Desperately Seeking Wilson
I’m normally a fan of the XM Baseball morning show with Buck Martinez (who will be forever ruined to me thanks to Triple Play ‘99) and the other guy, but they were pulling some things out of their ass this morning. They were doing some seemingly “on the fly” discussion of last year’s deadline trades (I say “seemingly” because they plugged it several times as coming up during the show, but the prep work involved seemed to be a transaction list from last July) and made accurate comments on what trades have worked (boy, the Nationals really bent over the Reds on that Kearns/Majewski deal), but usually missed the mark on why (Ryan Wagner is pitching “well” for the Nats [5.74 ERA in 14 games before season-ending surgery], Bill Bray is getting hammered for the Reds [hasn't pitched this season due to injury]).
Anyway, then they start mentioning a possible deal brewing between the Dodgers and Yanks with Scott Proctor getting shipped over to the Dodgers for Wilson Betemit. Buck mentions that he doesn’t know why the Yankees would do this deal.
For those of you new here, that’s Scott Proctor - Scott Proctor of the 1.430 WHIP. Scott Proctor who has pitched 130 games in the last season and a half. Scott Proctor who burned his uniform because teams hit .313 against him in June.
It’s not that Proctor is a bad pitcher; he’d probably be much better on a team not run by the Torrebot. But if there’s one thing the Yanks have to offer right now, it’s relief pitching. The Yanks are carrying 13 pitchers right now at the major league level, and have Chris Britton in AAA ready at a moment’s notice. Plus, there are other options deeper on the Scranton roster, like Jim Brower (1.77 ERA in 29 games) and Charlie Manning (47 K in 41.3 innings), not to mention Sean Henn, or using a guy like Matt DeSalvo or Chase Wright in a long relief role. The dropoff wouldn’t be that huge.
In contrast, you have Wilson Betemit (who I mentioned in yesterday’s article), who has an OPS more than 200 points higher than the man he’d be replacing, Miguel Cairo. Add to that Betemit’s ability to actually play three infield positions, in contrast to Cairo’s “I can play 2nd, kinda, and maybe left field and first base?”
However the biggest thing that acquiring Betemit would bring to the Yankees is giving the team an Alex Rodriguez safety net if Rodriguez decides to play hardball and terminates his contract. As it stands right now, the Yankees would have absolutely no one to take Rodriguez’s place if he left, putting the Yanks at in poor negotiation stance. While Betemit isn’t an ideal third baseman, he isn’t a horrific option at third (not like a not-ready Eric Duncan or scrambling to get an Aaron Boone or Russell Branyan) and allows it to work both ways - if Rodriguez does leave, the Yanks have a third baseman. If he doesn’t, the Yanks have someone on the bench who can play all the infield positions, have a little pop in his bat, and is only 25 years old.
Make the deal, Brian - don’t listen to Buck.
IN OTHER YANKEE NEWS: Rob Neyer in his blog (ESPN Insider subscription required) tells a good story about how the Yankees found Edwar Ramirez using the uncomplicated process of seeing really good statistics and confirming that he wasn’t a mental case before picking him up - sight unseen - to fill out their single-A roster. Now he’s in the majors, great story, etc.
It is a great story, and Ramirez’s numbers have been mind-boggling, with 33 strikeouts in 16 innings at AA Trenton and 47 strikeouts in 27 innings at AAA Scranton, which got him a callup to the majors. The downer for the story is that Ramirez is still in the Yankee organization, so he’s been used twice in the 13 games he’s been with the major league club. Over the course of a full season, that’d mean that Ramirez would get in all of 25 games. In comparison, the beforementioned Proctor is on a pace for 83 (on top of his 83 last season), Luis Vizcaino is set for 83 games, 74 for Mike Myers, and 72 for Brian Bruney and Kyle Farnsworth.
Why? Torrebot does not compute Edwar Ramirez. He was allowed to be used in a blowout victory to clean up the ninth inning (eight run lead), and struck out the side. Three games later, Torrebot allowed Ramirez to be used in a game that wasn’t completely in hand, with only a three run lead and a runner on base. Ramirez didn’t strike out every batter he faced that time, allowing the runner to score and walking another, giving up a hit (a DOUBLE, of all things), and hitting a batter. SYNTAX ERROR for Torrebot, and Ramirez hasn’t been used since.
I mentioned on one of my message boards that Ramirez wasn’t going to get called up despite his numbers because of Torre. I momentarily forgot that Torre wasn’t the team’s GM and didn’t control who got called up and who didn’t. Torre can’t stop people from being called up, but he sure as hell doesn’t have to use them if he doesn’t want to.