Nice find by our buddy Mike A of River Ave, the Yanks appear to be in the market for a reliever. He writes:
Yankees Looking At Downs
By Mike Axisa [July 24 at 9:07pm CST]Jeff Blair of The Globe And Mail passes along a note that the Yankees are looking at Blue Jays closer Scott Downs. In today’s massive Roy Halladay thread we learned that the Yanks had scouts in Toronto tonight, and we’ve known that they’re on the look out for arms.
Hmmmm, maybe they’re not just advance scouting Roy Halladay after all. This makes sense for a variety of reasons that I’ll get into in a minute. Adding another arm in the bullpen would free up Alfredo Aceves to start, which is something I suspect they would like to do, or at least have the option to do if one of their starters gets hurt.
Right now, the Yanks have a storm coming in their starting rotation. For the moment they’re fine, but Joba will be hitting his innings limits sometime around September. With Wang likely gone for the year, and Joba due to get dropped from the starting 5 in a little over a month, they would find themselves getting very short in the rotation just as you entered the stretch run of the pennant race and the pending playoffs. If nothing were to change, you’d be looking at Sergio Mitre as their Game 4 starter in the ALCS should they get there.
And that’s without anyone getting hurt. If Andy’s shoulder wears down like it did last year, Sergio Mitre would be your #3 starter down the stretch, and would get a start in the ALDS. That’s unacceptable, so they need to make a move of some kind for a starter, either internally or externally. I suspect they will get a reliever to give them some internal flexibility, and then keep shopping for a starter after the trade deadline when one of the teams that’s still in it (Seattle/Reds) falls out of the race and is ready to make a deal and/or unload some payroll.Someone like Jarrod Washburn or Aaron Harang.
There is however, a third way. You could skip Joba on off days or every third start for the rest of the season, leaving him only 7 more starts for the rest of the year. He’s at 102.2 IP for the season so far, so 7 more starts would put him at around 145 for the season, which would be fine and still leave some room for bullpen work. Or you could give him most of September off, and then just get him ready for the playoffs with a late September tune-up start or two. The latter is the more likely of the two if they go this route. This will give them another high upside arm to use in the playoffs simply by managing his innings. They will want to establish a lead or have a comfortable playoff spot secured before giving one of their starter an extended Sabbatical like that. It will be very hard to skip Joba for a lesser pitcher if the Yanks-Sox-Rays are in a heated pennant race.
The one upside to dropping Joba from the rotation is that he’d be available to be used out of the bullpen. But of course, you have to get to the 8th before you can worry about having a lead to protect. Which is about as succinct a way as there is to explain why Joba is a starting pitcher and has always belonged in the rotation.
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0 Responses to Scott Downs, and the coming storm in the rotation
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TIQ IQ
About Mitre being our #4 starter in the ALCS (should we get there)… would Mitre really be given a start? Or would CC go games 1,4,7 with AJ going 2,5,6 and Andy going game 3. I believe Arizona used only 3 starters in the 2001 WS. With two aces like the D-backs had in Randy and Schilling, the Yanks have something similar with CC/AJ. Also, we can expect CC and AJ to be ready to make 2 or 3 starts in the ALCS or WS because with a bullpen of Joba, Hughes, Ace, Coke, and Mo–CC and AJ might only have to give us 6 solid innings and 95 pitches which will keep them fresh to make multiple starts in one series. The potential depth of the Yankees lockdown bullpen gives them a lot of options if they wanted to only have 3 starters in the ALCS.
Your thoughts?
Depends on the scheduling and the off days. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but it could very well happen. Also, pushing your #1+2 that hard can be an issue itself. I’m not sure how effective AJ Burnett will be on short rest, and even if he is OK the first time he could have nothing the 2nd go around. Its just a risky move, one you’d really try to avoid.
Two words: Phil Hughes.
Yeah. In my opinion, Scott Downs would mean the Yankees want to move Hughes back into the rotation. Giving us a rotation of CC, AJ, Andy, Joba, and Hughes down the stretch, and CC, AJ, Andy, and Hughes in the playoffs, with Joba, Downs, and Mo at the end of the game. That would be pretty good.
Two more: Not Happening.
He would need to be stretched out, which means you’d lose him for about a month. Plus, the minor league season ends in late August, so he’d have nowhere to do it competitively. Aceves is much easier to do, he could go 60+ right now, and would be stretched out in 2 starts.
Actually the AAA season goes through the first week of September this year.
I think if the Yankees were to acquire Downs, it would signal the end of Hughes in the bullpen, as he would probably shadow Joba over his final few starts, stretching him out and allowing him to be a starter down the stretch. Joba and Downs would then be in the pen and would serve as a dominating duo before passing the ball to Mariano. Downs is such an effective reliever, I think the Yankees would trust him to get outs in the 8th inning.
If the Toronto trades Scott Downs it’s a salary dump. With both Wells and Rios starting to cost more the 4 million owed Downs next year becomes a luxury they likely can’t afford.
If the Yankees get Downs then imo Bruney’s Yankees career is likely over. He could be moved before the trade deadline.
Yankees are also reported to be in on Chad Qualls, for the same reasons as Downs. Either way, it would let them stretch out a current reliever (take your pick) for starts when Joba approaches his innings cap.
I think Qualls will cost more then Downs. Qualls has a reasonable contract for next year and is proving this year he can close games. There are many teams that don’t want to take on Downs 4 million dollar salary for next year.
As a Yankees fan I prefer Downs over Qualls because he has pitched in the AL East successfully.
Regardless of whether we add another reliever, I think we can easily swap Joba for Aceves in terms of their roles. I don’t think they want to move Hughes again because of the yoyo factor that they think hurt Joba last year.
How many pitches did Phil throw the other day…20-25-30?
Hell, he is half way to the 60 pitch mark…let him pitch a few more games, starting in the 6th. He could be stretched out by the end of Aug.
Is that the greatest answer to Phil going to the rotation…NO! It is the fourth way to go, not one I like but, it would do the job…maybe.This points out the many options we have open to us this year, as to last year
Stop dreaming as Hughes should stay in the pen. Give Aceves the chance to start when the need arises.