Patterson hasn't even pitched AAA yet.
He may be a better alternative to Dorf or Bruney, but does a dozen innings of ST tell us that? Abby is only up for Andy.

SWB will be a revolving door. God knows what our BP will be come Sept. I'm not too concerned with who's here in April.

Music to my ears! ; )

It looks like several Yankee hitters are going into the season with fairly hot bats. That and their being in better shape bodes well for avoiding the recent slow starts. (Now watch them go 6-15 to start.)

I think it's funny that when Mussina et al complained about the Japan trip, they were called whiners (especially Moose), but now that Boston is complaining, it's a real problem.

If Patterson continues to pitch well, he'll be up soon enough. Bruney has to start throwing more strikes, otherwise he'll be giving way to one of the group featuring Patterson, Ramirez, Britton, etc.

All in all, I think that Girardi and Cashman have done a good job in putting together the Opening Day roster. They've gone with power arms in the pen, which I like. The bench is almost 100 per cent improved from last year, with Ensberg being added to Molina, Betemit, and Duncan.

The one thing the bench lacks is a speedster, but that could be addressed later in the season with Gardner.

I like Gardner as an August/September call up. Perhaps August to avoid having to maneuver him on to a playoff roster. I can see the scenario arising where we're down a run in the 9th, Giambi singles and we bring in Betemit to pinch run. The odds of him stealing a base to get himself into scoring position are not great. I'm wondering if J. Christian plays well if he might not be a candidate as well. I really have a soft spot for these IL guys.

Oh forget it.

Ichiro averaged 15 HRs/yr and a 0.950ish OPS in Japan. Here, 10 Hrs and a .820ish OPS.
Matsui averaged 40 HRs/yr and a 1.000ish OPS in Japan. Here, 25 HRs and a .850ish OPS.

Those are fairly significant drop-offs.

Are these guys 2 of the best?
Are there Japanese players who have fared better? (we won't talk about Kaz Matsui).
And Japan has a shorter season, more regular rest and smaller stadiums.

The Mariners paid a $13.1 million posting fee in 2001. We know Dice-K got $51m in 2007.

The Yankees, and maybe the Sox, are the only teams that enjoy a tax break on the posting fee. I wonder if having to pay a posting fee on top of salary makes good baseball sense, or if it's more about politics.

That's just silly. Remember, Torre had Green before and didn't use him, or keep him.

We had this discussion the other day, and you listed a bunch of particulars that you remembered. I don't know if you read the response, but you were mistaken on just about every one of them.

http://tinyurl.com/2oro99, comment 48. (How do you link a specific comment?)

Wow, Texas' bullpen really has gone downhill. What, this isn't Texas?

The only established major league pitchers here are either mediocre (Hawkins) or suck (Farnsworth.) If I held season tickets, I'd ask for a rebate. For a $210,000,000 team, this is shameful.

I'm not so sure Torre misused Edwar all that much. I think we all got bamboozled by that first appearance, and the fact was that Edwar just isn't that good.

But, frankly, it gets really hard to have any sort of discussion about this. I feel like there's a constant bait-and-switch going on. What did bullpen usage have to do with whether or not he insisted on playing washed-up veterans over more talented kids? What do Duncan and Edwar have to do with his supposed infatuation with Miguel Cairo?

In other news, it sounds like Phil is pitching good, and Giambi is impressing. Damon, maybe not so much...