the two pitches he often neglects (change and curveball) and be available to the team in the event of an injury to one of the old overworked guys in the rotation.

I don’t think that Joba should be slotted into the 8th inning role for a couple of reasons. Firstly, because I think it’s important for them to not take a step backwards in his plan after last year and secondly because I’m not sure if he’s actually a better choice than the David Robertson/Damaso Marte tandem at this point in time.

I also believe that it’s time for the team to bring Mark Melancon up to the Bronx and let him pitch his way into or out of a Major League job for real. Like Robertson he has the stuff you need to be an above average relief pitcher in MLB and just needs to be given an opportunity to go out and do it already.

I’m sure this is all a dream though, and when I wake up Joba Chamberlain will be in the MLB bullpen. After all, Joe Giardi has already announced that Joba’s next appearance will be Saturday for one inning which offers some insight that makes me a lot sad.

Ultimately this is all about the Yankees and their need to win, now and always to uphold their brand and sell tickets at outrageous prices. Hopefully they have some better alternatives planned out to try and develop all of their young arms for MLB that we, the general public, do not know about.

Last year he rose quickly through the minor leagues, as you expect a 25 year old mostly polished guy to do. You may remember he even came up and made two starts for the Yankees at the end of the year to relieve of us the agony of Darrell Rasner or Sidney Ponson or someone similar starting. In any case, through four levels of professional baseball in the US, he put up these numbers:

Not mind blowing, but pretty solid. Again, those numbers at A+ and AA just show how advanced he was compared to the rest of the league, which you hope for given his amount of polish and lack of upside.

After his 2008 season, Baseball America ranked him as the #7 prospect in the Yankees system (probably due to that polish and of course his proximity to the majors). They note that none of his four pitches grade as a plus but all of them are pretty good and because of this conclude that he needs a solid defense behind him. Their end note:

Aceves resembles Yankees 2006 first-rounder Ian Kennedy but features more command, pitchability and experience. He has a leg up on Kennedy and Phil Hughes for a rotation spot in New York in 2009.

This was, of course, written before the Yankees went out and signed AJ Burnett and CC Sabathia and brought back Pettitte but their scouting on him is pretty spot on. Their conclusion is faulty in that I don’t think the Yankees ever really considered Aceves as a serious contender for a rotation spot. Yes, he has solid pitches and very good command but they were looking for more than the average he could provide there.

So he started off the season at Scranton and was recalled for long relief in May. Since then, as anyone who watches knows, he has been doing very well. Why? Well, I am not going to pretend to give an in-depth Pitch F/X analysis or anything here but I think there are some of the more important factors:

1. He throws strikes. Lots of them. Getting ahead of a hitter quickly puts even the best batters in a bind if you just pound the zone. If your stuff is good, like Aceves’, it will very often work in your favor.
2. Even in relief, he uses all four of his pitches. Most relief pitchers really only have two: a fastball and something else. If their out pitch isn’t working, it’s hard to go to something else. Aceves doesn’t fit the prototype of a hard-throwing reliever, but that’s not always necessary if you can keep the batter on their toes. Especially if you are only seeing them once in a game.
3. Since moving into a relief role with the team, he has a K/BB ratio of 4.14. Even though he doesn’t come in and strike out the side, he doesn’t give runners many free passes (his BB/9 stands at 1.75) which always helps prevent runs from crossing the plate.
4. Although his peripherals have been good, he has been getting a little lucky. His BABIP is currently .249 and he is leaving 90% of runners on base. His FIP stands at a bit below 4 right now, which means he’s still pitching well enough but perhaps a little over his head. At some point, that 90% LOB% is going to drop though and he’s going to look human. It happens.

I really do think that Aceves will continue to be successful in a relief role with the Yankees. While you don’t normally see the more finesse types in that role, it clearly is working pretty well. He’ll normalize a little–you can’t avoid that, it happens to everyone–but as long as he has not atrocious defense behind him he should continue to bolster the bullpen.

He was a great find by the Yankees Front Office and their International Scouts, and after yesterday’s amazing 4 inning lockdown of the Blue Jays he deserves a standing ovation. All hail the Bullpen Ace.

Anyway, for the third straight game Chien-Ming Wang was awful. He looked pretty good in the first, not great, but okay. Then in the second, as soon as there was a runner on base he completely fell apart. Now Wang has never been great out of the stretch but he just looked terrible.

(To pick Claggett to try and keep the game under control was a bit mind-boggling, but that’s a personal gripe.)

It is clear right now that Wang’s problems are not something that can be worked out in the Major Leagues. I don’t believe you go from good to awful this quick and that he can still come back from it, but not if they keep putting him out here and hoping he’s made the proper adjustments to his mechanics. Since he can’t easily be optioned to AAA (he would have to pass through waivers and for sure there would be a team to pick him up), the best way for the team to accomplish this is to come up with a phantom injury like a blister, put him on the DL and send him to the Tampa facility. After today, I don’t really see how they don’t do this and call up either Ian Kennedy or Alfredo Aceves to take his place.

While you might clamor for Phil Hughes, I think that would be a bad choice since he’s been having some trouble throwing his curveball for strikes. AAA batters were sitting on it the other night, which means he needs to get that down before he comes back. Aceves is who I would pick as he is as complete as he will ever be, and the team has much less invested in him. I believe he can easily be an average MLB starter and fill in pretty well.

In closing, I vote for Girardi to put Veras in to pitch the rest of the game. I mean, why not? He’s useless anyway.

***

Here’s some really important news, the dumb home run apple at Shea is going to be replaced at Citi Field next year by an equally dumb new one. Hopefully they keep the same old “EV’RY BO-DY CLAP YO HANDS!”

Nice story about Jim Abbott.

I still hate the Angels with a burning passion.