New York Yankees 2007/08 Off Season Thread

[CommishJoe]

dola,

Yankees turned down Wang's proposal for a long term deal:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseba...,2067511.story

[thomamon]

Originally Posted by CommishJoe

A friend of mine here at work just told me that Joba is going to start the season in the pen. In June, he'll head down to AAA to work back up his stamina to start and he'll start after the all-star break. Has anyone else heard this?

From what I hear, its really still up in the air. They want to see how Spring Training goes, how many starters they have and see if anyone is injured. Right now the plan is for him to be a starter, but he'd be on a count of how many innings he is allowed to throw this year. Depending on he is doing with that number, will determine if he stays as a starter or if he goes back to the pen. They also said Kennedy will have a certain amount of innings he can throw this year too.

I personally think its stupid. I've never seen them baby anyone so much.

[thomamon]

Originally Posted by CommishJoe

dola,

Yankees turned down Wang's proposal for a long term deal:

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseba...,2067511.story

Just came from espn.com, they are reporting the same thing. This gets more and more retarded. Lets find out if he can handle starting now, why prolong it?

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by CommishJoe

A friend of mine here at work just told me that Joba is going to start the season in the pen. In June, he'll head down to AAA to work back up his stamina to start and he'll start after the all-star break. Has anyone else heard this?

Originally Posted by thomamon

From what I hear, its really still up in the air. They want to see how Spring Training goes, how many starters they have and see if anyone is injured. Right now the plan is for him to be a starter, but he'd be on a count of how many innings he is allowed to throw this year. Depending on he is doing with that number, will determine if he stays as a starter or if he goes back to the pen. They also said Kennedy will have a certain amount of innings he can throw this year too.

I personally think its stupid. I've never seen them baby anyone so much.

Bold = my thoughts exactly. In particular about the AAA part. So, one of the key elements to Yankee success in 2008 goes to AAA for what, 3 starts at least? 5-day rotation = 2+ weeks lost. We need this guy in the rotation or setting up in the bullpen from day one through day 162.

Hopefully, that part is bogus. The bullpen assignment seems to be correct, however as I see that in my local media as well. Why?

I count the SP's: Pettitte, Wang, Mussina, Hughes . . . Igawa??????

No, with relief I remember Kennedy and Karstens who are a quite a bit better than Igawa. But you can see that the Yanks may want to finally sort out who the top 4 are before they insert Chamberlain. Or maybe they changed their minds about him being a set-up man par excellence.

[1998 Yankees]

Dola I:

"Grrrr," followed by "Hmmm."

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...v=st&type=lgns

But according to the Post, the Yankees do not want Chamberlain, who experienced arm problems in college, to throw more than 140 innings this season.

The part that I italicized, I did not know. Anybody hear anything about that?

Dola II:

I'm surprised neither of you guys picked up on this story.

Congressman: Pettitte's account backs McNamee

http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseba...,4246133.story

This is starting to look very bad for Clemens. I did not post this on the Clemens thread as it belongs here in relation to our previous discussion as to Pettitte's former friendship with Clemens, how it may have been over-hyped, and certainly is over now.

[thomamon]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Dola I:


The part that I italicized, I did not know. Anybody hear anything about that?

News to me

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Dola II:

I'm surprised neither of you guys picked up on this story.



http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseba...,4246133.story

This is starting to look very bad for Clemens. I did not post this on the Clemens thread as it belongs here in relation to our previous discussion as to Pettitte's former friendship with Clemens, how it may have been over-hyped and certainly is over now.

I've always thought his association with Pettitte spoke volumes, considering Pettitte came out and admitted it.

[Joshv02]

Joba was super overweight in college and suffered knee problems b/c of it. He lost some weight, transfered to div I, and was a projected top pick. Then he hurt his tricep and dropped to the 40s for the Yankees.

He has kept the weight off and I don't think he has suffered an arm injury since the begining of his final year of college ball.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by thomamon

News to me

If true, then it would explain the babying. The secrecy about it would be explained in turn the faint possibility of him being still on the trading block should sudden madness have taken hold of the Yankees over the winter.

Originally Posted by thomamon

I've always thought his association with Pettitte spoke volumes, considering Pettitte came out and admitted it.

It's times like these that people learn who their true friends are, when the chips are down. Clemens has to be feeling like that right now. I cannot blame Pettitte for protecting himself, but gosh, what a turnaround in their supposed mutual admiration society.

[Joshv02]

Joba's college injuries were known to dorks who follow the draft, and every GM. Not a secret

[1998 Yankees]

My reactions, as I read this:

Originally Posted by Joshv02

Joba was super overweight in college [Yeah, I remember reading that, and he does look like he has the potential for it - a candidate for the "big-boned" euphemism, LOL] and suffered knee problems b/c of it [Ok, not too bad, at least it was not his arm]. He lost some weight, transfered to div I, and was a projected top pick. Then he hurt his tricep [Uh oh, the arm] and dropped to the 40s [Gosh, his fastball? No stupid, draft pick] for the Yankees.

He has kept the weight off and I don't think he has suffered an arm injury since the begining of his final year of college ball [Which ended, what, two years ago?].

