Yankees Starting Pitching Looking Ugly
I understand that the Chien-Ming Wang injury was just bad luck, and that the Yankees are being careful with him. Still, can you believe a $190MM team has a rotation including Carl Pavano, Darrell Rasner, and Kei Igawa right now? The Yankees’ starting pitching has been atrocious. I don’t mean to overreact after a week but one can certainly picture below-average contributions from Pavano and Igawa all year. Even the Yanks can’t give away two games out of every five.
Maybe Igawa gets acclimated, posts a 4.50 ERA over the balance of the season. But you have to admit that paying $46MM over five seasons to get him was very questionable from the start. People spent the winter talking about the "New Yankees," who didn’t just throw money at mediocre players to solve their problems. They did just that with Igawa, and it was clearly a reaction to the Matsuzaka signing. Why not spend that same money to bring Ted Lilly back? At least with that move there would’ve been relatively certainty that you’d get 180 innings of 4.50 ball, since Lilly has done it before in the AL East.
As Joel Sherman writes, the Yankees may need to be rescued by Roger Clemens and Phil Hughes. The team needs to call up Hughes sooner rather than later. A front four of Mussina, Pettitte, Wang, and Hughes can certainly carry the team to the playoffs. Filtering between Igawa and Pavano for the fifth man and skipping his turn when possible would probably be sufficient. While Hughes would help, it’s Clemens who would really tip the balance of power towards the Yankees. They’ll still have to convince him to leave a comfy situation in Houston.
Yankees Sign Igawa
ESPN reported late last night (early this morning) that the New York Yankees have reportedly agreed to a contract with their own Japanese star pitcher Kei Igawa. Igawa should get $20MM (plus incentives) over 5 years according to the report and should fill the Yankees’ fifth starter position in their rotation. That added to the $26MM the Yankees paid for Igawa’a posting fee brings his total cost to $46MM, more than $65MM less than Matsusaka of the Red Sox could cost (if all of Dice-K’s incentives are met).
With Igawa, the Yankees’ rotation is currently looking to shape up with Johnson, Mussina, Wang, Pettitte (pending his physical), and now Igawa. There is still talks of Johnson being traded to make room for either Clemens, Pavano, or even Hughes.
By Adam Howe of Game Four
Making Progress With Kei Igawa
It seems very likely that the Yankees will sign Kei Igawa to serve as their fifth starter. According to Igawa’s agent Arn Tellem:
"We are making good progress. However, I do not anticipate reaching a deal this week."
The two parties still have nearly two weeks left to negotiate. Igawa cost a hefty $26MM posting fee. The AL East has recruited all the major Japanese talent this year, with Matsuzaka, Igawa, Iwamura, and Okajima all ending up in the division. The inevitable Matsuzaka/Igawa pitching matchup should be a fun one.
Yankees win Igawa bid
Looks like the Yankees won the bidding to negotiate with Japanese lefty Kei Igawa for $25 million. It was only a matter of time before Cashman threw some money around.
In other news, the Brewers are closing in on a deal with Craig Counsell. (I’m not a fan: once around was enough for me.) That’s right on the heels of hearing that Counsell was destined for San Diego; now, it would seem that Counsell’s original deal–two years of playing second base for the Padres–now will go to Tony Graffanino, who Doug Melvin had wanted to bring back to Milwaukee as a utility guy. The Brewers also resigned Brian Shouse, who was eligible for arbitration.
By Jeff Sackmann
Pitchers on the move
Jason Schmidt has been offered $45 million over three years to join the Cubs. If that offer has been leaked already, $60M/4 seems within the realm of possibility. Strangely, Schmidt has already said he’s not interested in the East Coast–you’d think he’d wait until Cashman made an offer and drove up his price before saying no. Once Schmidt signs, it’ll be fun to watch Scott Boras conduct the sure-to-be-insane bidding for Barry Zito.
Some team (to be announced tonight) won the bidding for Kei Igawa for $25 million. Hanshin has accepted. That’s the second largest posting fee ever–somebody must think Igawa is pretty good, definitely on the high side of the typical #3/#4 projection he’s gotten. I’m guessing it’s not the Cubs, or we wouldn’t be hearing so much about the other pitchers they’re after. That leaves plenty of other possibilities, though.
The Baltimore Orioles are continuing their quest to build the most expensive bullpen of all time: Chad Bradford is close to a three-year deal with them. Anybody think it’s a little odd that the O’s traded Chris Britton for a reclamation project and are now probably spending about $8M a year for Bradford and Danys Baez? (Odd? Yes. In character? Absolutely.)
