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Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Loaisiga looks too impressive to go unprotected

After a game like last night, the Yankiverse experiences a false sense of serenity. Jonathan Loaisiga pitched like the Second Coming of Greg Maddox, so suddenly, all problems seem to have vanished. We're drowning in starters, with Masahiro Tanaka on the verge of a Scranton rehab.

To top it off, there is the Tampa model to consider. Watching the Yanks being throttled by mini-waves of relievers, you have to wonder if our own bullpen could not win in a pinch? Imagine a Betances-Warren-Robertson-Holder-El Chapo progression - ditch Chasen Shreve - and you could steal a game. Burn bullpen, instead of rotation, right? Arms are arms, eh? 

Listen: The dog days are near, and the Empire must be exceedingly careful with Loiasiga. Last night, he made it look easy - maybe too easy. Rookie starters are prone to be erratic; we still don't know which Domingo German will show up on a given night. Right now, for better or worse, most of our rotation is amazingly on track with last year's workload.

Luis Severino, 104 innings, 2.24 ERA (Last year: 191 innings, 2.98) On track.

CC Sabathia, 76 innings, 3.14 ERA (Last year: 148 innings, 3.69) On track.
Masahiro Tanaka, 72 innings, 4.58 ERA (Last year: 178 innings, 4.74) On track.

Sonny Gray, 80 innings, 4.93 ERA (Last year: 162 innings, 3.55) On track.
Domingo German, 63 innings, 5.40 ERA (Last year: 111 innings, 3.16 in minors & majors) On track.
Jonathan Loaisiga: 14 innings, 1.93 ERA - (45 innings in 2018, counting minors.) (Last year: 32 innings, 1.93, in minors) Seriously overworked. 


As you see, I've flagged the inconsistency. It's a ridiculous leap of faith to think Loaisiga can pitch deep into August or September. He may look like a young Mariano, but Sam Mittello might be the better comparison. He'll soon log the most innings since 2013, when he pitched in Single A for the Giants, and threw 68. He is a stopgap at best, unless we burn him out, which would be unforgivable. With stuff like that, he has to be protected.    

So... what do we do? Well, as a parlor game, here is the current five-man in Scranton.

Justus Sheffield, 38 innings, 3.26 ERA
Josh Rogers, 86 innings, 3.32 ERA
Nestor Cortez, 44 innings, 4.23 ERA
David Hale, 50 innings, 4.26 ERA
Chance Adams, 65 innings, 5.21 ERA


Help on the way? I dunno. Sheffield is the big name. Rogers could throw some innings. Chance Adams has been awful. Cortez has interesting stuff; we nearly lost him in last December's Rule 5 draft. Hale is Scranton's version of AJ Cole.

Here's the reality: Brian Cashman will be searching the scrap piles for this year's Jamie Garcia, a journeyman tin can who won't cost much. From the bleacher seats, we'd rather see Sheffield, someone who inspires hope. That's not Cashman's style. Remember:

Bird gotta fly,
Fish gotta swim;
Cashman gotta think,
"Trade for 
him!"


No matter how you slice it, a trade is coming. The Yankees need a sixth starter, a bullpen lefty, and maybe a backup catcher. Jonny Lasagna is too promising to be thrown into a grinder. Hold your breath, folks.  

23 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

So endeth the JuJu.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Give Nestor Cortez a shot! I love the double-heroic name (I know, I know: Cortes was hardly heroic. But in the old sense of the word. And hey, he was a conqueror!)

TheWinWarblist said...

Dear sweet Sam Militello. Sweet foolish Sam Militello. Hurt his arm but didn't tell the club. Kept pitching with a busted wing. Was afraid he'd be sent down. Do I remember that correctly or no?

Carl J. Weitz said...

WW:

I don't think Sam hid anything from the Yankees but the great movement he got on his pitches were reliant on his delivery which eventually caused his fatal arm injuries. Here's an interesting article on him.The article compared him to Hughes and Chamberlain as other Yankee pitchers with unfulfilled promise. I omitted that part for (relative) brevity.


Rewind the tape about 25 years and it takes us to another Yankees pitcher that tore through the minor leagues and set the bar of expectation at an unfairly high level when breaking into the big leagues. Sam Militello was drafted by the Yankees as a 20 year old out of the University of Tampa in 1990. He was lights out over the next three years at every level of minor league ball. Just how good was he? Take a look at his aggregate minor league stats from 1990-1992 (data courtesy of baseball reference):

G GS IP W L ERA WHIP H HR BB SO H/9 HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 SO/BB
81 80 528.2 48 12 1.70 1.00 367 15 162 607 6.2 0.3 2.8 10.3 3.7
Based on the jaw-dropping numbers above, Militello was called up to the Bronx in August of 1992 and installed quickly as part of the starting rotation. In his debut he threw seven shutout innings against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Needless to say the fans were sold. He pitched well in eight more starts that year and was supposed to be a key piece in the growing core of young Yankees that would eventually take them to the promised land.

