TRADE RUMORS AROUND THE YANKEES & MLB

Denard Span: The Yankees, according to Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.com HERE, and us, who suggested this was a nice fit days ago HERE, says the Yankees are "all in" on guys like Span, Shane Victorino and Justin Upton.  The problem is the Twins, according to Heyman, want "a ton" for Span.

Brett Myers: The White Sox have acquired Myers and cash and that comes from Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Read his Tweet HERE. You can also read the Sports Illustrated piece on it HERE. Houston will get 2 players now and a player to be named.  We had a piece out a few weeks ago titled WHAT I MIGHT DO AS THE YANKEES GM. We suggested maybe the Yankees could try to acquire Myers and Wandy Rodriguez in one shot.  Now with Joba Chamberlain on his way back, Myers didn't look like an option any more.  Hey, we were close, I mean Meyers was clearly on the move, but the timing was wrong for the Yankees, no biggie, I'm pretty confident we can do it without Brett Myers.

Matt Garza: It's being reported by Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe that the Boston Red Sox may be in the mix for Matt Garza, but the Sox front office isn't sure he's better than what they already have. Read HERE.  Seriously? That's a joke, right? The Red Sox aren't exactly outstanding this season. The Dodgers have also checked in on Garza, according to Bruce Levine at ESPN Chicago, read HERE.  Anyway, if the Yankees were to snag any pitcher, I would feel good trying to get Garza down the stretch.  I believe he's solid in the American League east and he really wants to be part of a contender.

JC Romero: The Indians have signed Romero to a minor league deal.  This is coming from Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer.  Read that Tweet HERE. Romero's trying to latch onto a team for a while now.  Remember, the Yankees even picked up up briefly last season, read HERE.

Cliff Lee: There is a piece in Yankees Fans Unite HERE that makes an argument for Cliff Lee.  My opinion on Lee is, he thought he had it all figured out, he didn't want to come to the Yankees in the first place, he made excuses that the Phillies were younger, not even true and he does not want to come to the Bronx. In turn, I say screw him, we don't need him, fate brought him to a loser, he should stay there.

The strangest part of the Lee, Yankee stuff is when doing a simple search on Google, the image above shows up.  Someone had wishful thinking back when he was a free agent I guess.  It's just funny.

Billy Butler: It appears that the Pittsburgh Pirates are going to be buyers at the trade deadline and have inquired about the Royals Golden Boy Billy Butler.  There's no way the Royals part with Butler, he's their future, but it just goes to show how important the Pirates will be down the stretch.

Melky Cabrera: Look, the Yankees haven't really hinted that they want to guy back, but he's red hot and he would be a smart choice.  I gather the Yanks never really liked Melky but given the circumstances of Brett Gardner out and Nick Swisher hurt, it may actually be a good idea. We shall see...

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THE EXTRA LEFTY THE YANKEES NEVER HAD

Boone Logan is the Yankees lefty specialist. He’s the lone lefty in the Yankees pen who has good days and bad days, mostly bad, but lately decent. That being said, one things for sure in my opinion, Logan can’t do it alone. There are some times where the Yankees could really use another lefty out of the bullpen, yet, things don’t seem to be working out and I’m not sure why.

The lefties the Yankees hoped to be there with the team have amounted to nothing. Let me rephrase that. Damaso Marte, who is expected to pitch in the Gulf Coast League today had an amazing playoff run in 2009. That’s right... 2009! He's been hurt more than he's played. Pedro Feliciano was signed to give us some extra lefty support, but he’s been out with injury too and hopefully this Thursday he’ll also join Marte, that's the word from ESPN at least. Read HERE. Who knows if we’ll see them this season, I doubt it.

It’s not like there weren’t lefties available at the deadline, it’s not like we don’t have lefties in the farm system, they’re around. In fact, for some strange reason, the Yankees never even gave JC Romero a shot when they signed him to a minor league deal. He was later released and signed immediately with the Rockies. The Yankees picked up Aaron Laffey. He came in, pitched in 1 game and was designated for assignment. Hmm. What’s going on here?

Then comes this report suggesting the Brian Cashman doesn’t want to bring up Manny Banuelos this season...read HERE, another lefty who I believe is worth giving a shot. Yes, I understand Cashman’s mentality here, but let’s just see what the kid has, right?

There was talk of Sean Burnett from the Nationals, but that ship has sailed as well. John Grabow from the Cubs? No... nothing.

