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The Return of Rumpofglassskin
2008-08-22 05:12
by Alex Belth

Hard as it may seem to believe, it's true: Carl Pavano will start for the Yankees tomorrow against the Orioles. Tyler Kepner has more...There will be no shortage of wise cracks from the peanut gallery over the next couple of days, that's for sure.

Comments
2008-08-22 05:32:37
1.   Sliced Bread
You can do it blindfolded with one arm, and one leg tied to your bruised buttock. Nothing easier than hitting the Pavano pinata. But what's the point? Unless Cashman has immediate plans to trade Pavano there's no good reason to give him the ball. If there's not another young pitcher in the organization more worthy of Major League innings at this point, this franchise is in deeper doo doo than anybody knows.
2008-08-22 06:11:04
2.   3rd gen yankee fan
Yuck.
2008-08-22 07:04:08
3.   dianagramr
Pavanomas No Mas!
2008-08-22 09:30:10
4.   yankster
The Yankees must be pitching Pavano for a better reason than simply filling innings.

Are they keeping the clock from starting for a minor leaguer?

Is he possibly a late season trade candidate?

Through one of the quirks of the free agent rating system, according to the Detroit Tigers Thoughts Blog, a free agent that goes on the DL seems to get his performance projected backward (or forward) at a pretty good rate.

Consequently, if he's good enough, Pavano could, though he'll only pitch five or six games at most, conceivably become a type A or B free agent.

The result of that is interesting too. It would lower even further his value to a team other than the Yankees (because they would have to give up a pick for him). Consequently, Pavano has an incentive to pitch well enough to seem capable to other teams, but needs to pitch poorly enough to not be a "top free agent."

My suspicion is that the Yankees want to seem him put his cards on the table rather than letting another team simply take a winger on him at low cost or with purely performance oriented contract next year. If that's the case, it's a minor satisfying revenge for the Yankees.

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