Even quicker than he had rifled through the minor leagues, everything came tumbling for Sam Militello in 1993. As a pitcher who relied heavily on breaking balls to strike batters out, the strain on his arm caused the Yankees to shut him down due to injuries after appearing in just three games. He would never again appear in a major league game. After some ineffective rehab assignments later that year, things went from bad to worse in 1994. The same Yankee ghosts that haunted Steve Sax before him and Chuck Knoblauch after him appeared to get the best of poor Sam. He simply couldn't throw the ball where he wanted to anymore. In just 3.2 innings of work at Triple-A Columbus, he walked a staggering 19 batters. That was pretty much it for Militello. He was out of professional baseball by 1996, but to his credit has made the best of his experience by returning to his alma mater as a successful pitching coach for the past 14 seasons.

TheWinWarblist said...

Carl, what joint(s) were injured? Wasn't effective reconstructive surgery available back then?

Carl J. Weitz said...

I think it was his elbow. But I don't believe he had surgery. Whatever the problem was, he lost control and he was a finesse pitcher and a control specialist similar to Greg Maddux. After his arm problem he became a Rick Ankiel.

JM said...

I have faith in the kids. Let them pitch. One or two of them might be good for a while at least.

But then, I'm in Palm Springs, where the temperature goes up to 106 or so every afternoon and a strange bird sits in a nearby palm tree and runs through its dozens of different calls, some of them sounding like a Moog synthesizer on acid.

Maybe my brain is addled. But Shef is due this year. We may have a rotation, rookies included, that can do as well or better than the vet we'd give up prospects for. I mean, Sonny Gray. Is he more consistent than German?

I think we know the answer to that one.

Anonymous said...

There is no rational reason to trade for a 35-year-old who is not likely to pitch any better than the 23-year-olds you already have. But who ever was foolish enough to contend that Cashman--or, more to the point, his puppet masters Levine and Steinbrenner--are rational? He seems to operate on the same level of shrewdness and sophistication as the callers and hosts of WFAN, who always clamor for the stupid, obvious moves so beloved of Yankee management, which can then boast to the assembled dolts of the press corps, "See? We listened to you!Do you like us now? Do you really, really like us now?"

TheWinWarblist said...

The baseball press corps is largely made up of goat-blowing imbeciles. And Joe Girardi is doing nothing to bring down that average over at MLB Network.

TheWinWarblist said...

The only reason to keep the kids down on the farm would be to not over-extend their innings totals.

Leinstery said...

Holy shit, Bird just got a hit going the other way.

TheWinWarblist said...

Yes, a brief appearance by BLP.

Leinstery said...

Hey he's got that average up to a scorching .193

TheWinWarblist said...

Good to see BLP take one for the team too. BLP can't get drilled in the ribs too often for my liking. Take your base BLP, take your base.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Words you never want to hear:
"Chasen Shreve is warming in the pen"

For the love of Yahweh, NO!

TheWinWarblist said...

[grits teeth until they hurt]

TheWinWarblist said...

The Win Warblist CUTS AND PASTES AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-
AAAA-AA-Ahh-AHHH-AAAHHHHH-AAaAaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHaaaa-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaAaAaHaHaHaaaAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!!!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

wow!

Shreve didn't suck.

A first for everything.

TheWinWarblist said...

I hate Syphilitic Eyes so very much, Rufus. So very much.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Nice win. But I'm curious about the token appearances by Shreve and Walker. Why? Because a game without them is like a game without sunshine?

Of course, Boone stipulated in his presser that both men just need to get right, and they'll be fine. Sigh. The tabloids largely agreed, even saying that the Yanks don't NEED a LOOGY with all the great righties in the pen, and that Drury playing first in Scranton means nothing.

Sigh again.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


...and that Drury playing first in Scranton means nothing.

If Drury playing first in Scranton means that he might one day ascend and let our .193 friend rest for a while on the bench, I for one am okay with it.

KD said...

Drury playing first in Scranton? OMG! almost like a certain group of baseball executives are reading this blog. Or else I'm just amazed they are picking up on the screaming obvious.

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