Now, if fairness, the Yankees bullpen is clearly the best in baseball and they are shutting down the competition. Is that Cashman’s thinking? Is Cashman thinking that because we’re so good out of the pen right now, the need for an extra lefty in the pen to help Boone Logan is not needed? What do you think? Do you think that Boone Logan should be the only lefty out of the bullpen for New York? Should we bring up Manny Banuelos to help? Should have held onto JC Romero? Aaron Laffey? Vote in our poll, I’d love to get your thoughts on this, because, as you can see… I’m confused.

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WHY YANKEES NEWS IS TAKING OVER BYB

(Photo: Getty)
Freddy Garcia: Freddy threw a bullpen session the other day to test his cut finger, but he only threw his fastball and some other breaking balls, not his splitter. The splitter has been his go to pitch this season, which has been a big part of his 10-7 season with a 3.17 ERA. If he can't make his start Sunday, manager Joe Girardi said there is a possibility of Garcia landing on the Disabled List. Read that HERE.Alex Rodriguez: His rehab from his knee surgery is complete. After a 1 for 2 day including two walks and an RBI in Scranton for the AAA Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees, A-Rod made the flight to Minnesota to join the Yanks. He didn't play Thursday, and he won't play Friday. The date for Alex's return will probably be Saturday. Check that out HERE. He's been sketchy at best defensively during his rehab, but that's to be expected. He's been out of action for over six weeks.
(Photo: Getty)
Raul Valdes: Veteran lefty reliever Raul Valdes was signed by the Yankees the other day. You can read that HERE. The Yankees moved pitcher Jeff Marquez to the 60-Day DL to make room for Valdes on the 40-Man roster so he could possibly get a chance at the Bigs come September. This could be just a minor league depth move, considering they had JC Romero awhile back. Romero was released a few days ago and has signed on with the Colorado Rockies. Valdes tossed a scoreless inning for Scranton Wilkes/Barre against the Durham Bulls, AAA affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, on Thursday.
Those blasted Umpires: The umpires did in fact make the wrong call when they upheld Billy Butler's home run after turning to the replay booth during Wednesday's 5-4 loss to the Royals. Check that story out HERE. The ball appeared to ricochet off the padding on the top of the wall and off the second chained fence behind the padded wall and onto the field. According to the ground rules, the ball is supposed to go over that second small fence and into the stands. If you haven't seen it for yourself, check it out HERE.

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--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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THE PATIENCE OF MARK PRIOR

If you know me, you know I love and have always loved Mark Prior, in between his injuries of course. This is a guy that has pitched great while healthy, but the healthy moments are few and far between and if you look at his list of injuries through the years, he’s been hurt more than healthy. It’s quite fascinating actually.

Well, Mark Prior's patient, more patient than any man I know that continually takes a beating like he has. Why? Because late last week, Mark Prior was in a game. I'm NOT KIDDING. With all the injury and pain there is 1 thing Prior has that the other injury prone ballplayers don't have... resilience.

That's why I don’t give up on Prior because he doesn't give up on himself. I know he’s got the talent and I know the Yankees do too, if they didn’t, they would have cut him loose months ago. I say stay the course, let this guy heal and try to make it back to the big show, even if it’s 1 inning just to see if he still has it. After all, the money spent is minimal and who knows, maybe, just maybe he can make it back to contribute and see if there’s any lightening in that bottle. Don’t forget, at one point in his career, he was 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA. That was with the Chicago Cubs. Yes, In fairness, it was 8 years ago, but it’s raw talent. I can only imagine where he’d be in the record books if he was healthy. Yeah, it sounds stupid that I’m living in the past... it's definitely stupid, but I believe in him.

So, here are the details, in his Gulf League outing last Friday, Prior pitched 16 pitches, 9 of them were strikes. After he pitched, he said he felt good. That's great as far as I'm concerned. Read about it HERE. According to MLB, "Prior then recorded two strikeouts on 10 pitches, both on nasty curveballs that were clocked at 79 mph and 80 mph. His fastball throughout the outing ranged between 90 mph and 92 mph."
And I found this nuggest interesting. When talking about the different pitches he threw MLB has this from Prior:

"I figured something out with the grip, and I kind of hold it like a slider now. It used to go back too far, so I changed my grip just a tiny bit, and that's made a huge difference. I've been drawing on the ball to practice it, and that's helped out a lot." Prior got the tip from Roy Halladay and said it's been useful. "I have a lot more trust and confidence with it now," he said.

