Padres Awarded Claim On Kei Igawa

Wow, "awarded the claim"! That's really far to fall for a rather cheap arm!

I wouldn't be shocked to see the Yanks just give him away since no one else seems to care about him. They are better off bringing up someone who could help since they are in the race...

Although, can he be sent to the minors freely? Does his contract allow for MiL time? Didn't follow the Yanks enough to know if they have had him down this year...

i dont see why not, we'd be paying him around what we were paying david wells. he would be much better than wells who was much worse than league average.

i see it as a good low cost move by KT if he can get it done.

hes going to be better than hensley since clay has apparantly forgotten how to pitch at all.

im not expecting a lot but it would most likely be an improvement over what we have if we can get him to throw right.

i did think it was pretty funny when wright said that tho. he said he had a lousy curve and a very hittable fastball or something haha

I would laugh if he goes to the Padres, and turns out to be a surprise like Okijima. Yankees bad decisions ftw

If the Yanks were not able to send him down then I would say they almost need to give him away and chalk it up as the cost of trying to win. He would hurt this year too much.

Since he probably can be sent down then it would be a tough choice. No one else wanted him so you know it will probably be just as hard to trade him later unless he really shows improvement. It would be a question of "is eating 12+million over the next 3+years worth it if we can't fix him or get him to atleast raise his value".

I'm wondering if anyone knows the answer to this: is it considered uncouth for GMs to just dump big salaried guys like that onto other GMs without trying to work out a deal first? That just seems like it would be part of the unspoken code among GMs, to not screw over someone else like that, even though they'd be well within the rules to do so.

Jake,

It would actually be the reverse...

Putting in a claim says "I will take that player and his salary from you if you don't want to pay it".

Its the trading team that then has a choice:
A) let the claiming team have him & his contract for no additional cost
B) say they will let them have him/contract if they also supply prospects.

When we are talking about big-money guys who are really not wanted I would think it would be rude to go with option B unless it was just a scrub who was asked for, and the claiming team would probably be like "fine, have fun paying him then" if they asked for something good.

As far as the trading team, I think the polite thing would be to offer him for nothing more added or tell the claiming team "you know, we weren't really looking to cut him so if you did want him then we would have to ask for a trade".

I think it would also be rude to expect to just get a player solely by taking his salary if you're the claiming team on a desirable player. A guy like Tejada for instance doesn't need to be dealt in this way, a claiming team saying "nah, no prospect, we will just take him or forget it" would be rude. A team making a claim on a guy like that better be willing to offer atleast a semi-respectable offer or tell the O's "hey, was just a block and we don't expect to get him"

More of the polite stuff goes on than we realize too... Cleveland just claimed Branyon but told him they would release him to any team offering a ML job ~ Philly offered and he was sent there for nothing more than the claiming fee. The Tribe was repayed the favor when they claimed Gomez, with Balt saying "we don't need him here, we want to bring up a kid and we would just be happy with him playing on a contender" ~ they just gave him to Cleveland as it helped both all involved.

I think the best way to handle it would be the claiming team asks "hey, I won; what do you want to do" and the trading team says they either do or do not want him and go from there.

darkstar, I thank you for your detailed response to my question. I think you are probably spot on. It would make the most sense for a GM to get whatever he could for a player he placed on waivers instead of getting nothing but salary relief.

In this instance, I think the Yankees arent looking to dump salary since they can absorb mistakes. They just want something of value in return.

OMG CAsh please do it, just like you out smarted LAD and I even called it that day. Please Igawa for Bell or Ledezma plus 2 prospects or Hansley and 1 prospect, just do it.

Igawa for Cla Meredith straight up wouldn't get done. No way in hell.

Too bad he didn't make it down to the DBacks. We could have traded Kim for Igawa. Kim has always done great for the Yankees in NY.

I should've said major league reliever and not major league ready. I didn't mean a prospect.

The day another teams lets the Yankees move him off their 40 man is the day I snap and shoot the GM that trades for him. Please let them end up paying 9 million a year for a shite middle reliever that they dont even let play on their ML team.

Unless the Yankees get a good reliever from the Padres, I wouldn't make that trade because Igawa has shown bright spots this season despite being weak on the whole.

I'd leave him in Scranton until next year, see how he does. I would look into making him a lefty reliever, and with less innings he could probabley put a little more zip on the ball and probabley more control too.

" They just want something of value in return. "

How can you possibly fathom getting anything of value for an absolute scrub like Igawa. Like others said, maybe some A prospect that you will never see or hear from again, but nobody any good. Igawa is horrible.

BTW, does the Padres AAA team play in the same league as the Yankees AAA club? If so then they would not be able to include a AAA guy as a PTNL, which hinders these quick deals big time. Same holds true for all places Igawa has played if he happened to be in AA or A-ball for any reason.

I actually lied. He hasn't pitched for Trenton, just Tampa and SWB. And I just looked it up and none of the Padres farm teams play in the same leagues as the Yankees'.

A few things.

A. Igawa in Japan was eons better than Okajima.

B. Everyone laughed when the White Sox traded for Jose Contreras, and they ate a pretty big crow in less than one full year.

it's hard to make of Igawa's season, I think the Jose Contreras comparason make the most sense. if you seen him pitch enough you can see the stuff is there, he's fastball consistently go in the 91+ range (good for a Lefty SP ) , he's curve sometimes have a ton of depth to it (But other times hang and gets hammered ) and his change up are good at times. (and other times miss the mark by a mile) it's just that none of the above happened in one game. but they did in Japan and in the minors.

I think the slow start got to him and it completely swirled out of control from there, New York can do that to a lot of guys, and many of them bounced back nicely after they left (Jeff Weaver and Jose Contreras both started and WON a world series game after they left NY you know)

Though i can't falt the Yankees for moving him even if they don't get much back, he's completely scared out of his wits in NY now, and it's doubtful that'll change. but a fresh start in a friedlier enviornment can make a big difference. I think he'll be at least league average once he go to the NL west. with a good chance of being above average. at 4M a year and no serious prospects involved (not like the Padres have a lot of those) it seems fairly reasonable for both team.

As a sidenote, he had a decent start in Triple A tonight. Took the loss, but only gave up 2 runs over 6 innings and didn't walk anyone and had 6 strikeouts. Yeah, Triple A isn't the majors, but walks were killing him. He'd lose his control, walk everyone, then panic, leave pitches up, and that produced some runs quickly. I think I'm done. This guy's fun to analyze if nothing else. He's such an enigma to me because he definitely has the ability somewhere lurking. He's one of those classic "good stuff" guys. You know the ones the broadcasters insist have good stuff even though they're terrible because they'll pitch well here and there. Sidney Ponson was president of that club. Oliver Perez had it before this year because of 2004, but I think he's relinquished the title. Edwin Jackson's a high ranking member, although he tossed a complete game shutout tonight, so maybe he's trying to do the same. So...yeah, Kei Igawa has "good stuff".

You know, the last time the Yankees traded a Japanese pitcher, they got Ted Lilly and Jake Westbrook from the Expos for Hideki Irabu.