In lieu of their game tonight, here's a look at items on the Yankees and Red Sox..
- With the Cubs in rebuilding mode, Marlon Byrd expected to be traded but was surprised by the timing, writes Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.
- Former Red Sox pitching prospect Michael Bowden might be able to find his groove with the Cubs, writes Brian MacPherson of The Providence Journal. Bowden was sent to Chicago as part of the Byrd deal and should finally be given the chance to pitch consistently at the major league level.
- Veteran Bill Hall told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that teams assume that he will not play in Triple A because he elected free agency after failing to make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster. In actuality, the utility man says that he opted out because of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's strange schedule in 2012. Because of ballpark renovations, they will be playing "home" games in six different cities this season. The 32-year-old says that he's willing to play in the minors and get started right away.
- Buster Olney of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req'd) writes that manager Bobby Valentine is not to blame for the Red Sox's poor start. Olney expects the club to comb the trade market early and wouldn't be surprised to see pitcher Aaron Cook called up to the varsity squad prior to his opt-out date.
- Meanwhile, Valentine is rather critical of his own performance, writes Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.
- Andy Pettitte's comeback quickly went from an interesting story to a necessity for the Yankees, opines Mike Bauman of MLB.com.
That seems like a silly reason to not want to play for the Triple-A team.
Where is he supposed to rent his house?
They are playing like 90% of their home games in Rochester. They play 3-6 games in Batavia, NY (about 20 miles from Rochester) and other than that the only time they play in Pawtucket, Buffalo Syracuse and Allentown when they play those teams.
This is mostly due to Jeff Wilpon not allowing the Yankees AAA team to play in Newark as they are renovating their Scranton ballpark.
A) its not 90%. Its the lion’s share, but its not that big.
B) April/May schedule was freaking terrible, and much worse than the rest of the season’s. Every consecutive home series was/is played in a different ballpark.
I translated that as… “I have no shot at being called up at any point of the season with the Yankees, and I really do not want to be eating my meals at Denny’s five days a week…”
Hey, Denny’s might be his only remaining chance at a Grand Slam
No, it’s really not. It’s one thing for an aging MLB player of modest skills to gracefully submit to some time in the minors while he awaits his next chance. But if your “home” games are going to be spread out all over the place and you’ll be bussing to and fro constantly, it’s not hard to understand why he might not think that was the best situation to rebuild value. That kind of nonsense can wear you out.
Well, that and a multimillionaire who doesn’t have to do those things can’t be blamed for not wanting to do them.
The Boston media keeps clamoring for Bard to go to the bullpen and Cook to start. Why not use Cook as a high leverage reliever? If nothing else, he is capable of generating a ton of ground balls. Bard will undoubtedly be worth more as a 160 inning pitcher than a 60 inning pitcher.
Agreed, I feel bad for Bard because obviously every pitchers goal is to become a successful starting pitcher, a reliever is usually something of a failure with lesser earning power. It’s unfortunate that Bard is finally being given his chance after paying his dues, and he can’t say “no” otherwise he looks like a bad team player.
I agree with your logic, Tom, with one caveat. I’d say that every pitcher wants to become either a starter or a closer, since those are the two places where pitchers can make serious money. Of course, being a starter is the first choice from a financial PoV, since they generally have the highest earning potential. But closers can do pretty well for themselves. The real point is that you are correct in pointing out that (non-closing) relievers have far less earning potential, so I have a hard dime blaming a young pitcher for wanting to become a starter or a closer.
Hall and Cook are both jabronis, they both should play for the Red Sox as the scratch out 70 wins this year 🙂
you’re right, keep that bullpen as is,
signed, The American League East
I’m assuming that’s a reply to me. Two things:
1) Moving Cook to the bullpen isn’t “keep[ing] that bullpen as is.” It’s moving Cook to the bullpen.
2) Messing around with a kid’s arm as a kneejerk reaction isn’t a good idea. Remember Joba? I do.
Tampa built through the draft, but it was by making good picks, yes they picked longoria/price within the first 3 picks they had many other good picks.
Davis, Hellickson, Moore, Shields, Zobrist, Jennings
were all picked outside of the first round.
That’s an impressive list of outside-the-first-rounders, especially considering Hellickson, Moore, and Jennings were all top 10 prospects in the country at some point (Jennings going into 2010, Hellickson going into 2011, Moore going into 2012).