tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3297014613661913479.post3924196586857480268..comments2024-03-28T03:13:29.778-04:00Comments on Scott Proctor's Arm - A New York Yankees Blog: The season that was not meant to be: Part OneAndrew Fletcherhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00891903681627777912noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3297014613661913479.post-20197009183977778502008-08-28T02:41:00.000-04:002008-08-28T02:41:00.000-04:00I think the biggest disappointment is clearly the...I think the biggest disappointment is clearly the lack of development of the big 3. <BR/><BR/>Nobody should be disappointed in Rasner and Ponson. Within the last year Rasner was DFA'd and cleared waivers without anybody even wanting him. The guy probably shouldn't be pitching at the MLB level, especially for this many starts. And just look at Ponson's numbers over the last 4 seasons. He is terrible. So those 2 guys have given exactly what they should have been expected to give - crap.<BR/><BR/>The failure of the big 3 is the largest disappointment, because unlike Rasner and Ponson, this will affect future teams in a big way, especially the upcoming offseason and next season. Kennedy and Hughes have been so terrible that the Yankees may feel forced to bring back both Pettitte and Mussina as well as sign Sabathia, just so they have a guaranteed 5 guys (Sabathia/Joba/Wang/Mussina/Pettitte) with Hughes and Kennedy as the minor league reinforcements for injured pitchers instead of Ponson/Giese/Rasner/Igawa etc.<BR/><BR/>But even aside from that, all 3 of the young guys pitched fewer total innings this year than last year, including minor league innings. They all had strict innings limits for this year, and they failed to push those limits any higher. They essentially lost an entire year of development. You'll have the same issue to deal with Joba again - if he can only pitch 140 innings there's no way he can be a starter from day one - but what if they try to perfectly map out his innings again in 2009 but another injury interrupts that plan? That is a huge problem to deal with. Would the Yankees really just start him from day one and shut him down at the end of August because he reached 140/150 innings? Cashman said this year that those limits would not be exceeded for any reason whatsoever. I don't see why he would change his mind for next season.<BR/><BR/>And that's another thing: Cashman is the main guy to blame for most of these pitching problems. I like Cash and want him back, but maybe the Steinbrenners will need a scapegoat after this season. Girardi is probably safe - but Cash is the one who signed Igawa and Pavanao and went all in on Hughes and Kennedy and Joba without having a better backup plan than Rasner//Giese/Ponson. It's unfair to blame all the injuries on the guy, but the bottom line is that the young guys failed and their replacements were highly inadequate. And so a decent amount of that is Cashman's fault. <BR/><BR/>The lack of success of the big 3 also has people doubting the strength of the Yankee farm system. There really isn't anyone down there that could pitch better than Sidney Ponson? It seems that a lot of the major league ready minor league arms have ended up being relief guys, like Edwar or Robertson or Ohlendorf. And let's face it, relievers are not very valuable in the grand scheme of things. YOung starters are the extremely valuable commodity, and so the failure of Hughes and Kennedy has really hurt the value of the Yankee minor league system. The farm system was exposed for being much shakier than it was portrayed to be. <BR/><BR/>And that isn't even taking into account the absolute lack of position player reinforcements down there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com