JOHNNY LASAGNA COULD HAVE WHAT IT TAKES

Source: Twitter

If you haven't heard enough about the Yankee 23-year-old minor league now major league Jonathan Loaisiga, we are going to give you some more things to love about him. Besides stepping into some incredible shoes on a Friday night at Yankee Stadium and not even blinking, the starter likes lasagna and welcomes the nickname 'Johnny Lasagna' that his peers coined back in 2012.  He threw five scoreless innings besting the Tampa Bay Rays 5-0 and turned some collective heads in both baseball and the media.

"I think it confirmed what we thought and a big reason why he's here," Boone said of Loaisiga's poise. "Everyone got a look at the stuff that this kid has and the arm he has and the easy delivery he has, and I felt confident in just the little I got to see him in spring training and watching him on video and talking to people within our organization and I felt like mentally (and) emotionally, he's equipped to handle this," reported NJ.com. And the kid served a whole tray of the Italian favorite in front of thousands of fans on this Father's Day Weekend.

When you think about baseball nicknames across the decades of the National Pastime, names like Yogi, Joltin' Joe and The Mick come to mind.  You may also remember Louisiana Lightning, Donnie Baseball and Goose Gossage.  Scooter, Bucky and Catfish, the nicknames keep coming.  Even Giancarlo Stanton has a couple of names he goes by, including his two middle names Mike and Cruz.  He actually went by Mike Stanton into the start of his major league career.

Source: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images North America

 "Stanton's full name is Giancarlo Cruz Michael Stanton, and to add another layer to this already complicated name story, his mother actually calls him Cruz. He has said that he started going by Mike when he was younger because his classmates had difficulty pronouncing Giancarlo," reported Sports Illustrated back in February.  So if guys can't pronounce Loaisiga then why not Lasagna and let's see if both his name and his pitching stays.

Something even bigger than is nickname is his comparison to another guy whose nickname stuck, 'The Sandman'. "Loaisiga had something else to process while he was meeting with reporters before Saturday's game. That's when he was told that Rays manager Kevin Cash said that he "looks like a young Mariano Rivera" on the mound. "That's a big compliment right there," Loaisiga said. "Mariano was one of the best all-time in this sport. It's humbling for (Cash) to say like that," reported NJ.com.

Source: NJ.com

Why not fill the void of pitching from within?  Why not Lasagna instead of fishing across MLB for something else?  Johnny Lasagna it is and maybe that's all we need.

--Suzie Pinstripes
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof