Yanks Acquire Pudge

The Yankees have made another trade, this time sending reliever Kyle Farnsworth to the Tigers for catch Ivan Rodriguez. Rodriguez is hitting .295 with 5 HR, and 32 RBI this season, and has thrown out (18 of 50) 36% of would-be base stealers this season.

The Farns was having his best season as a Yankee, and even got some of his harshest critics off his back, myself included. He was 1-2 with a 3.65 ERA in 45 appearances for the Yanks this season.

With Farnsworth headed to Detroit, expect Brian Bruney to fill up the vacated bullpen spot. And maybe in a few weeks Mark Melancon could get called up. He was promoted to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre earlier this week.

Rodriguez will join the team tomorrow as they begin a big four game series with the Angels.

I'm not sure how I feel about this trade. Adding Rodriguez's bat will definitely improve the bottom of the order now, that's a plus. And the Yankees did need an everyday catcher with Posada out for the remainder of the season, but was it worth trading Farnsworth - a guy that has become so important to this team's bullpen - for him? I guess only time will tell.

So what do you think about this move?

Eiland Fixed The Farns?

From Bob Klapisch:

Dave Eiland remembers the first time he saw the fatal flaw in Kyle Farnsworth's delivery last winter - a subtle bouncing of the hands when the Yankee reliever should've been taking the ball out of his glove. There it was, every batter, every pitch, over and over again on video. A fraction-of-a-second delay kept Farnsworth from getting to his arm slot in time, which choked his fastball, flattened out his slider and otherwise turned him into the most hated man in pinstripes last season.

Eiland might not have been splitting the atom, but in the Yankees' universe, the discovery was the equivalent of genius. He approached Farnsworth on the first day of spring training, sat him down in the video room and said, simply: "Let me help."

Suddenly it all made sense: The reliever with a 98-mph heater routinely was pounded in 2007 because his arm had been in the wrong slot all along - a mistake that Ron Guidry, Eiland's predecessor, never saw. Upon replacing Guidry, Eiland calmly suggested to Farnsworth that he get the ball out of his glove quicker. The coach smiled and said, "Kyle jumped on board right away with it."

The Yankees have been reaping the dividends ever since.

Reaping the dividends? Really? I don't know about you, but I'm not sold on the idea that The Farns is fixed just yet.

Yes, his slider has been good recently, but earlier in the year it was his cutter that was impressing people, but eventually he had one of his bad games, then another, and another, and his ERA rose to 4.50. The next thing you know the people who were praising him were now talking about how bad he was.

To me that is exactly what's going on here again, and if he has a bad week or two and his ERA jumps again, people will be calling for his head.

There is one stat that I am impressed with; The Farns has yet to blow a lead. He's lost a couple games, but when he has been brought in with a lead he's been able to hold it. As a result the Yankees are 36-1 when leading after 6.

In May he had a 4.50 ERA and everyone was fearful of having him pitch in big spots, then he had a much better June and people are talking about how "good" he's been. I hope we see the June version for the rest of the year, but one good month does not mean a pitcher is fixed.

Farnsworth Injures Hand, But Shouldn't Miss Much Time

From Fred Kerber:

The two shortest time frames on the planet, according to most scientific research, are: how long it takes for a hard-batted ball to get back to a Major League mound; and how long it takes the guy behind you to honk his horn when the red light turns green.

Now you know how about how much time Kyle Farnsworth had to react yesterday to Brandon Phillips' eighth inning smash up the middle, a shot that left the Yankees reliever in stitches. Literally.

"If I had time to think about it, there's no way I would have done it. It happened so quick - it was just reaction," said Farnsworth who stuck out his right – yup, pitching hand – to deflect Phillips' shot over to Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod hurried his throw into an error that put Phillips on second. As the play subsided, Farnsworth took a look, rolled his eyes in disgust and called for the trainer. There was blood. Farnsworth needed three stitches between his right ring and pinkie fingers but said he doesn't expect to miss significant time.

He's very lucky he didn't break a bone, the Yankees, depending on how you feel about The Farns, may be unlucky he didn't break a bone. Either way he will probably only miss a few days, maybe not even that much.

Veras Pitched 8th due to Farnsworth's "Cranky Bicep"

From Anthony Rieber:

Yankees fans probably sighed with relief when Jose Veras and not Kyle Farnsworth was called on to protect a three-run lead in the eighth inning of yesterday's 6-3 win over the Royals.

But don't rejoice just yet, Farnsworth-bashers. Joe Girardi revealed that he passed over Farnsworth because of a "cranky bicep," not a desire to change the bullpen pecking order.

"He said he was available, but it was my thought to give him a couple of days," Girardi said.

