Yankees may be a third-place team, according to one scout who saw them in Anahiem. They need a starter and are looking at Ian Snell of the Pirates. Yanks could move Phil Hughes, plus prospects.

Beyond the obvious (duh any scout looking at the Yankees against the Angels thinks they’re bad), the thought of the Yankees purposely acquiring Ian Snell to fill the hole in the 2009 rotation frightens me.

(And before anyone freaks out the paragraph in question is saying the Yankees “could” move Phil Hughes for Halladay, not Snell.)

If you’re unfamiliar with Ian Snell, he was considered a good pitching prospect with the ceiling of a #3 starter. In 2003 Baseball America ranked him as the 10th best in the Pirates system (he was then known as Ian Oquendo if you’re looking it up), noting that he had a good fastball that “looked deceptively faster” and a very good curveball.

In 2005 Baseball America ranked him as Pittsburgh’s 4th best prospect saying

Snell has a lively fastball that sits around 93 mph and touches 95-96. He throws a sharp curveball with such late break that some opposing hitters and scouts call it a slider.

They then noted that his fastball doesn’t have much movement on it and that his changeup still needed work.

Starting in 2006, Snell found himself in Pittsburgh permanently where he put up the following lines:

Snell was recently was demoted to AAA by his own request, after getting into a bit of a tiff with Neil Huntington, so it seems that the maturity issues that were red flagged years ago haven’t really resolved themselves yet. Pirates fans and maybe even the management think that many of his problems are in his head (maturity issues again!) and sometimes a change of scenery does help. In his first AAA start he destroyed the opposing team, striking out 17 and has posted two solid starts this then. Don’t take this as a sign that he can come in and immediately be awesome, though, as people like Brett Tomko do extremely well in AAA and never carry it over to MLB.

There are concerns beyond what’s going on in Snell’s head as well: As he is a guy of small stature (5’11” and about 200 pounds) there has always been some concern his body wouldn’t be able to handle the workload of a starter. Plus, relying on two pitches is always bad juju if you’re a starter (there aren’t many guys out there like A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett).

More importantly, beyond his 2008 elbow injury, he just hasn’t pitched that well. While he’s been getting a bit burned by the Pittsburgh defense, the difference between his FIP and ERA isn’t enough to tag him as a major rebound candidate to come in and bolster a struggling/underachieving rotation.

Snell is definitely worth a look by the Yankees if he comes cheap (think Eric Hinkse cheap) as a project or depth guy for this season and next, but if they are viewing him as a piece who can improve the rotation right away the team is going to be very disappointed.