I'm looking forward to Prior's next outing, and to hopefully making it back to the big show.

And speaking of the big show, just wanted to let ya'll know that the Yankees may have released lefty JC Romero from his minor league contract recently, but it doesn't mean their done with looking at lefty pitching. The Texas Rangers released Arthur Rhodes and he has become a free agent. The Yankees are interested in the 41 year old. Read about it HERE. If they did sign Rhodes, it would be to a minor league deal. Anyway... stay tuned.

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THE YANKEES PITCHING DILEMMA

Some Yankee pitching moves have been made and some question have popped up as well. Some ideas have also popped up in my mind and I'd love to see if you all have a few ideas of your own. So this is more or less an open forum. Comment in this post, and make sure you vote in our poll on the homepage of Bleeding Yankee Blue. Thanks.

(In Photo: JC Romero)

First up, the Yankees have released JC Romero, the lefty the Yankees signed to a minor league deal. Romero was pitching pretty good considering coming off injury and being released recently by the Nationals. The story is HERE. Apparently he had a 2.92 ERA after 2 outings and he asked the Yankees to either call him up or release him. They released him which means 2 words... Manny Banuelos.

Yeah, I feel it. Manny Banuelos is definitely going to get a big time shot this season by the Yanks coming out of the bullpen as an extra lefty specialist. This can be a tremendous asset for New York or it could blow up in their faces, but to tell you the truth, I’d take that chance. My feeling is, you bring up Manny, you let him work out of the bullpen and see how he is in games and it’s the perfect ending for the season for Manny because it’s exactly how the Yankees started the spring, watching this kid mow them down. The difference is however, these games count.

And on the Hughes front, The Yankees announced that Phil will get the start this upcoming Saturday. The last time we saw Phil Hughes, he showed up in the 10th inning of that 3^rd game between Yankees and Red Sox and it was not a good outing. Yes, Mariano Rivera blew the save, but ultimately it falls on Hughes. It was a big test, and it didn’t work out too good, did it?

This upcoming start will be a big deal. It's against a division rival, the Rays and if he doesn't pitch well, what happens next? Look, I believe that Phil Hughes will help our Yankees, but the question is where? It is clear to me that Ivan Nova will take the starting role if Hughes isn't dominant this weekend and even with all the question marks suddenly surfacing around AJ Burnett, I highly doubt they'd ever move AJ out of the starting rotation for an unstable Hughes. Plus both Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia earned their spots so it is truly unfair to move them out as well.

So, the question is, if Hughes doesn't deliver Saturday, is Scranton the next stop for Hughes? I don't think so, that only leaves the bullpen. It's not my favorite choice either but look, if he can't hack it Saturday, that's really all we have.

If Hughes is great on Saturday, then we have bigger questions. Do we stick with a 6 man rotation? Can we skip AJ Burnett 1 turn in the rotation to get AJ right and utilize Hughes in that spot? Ultimately, a 6 man rotation is great because there are options, but stability is also key for these pitchers and you don't want to mess with their routines either.

What about making Phil Hughes the bullpen 5th inning guy, if for example, a starter can't make it through the 5th inning. Sounds ridiculous right? Hear me out. You can almost utilize him as a long man, but you build up his confidence and strength. You also wouldn't need to use him every day, but over time, you put in him in the game at key moments where he needs to deliver, unlike this past weekend in Boston where he clearly wasn't ready. Plus, if you do that, after him you'd have Luis Ayala, Cory Wade, Boone Logan, RaSo, DRob and Mariano Rivera.

So, what do you think? Should Phil Hughes stay in the rotation? Should Hughes be in the bullpen? Vote in our poll, we want to hear from you. Also, make sure you comment here and keep it clean.

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WHY WORRY? MY YANKEES RELIEVER SOLUTION

The Yankees are definitely in need of another middle reliever to go along with the fabulous DRob, the unknown RaSo, and the GOAT...Mariano Rivera. Joba Chamberlain would have been mentioned along with these 3 except for the fact that he is out for the season, and the Bombers need a replacement for him. Here are a few possible candidates to fill his void.

• Adam Warren: Warren has pitched well this year in AAA, posting a 6-3 record with a respectable 3.29 ERA. He is a strikeout pitcher that has a career high 15 strikeouts in one game on August 17, 2010. Could he become the next Joba story, with a better ending? Let's find out. Read about Warren HERE.