And, this just in: the O’s are also adding Scott Williamson. He’s cheap–only $900K for the year. Oddly enough, he could be the best of their new additions. I’m a little surprised nobody else was willing to go higher for him on a one-year deal.
Many of you have emailed me about a possible Angels-White Sox trade involving Ervin Santana and Chone Figgins for Freddy Garcia and Joe Crede. As Rotoworld points out, this could be a recycled rumor; regardless, Kenny Williams says no. And there’s no way Bill Stoneman deals Santana for Garcia without getting a lot more in return. Five years of a good pitcher under the team’s control for one year of Garcia? Right.
By Jeff Sackmann
Kei Igawa Has Been Posted
Rotoworld lists the potential suitors for Kei Igawa as the "Padres, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Yankees, Braves, Mets, Cubs and Indians." They rule out the Red Sox and Mariners, though this Tacoma News-Tribune article says the M’s are "likely" to bid. That same article predicts that the posting fee will be about "two-thirds less" than Daisuke Matsuzaka‘s $51.1M: $17M.
That seems high for a guy who David Wright isn’t convinced has MLB-quality stuff. Personally, I wouldn’t want my team spending more than $10M for his rights, but with all those teams involved, $17M seems plausible.
UPDATE: An alert e-mailer points out this article on the Braves official site. According to club officials, Atlanta won’t be involved in this one.
By Jeff Sackmann
Jays Considering Barajas, Mulder
Here are notes from the blog of Paul Hoynes, Indians beat writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. These were posted yesterday.
Hoynes says the Blue Jays are talking to Rod Barajas and have some interest in Mark Mulder. Even if they signed both, the Jays would still need to come up with a shortstop and one decent starter.
The Tribe is expected to bid on lefty Kei Igawa, who will be posted next week. If they win, the Indians, like the White Sox, would be six deep in their starting rotation. A good kind of problem.
Cubs Could Settle For Kei Igawa
A week ago for my Top 50 Free Agents list, I ranked lefty Kei Igawa 24th overall and had this to say:
"The Cubs have a clear need for a starter or two, and an increased focus on scouting Japan could lead to Jim Hendry to Igawa. Only one team can get Matsuzaka, after all. Igawa would be a fine consolation prize."
With the winning Matsuzaka bid likely to exceed $30MM, it appears that my speculation could become reality. After reading some scouting reports on Igawa, though, I wonder if I ranked him too high. Keith Law ranked him 31st, noting a below average fastball that sets up his plus curve.
With Igawa, the Cubs’ rotation would look something like this:
Carlos Zambrano
Free Agent
Rich Hill
Kei Igawa
Wade Miller/Mark Prior
Relying on the oft-injured Miller/Prior combo for the fifth starter spot could be workable, if the Cubs get a big fish to be the #2 starter. That could be Vicente Padilla or Randy Wolf in my mind. Padilla shares an agent with Aramis Ramirez and Jim Hendry has discussed the possibility.
Kei Igawa: Plan B To Matsuzaka?
It appears that both the Mets and Yankees were scouting 27 year-old lefty Kei Igawa Tuesday night against the MLB All-Stars. He’ll be an option for teams looking overseas for pitching that are reluctant to break the bank. However, David Wright was not impressed:
"Asked if Igawa’s pitches were major-league quality, Wright hedged a bit.
‘I just don’t know,’ Wright said. ‘I’d have to see him when he’s in midseason form. You send a guy up there after a month layoff and you can’t get a handle on a guy. But as far as a lefty goes, he has a sneaky fastball. I thought he threw, for a lefty, an average to above-average fastball, an above-average changeup, and his slider was a little flat. But with a month off, who knows? Could be any number of reasons.’
Update on Igawa, Kuroda, Iwamura
As you probably have read, Japanese ERA leader and free agent Hiroki Kuroda has re-signed with his current team the Hiroshima Carps. It was expected that he would stay in Japan, but it was thought he might sign with the Hanshin Tigers to be their ace.
At one point, the posting of 27 year-old southpaw Kei Igawa by Hanshin was said to depend on the team signing Kuroda to replace him as the staff ace. Despite that option disappearing, it is expected that Igawa will still be posted this week.
71% of Japanese baseball fans filling out this survey believe Igawa will not succeed in the Majors (the orange represents "will not succeed.")
38 year-old starting pitcher Masumi Kuwata is a free agent and will try his hand at MLB this season. The righty hasn’t pitched well since 2002, however. He might not make it out of Triple A, but the Indians have already shown interest.
The winning bid for third baseman Akinori Iwamura will not be made public by Yakult, but it is estimated to be just $1MM. The winning team should be known around Monday or Tuesday.