Brackman on His Up and Down Year

From the NY Daily News:

Andrew Brackman, the Yanks' 2007 first-round pick and the former hoops player at N.C.State, was among the five players called up Tuesday from Triple-A Scranton. The 6-foot-10 righty struggled mightily with his control for much of this season and admitted he considered walking away from the game after an embarrassing start at Durham in July.

"That was definitely the lowest point in the season for me. It was tough to get on the bus. Very hard," the 25-year-old Brackman said. "I had some conversations with my dad, talking about what to do after baseball....But we didn't come up with any Plan B's. He yelled at me and told me to get on the bus.

"And I decided I'm not going to just hang it up. I'm going to go to the end and see what happens. I just stuck with it. I told myself I had to get better, and found a way to do it."

With a 2-6 record and an unsightly 8.10 ERA in 13 Triple-A starts, Brackman was shifted to the bullpen following another rough outing - a nine-walk disaster in Buffalo on July 29. But he made a mechanical adjustment with the positioning of his hands at the start of his delivery, and allowed just three earned runs over 20-1/3 innings in nine relief appearances thereafter.

"It was a rough season, but I've been throwing the ball well lately," Brackman said. "I was at a point in the season where something had to change and I had to do something to get better....It's a funny game, something so small can help you out so much. I'm just glad to be feeling the way I do now."

There might even be a chance that he gets in a few games. Later in the article there's a quote from Cashman saying that if an opportunity presents itself for the new call-ups to pitch, they'll pitch. He also mentioned that he wants to save the regular bullpen guys as much as possible down the stretch.