Thanks, Josh. If this is all true, then my respect for Yankee pitcher handling has done a 180 in the space of three posts. Thank goodness for dorks who follow the draft (and what leads up to it), amateurs and professionals alike.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Thanks, Josh. If this is all true, then my respect for Yankee pitcher handling has done a 180 in the space of three posts. Thank goodness for dorks who follow the draft (and what leads up to it), amateurs and professionals alike.

Although, if it was common knowledge to all GM's, why then keep it a secret if it was not going to affect Chamberlain's tradeability anyway? And if it was not a secret, how come thomamon, my friend here at work, and I never heard anything about it? It seems that one of us would remember the media discussing that topic with great interest . . . The media is just talking about it now?

[Joshv02]

Ohh... here is where I, Red Sox fan that I am, chime in and say "it is b/c the New York Media is teh suk".

[thomamon]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Although, if it was common knowledge to all GM's, why then keep it a secret if it was not going to affect Chamberlain's tradeability anyway? And if it was not a secret, how come thomamon, my friend here at work, and I never heard anything about it? It seems that one of us would remember the media discussing that topic with great interest . . . The media is just talking about it now?

They never mentioned it last year at all or on Yankee games or here in the papers. But, with all this being said, the Joba Rules make so much more sense now.

[Tony M]

Originally Posted by Astros33Resurrected

my favorite shirt

Despite that post being made in 2008, you'd think they could count the number of rings correctly...

Anyway, back on topic, I hadn't heard much of Igawa for a while, is he likely to be at majors this season or bum around the minors until they can ship him off?

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by redsoxford

Anyway, back on topic, I hadn't heard much of Igawa for a while, is he likely to be at majors this season or bum around the minors until they can ship him off?

Igawa needs to have a comeback year for the Yankees to consider him for anything else but mopup bullpen work with the Yankees. Majors or minors, they won't release him, though, because he cost too much to bring over here. That's my guess. He and Pavano are embarrassments, but at least Igawa's effort has been honorable.

Regarding Chamberlain and his college weight and injury problems, I'm going to keep my eyes open for any further word. I remember hearing about the weight but not about the arm or knees being affected. As thomamon says, it would explain the Joba Rules but, with all due respect to Josh, something is not quite right. If everybody knew, then why keep it a secret? If not a secret, then why is this news only now, when people were vigorously scratching their heads over the Joba Rules last season?

[Joshv02]

Here is an article from the day he was drafted re Joba: http://www.journalstar.com/articles/...6263562555.txt

Here is the entry on the BA draft day blog the day he was drafted: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...ws/261628.html (scroll down tot he 1:50 p.m. entry).

I did a quick search on the NY Times and found an article from last year thaht discussed his tricep scare: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/sp...nt&oref=slogin

I don't know why you think it was a secret. I think it more likely that you guys just missed it

[Joshv02]

Dola - that isn't to say that his injury two years ago has anything to do with the "Joba Rules". I think those were just simple, normal rules that most teams now employ but that were blown out of proportion by a worked-up, frenzied, tabloid-esque media.

Tom Verducchi has been talking about limiting pitcher innings for kids for a decade now, and he is the mainstream media.

[Skipaway]

A Yankees' blog from March 2007:

http://allyankeeinfo.blogspot.com/20...uture-ace.html

Health: Chamberlain has two primary health concerns. First, he has weight problems. He used to be downright fat. He weighted over 280 pounds, with some claiming he was closer to 300. He had all sorts of knee and muscle problems throughout his early college career. However, someone must have lit a fire under his fat ass because he lost over 50 pounds and began pitching like an ace. The knee problems have gone away, but his triceps started to act up at the begining of this year. The injury hurt his velocity and his control, and as a result all of his numbers dipped. It was enough to make teams shy away from his top-level stuff and let him fall to the Yankees at 41.

Also agree on the pitch count thing with Joshv02. There is nothing strange about the Joba Rules. They shouldn't even be called the Joba Rules, just young pitcher rules.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Joshv02

Here is an article from the day he was drafted re Joba: http://www.journalstar.com/articles/...6263562555.txt

Here is the entry on the BA draft day blog the day he was drafted: http://www.baseballamerica.com/today...ws/261628.html (scroll down tot he 1:50 p.m. entry).

I did a quick search on the NY Times and found an article from last year thaht discussed his tricep scare: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/sp...nt&oref=slogin

I don't know why you think it was a secret. I think it more likely that you guys just missed it

Very good. You certainly do your homework! However, see my next comment.

Originally Posted by Joshv02

Dola - that isn't to say that his injury two years ago has anything to do with the "Joba Rules". I think those were just simple, normal rules that most teams now employ but that were blown out of proportion by a worked-up, frenzied, tabloid-esque media.

That's where we may have had help in "missing it." I get most of my sports news from Newsday which I have had occasion in the past to be highly criticial of; this is just another indication of that and an example of your description of media foolishness.

Originally Posted by Skipaway

Also agree on the pitch count thing with Joshv02. There is nothing strange about the Joba Rules. They shouldn't even be called the Joba Rules, just young pitcher rules.

While I still think that tender loving care of young arms to the extent of having "rules" at all is something relatively new in baseball, I grant that the hype over Joba Rules may just be making a story out of ongoing good management so that it seems like something new.

Nice research, guys. Thanks.

[CommishJoe]

WOW! This thread has made for great reading this morning. Thanks to all that contributed!