• JC Romero: Romero is a former proven big time pitcher with the Phillies. The Yankees signed him last week to a minor league contract, and maybe this lefty could resurrect his career. Read it HERE.

• Brandon League: His name has been coming up as the Mariners are once again sellers at the trade deadline. Read about League HERE. Too bad it seems they won't be selling King Felix. Maybe League could convince his buddy Felix to ask for a trade to the Yankees.
  

These are my reliever ideas. What do you think? Is there anyone I left off of this list? Let me know, and also be sure to add Bleeding Yankee Blue on Blackberry Messenger!



--Will Cohen, BYB Staff Writer

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WHY THE YANKEES ARMS RACE HAS STARTED

The Yankees are looking, no doubt about it but the good news is, some of their relief is on the mend, so just in time for the second half, the New York Yankees may end up with more pitching than they needed. But as you know, you can never have too much pitching.

First off you must know that Mark Prior is close he pitched his first game since nursing that groin injury. Read about it HERE. So, because he's throwing again, I expect to see him back soon. The question is, will he get a shot in the big show before season’s end? Man I hope so, just to see this guy healthy and in action would make me smile. Does Prior still have what it takes? He’s talented, but we’ll have to see.

Rafael Soriano is expected back soon but he still needs to do a few more rehabs before they determine when he's returning. Read it HERE. RaSo, while having a few good moments, and being apart of the Three Headed Monster has had a rough start in the Bronx no doubt and injury to this guy won’t help his reputation. If Soriano comes back and acts like a stuck up disease in the clubhouse, the Yankees will have distractions. But if he comes in willing to help any way he can, including taking a back seat to a now dominant David Robertson, things will be just fine.

Heath Bell: He is such a likable guy and very talented. The Yankees have been linked to Bell for a few weeks now, but other teams are connected to him... the Phillies, Red Sox and Rays. If the Yankees can pick up this arm, it will be a huge help to the already terrific Mariano Rivera, David Robertson, Cory Wade and Luis Ayala gang. Plus, we’ll crowd things up with Rafael Soriano and maybe even another lefty to assist Boone Logan. The big question about Bell is "Who will the Yankees will give up for him?" Many are suggesting Jesus Montero. Read about this HERE. Also, Some would suggest trying to snag Heath Bell is just gluttonous. I call it stability. The Yankees didn’t pick up a top starter in the off season don’t forget, but we got damn lucky with the performances of Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. Extra help in the bullpen is always needed in case these guys fall apart and last night there was an indication of that with Colon. I like this move for Heath Bell, even if they're looking at it as a rental.

JC Romero: Yes, the Nationals released him and the Yankees have signed him to a minor league deal. Read about it HERE. Romero is a lefty and could be affective in the pen with Boone Logan, but as I’ve said all along, I like the idea of someone like Scott Kazmir instead because it could be a diamond in the rough. The only issue with my scenario is Kazmir might want to start somewhere and all I’m saying is you can take a chance with him as a lefty specialist in the pen. At any rate, if the Yankees like what they see from Romero, it could be a good marriage down the stretch.

Scott Kazmir: Yes, I believe his starting days are over right now and I have this ridiculous idea to bring him into our pen to face a few lefties once in a while. Kazmir was recently attached to the Rangers at one point after he was released by the Angels. Read it HERE. The problem with that was, the Rangers are not terribly interested in the left hander, according to MLB Trade Rumors. You know our stance here at Bleeding Yankee Blue, we like Kazmir. For 1, it helps the Yankees with an extra lefty and 2, Kazmir may be able to reinvent himself.

Sean Burnett: The lefty Nationals pitcher would be a smarter alternative to someone like Scott Kazmir because for the most part, his performance against lefties is pretty damn good: .235 BA and 1.17 WHIP. Read about it HERE.

Matt Capps: Bolstering the bullpen with someone like Capps may be a good idea, but I don’t necessarily see that happening. This year Capps has 13 saves. Every once in a while there is a “rumor” between the Yankees and Capps, but it never has legs. My guts saying it still doesn’t have legs. Read it HERE.

Good things are happening in Yankeeland when it comes to pitching. We are back to the second half grind and close to the trade deadline so expect the rumors to start heating up and the Yankees to step up as they make a run for another Division championship and beyond. After all, we are the New York Yankees… the best God damn team ever.

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