bruney is toast...

Posted by djsunyc:

bruney is toast...

It looks like he got his balls got off.

I was thinking they'd let Robertson pitch the 9th. I guess Bruney needed work and needed time to prove himself. Regardless, he needs to go where Wang is now, b/c he's showing nothing. It's a shame.

Posted by Allanfan20:

I was thinking they'd let Robertson pitch the 9th. I guess Bruney needed work and needed time to prove himself. Regardless, he needs to go where Wang is now, b/c he's showing nothing. It's a shame.

before he gave up the back to backers he was throwing gas & struck out the 1st 2 batters he faced... coming in w/a 4 run lead u want ur guy to challenge hitters & not nibble on the corners, which is exactly what he did... Jones' shot was a fastball right down the middle but again, u don't wanna start nibbling on the corners w/a 4 run lead... the second shot by Markakis was up & in, he just turned on the pitch & drove it out... Bruney got beat by 2 very good hitters, it happens to the best of them... i wouldn't read much into this performance.

If I had to project - we'll wind up going out and getting another starting pitcher by the deadline, whether it's Washburn or someone else. And we still have Shelley Duncan ripping up AAA ball, so if we need another bat off the bench in addition to Hinske's - esp. from the right side - Duncan's a good option. It's the middle part of the bullpen that's a problem. Hughes and Mariano are fine but I just have no confidence in the rest of these guys. Coke's been OK but is still shaky at times but Melancon, Robertson, Bruney, Marte when he comes back -- I just don't feel good about any of these guys anymore man. We need a good, solid middle reliever before we get to Hughes and Mariano. Somebody reliable. I gotta believe Cash knows that too. Let's see if he's got a Jay Witasick-type move in him by the deadline. Witasick sucked for us but you get the idea - at the time, that was a very good trade on paper...

[Edited by - finestrg on 07-23-2009 1:22 PM]

With Bruney its about control and velocity. IF he's not walking everyone than his stuff will generally rise to the occasion. He's always run into problems when he can't throw strikes.

I really like our pen right now. Robertson is capable of doing more and Bruney needs to be given time to bounce back. Albaladejo actually looked decent last time he was up as well.

Posted by Finestrg:

If I had to project - we'll wind up going out and getting another starting pitcher by the deadline, whether it's Washburn or someone else. And we still have Shelley Duncan ripping up AAA ball, so if we need another bat off the bench in addition to Hinske's - esp. from the right side - Duncan's a good option. It's the middle part of the bullpen that's a problem. Hughes and Mariano are fine but I just have no confidence in the rest of these guys. Coke's been OK but is still shaky at times but Melancon, Robertson, Bruney, Marte when he comes back -- I just don't feel good about any of these guys anymore man. We need a good, solid middle reliever before we get to Hughes and Mariano. Somebody reliable. I gotta believe Cash knows that too. Let's see if he's got a Jay Witasick-type move in him by the deadline. Witasick sucked for us but you get the idea - at the time, that was a very good trade on paper...

[Edited by - finestrg on 07-23-2009 1:22 PM]

Yeah I realized I forgot to mention Aceves after I wrote this. He's been solid, no doubt about it. Even with Ace, I still think we're a little short in the pen though. Remember, we're talking about winning the whole thing here and to me, guys like Melancon, Robertson, Bruney and Marte when he returns are all unreliable. And that's a problem. If the plan would be to go after a starter and put Chamberlain back in the pen, I'm all for it. Kill two birds with one stone right there. That's definitely the way to go. In fact, coming into work today I heard michael Kay on his show saying Cash/Girardi plan to limit Chamberlain's innings soon - the plan was for him to pitch no more than 150 innings. The fact that Girardi's talking about it now makes me believe that Joba's on his way back to the pen.

Go get Washburn (I'd prefer someone a little better, like a Bedard or Oswalt, but I could live with Washburn. He's having a good year with an ERA under 3. Maybe even a Bronson Arroyo who was just pulled out of his last start early incidently, so maybe he's on the move), let me see Mitre a few more times (92 MPH sinkers with a decent breaking ball - he really didn't look that bad the other night) and put Joba back in the pen. We do that, we're ready to rock and roll I think..

Just heard a report on the FAN that SI's Jon Heyman is reporting that the Yankees reached out to Cleveland & inquired about Cliff Lee but talks broke down quickly when Cleveland supposedly said any deal would have to start with either Joba or Hughes. Glad to hear Cash is working the phones and apparently looking for quality as well..

I'd really like us strike up some conversation with Seattle. They're currently 5.5 games out in the AL West and even though they just came off a 5-2 road trip to start the 2nd half they have Adrian Beltre on the shelf and you can argue that there are a good 7 teams out there in the AL that are better than the Mariners and with better chances to make the playoffs. Our most realistic shot might very well be Jarrod Washburn. He's a short-term solution for the most part but the guy is having an outstanding year. The key with any Washburn deal might be the fact that we could hopefully keep Hughes, Joba, Montero and A-Jax out of the deal and that's important. Those four are probably the most important young chips in our organization right now. Obviously the asking price for Cliff Lee is way too high so he's out. With Seattle though, I'd have to do my due dilligence and ask about Erik Bedard first however, and it makes sense to do so IMO. Say we go back and forth on a few Bedard scenarios - if we can hammer out a deal that makes sense, great, he's my guy right from the start anyway and he's a big-time upgrade for our rotation. But say we can't and get to a bottom line that's still too rich for our blood, a point where Seattle won't budge any further - that's when we switch gears to Washburn. You would think that all of a sudden, armed with the leverage of comparison (where we bring up the fact that Washburn's obvious older and not in the same class as Bedard talent-wise), we should get a better deal for Washburn than if we asked for him right from the get go. I think this would be a good strategy - inquire about Bedard first, hopefully it could help drive the price down for Washburn rather than if we came calling and asked for Washburn outright.. Curious to see what they'd want for Bedard. Say we were able to keep Hughes and Joba out of it but had to include either Montero or A-Jax AND say Andrew Brackman or Dellin Betances AND Christian Garcia or Humberto Sanchez or maybe Mark Melancon. Would that be worth it? Losing Montero or A-Jax would be tough as hell, with both on the verge of assuming roles with the big club sometime soon (Posada's still a contributor but he's on the other side of the mountain now - unless he agrees to come back for a 1-year deal or 2 a-la Andy Pettitte, Montero's ready in a year or 2 to assume the catching duties and you can argue that A-Jax is ready right now and we even have a spot for him in RF over Swisher), but to get Bedard, it might be worth it man. In a short series with our lineup, Joba/Hughes & Mo in the pen and with a starting rotation of CC, AJ and Bedard we match up with anyone and we'd be very difficult to stop. Anyone feeling me on any of this?

i imagine the yankees will stay pat with the pitchers pitching the way they are. joba looks great post break, pitching with real fire. burnett and CC are both giving us what was paid for, and andy still looks sharp. i doubt they'll package promising guys to get a 5th starter. give the innings to whoever's ready, mitre looked fine last time!