I don't know what I was thinking. I actually believed that Girardi had smartened up, and realized that after three or four bad outings from Farnsworth that it was the time to try someone new in the 8th. But of course not, Girardi still trusts his boy, and don't be surprised to see The Farns in a big spot some time soon.

If it were up to me, I'd keep running Veras out there until he shows he can't do that job.

Girardi, Stop Using Farnsworth in the 8th

This year the 8th just isn't his thing, it really hasn't been since 2006, when he was actually decent. But since last year he's been absolutely awful, and it's time to give somebody else a shot.

This season Farnsworth hitters have hit .353 off him in the 8th inning. Last year opponents hit .299 against him in the 8th, by far his worst BAA in any inning. All this tells me is the pressure is getting to him in the 8th, let the guy be effective and pitch a less pressure packing inning, like the 6th or 7th, instead of forcing him to be the setup man.

Who to replace him? Why not give Edwar Ramirez a shot? For his brief career Edwar has only allowed opponents to hit .213 off him in the 8th inning. This year they're just hitting .154 against him in the 8th.

It would also be worth giving a guy like Chris Britton a shot, in his career he's held opponents to a .135 batting average in the 8th. And in late & close situations he's held batters to a .200 batting average. But we all know that for some reason Yankees managers hate Chris Britton and won't give him a chance.

None of this means either of these two will be great setup men, but it's certainly worth at least seeing if they can do the job.

Eventually the Yankees will call up guys like J.B. Cox and Mark Melancon, and hopefully one of them will be able to do the job, but until then why continue to lose games with Kyle Farnsworth on the mound? Give somebody else a chance.

Farnsworth's Suspension Reduced to 1 Game

From SI.com:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Baseball has cut Kyle Farnsworth's suspension from three games to one following an appeal by the New York Yankees reliever.

Farnsworth will serve the suspension tonight, according to baseball spokesman Rich Levin.

Well that's certainly an improvement over the original 3 game suspension, but I still don't think he should have been suspended at all.

Farnsworth's New (old) Pitch

I couldn't really tell on TV, but According to Tyler Kepner, Kyle Farnsworth is now throwing a cutter. The pitch is actually something Farnsworth has had for a while, he just hadn't used it all that much.

“I’ll throw it whenever [Jose] Molina puts it down,” Farnsworth said. “It’s like my old slider that I had when I was starting, my first couple of years. I was inconsistent with it, so I stopped using it. But I was working on it with Bruney, playing catch with him with it.”

Thank you Brian Bruney. I don't know how long he's be using it, but he's been great his last four appearances. And besides that solo HR off the bat on A. J. Pierzynski in what was a 9-4 ball game last week, he's been very good since the series in Tampa lowering his ERA from 5.68 to 3.65.

Maybe Farnsworth has finally figured out how to be a consistent reliever. If so, he can be a very useful 7th inning man, getting the ball to Joba.

Manny doesn't care, why do you?

From the Boston Herald:

Manny Ramirez sided with Kyle Farnsworth, saying the New York Yankees relief pitcher did not deserve to be suspended by Major League Baseball for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for throwing behind him in the seventh inning of Thursday’s game at Yankee Stadium.

Ramirez said Farnsworth was simply honoring an ages-old baseball tradition of retaliation after David Aardsma hit Alex Rodriguez with a pitch the previous game, and thus should not have been suspended.

“He doesn’t deserve that,” Ramirez said. “He was trying to protect his player. You know, we hit A-Rod the game before. When you’ve got a guy like that on your team, you’re going to protect him. . . . That’s the way the game is played. You hit one of their guys and they’re going to hit one of yours.”

I find it funny that sports writers, ESPN "analysts," and even some Yankees fans pretend to be outraged by the this, yet the player whose "life was in danger" doesn't seem care at all. Yes, Farnsworth threw a pitch that might have come too close, but the night before A-Rod got hit by a pitch on the upper shoulder, and nobody seemed to care.

The pitch to A-Rod from Aardsma was a high fastball that like I said in another post, would have hit Rodriguez in the face had he not turned and jumped. That pitch was at least as dangerous as the pitch Farnsworth threw. Oh, and did I mention that pitch actually hit somebody?

I think the reason the Red Sox didn't retaliate, and why Manny doesn't seem to care, is because this really isn't a big deal. People need to stop overreacting to everything.

Girardi's Faith in Farsnworth Scares Me

We all watched last night as Girardi sent Kyle Farnsworth out for a second inning of work - something Joe Torre never did at all last year, and hadn't done since the middle of 2006 - and we all saw the results - 2 runs on 3 hits in the inning, including a 440 foot blast off the bat of John Buck. Hopefully it doesn't take Giradi long to realize that this guy cannot pitch more than one inning.

Then there's this from Joel Sherman's blog today:
Joba Chamberlain

The other day I was in Joe Girardi’s office chatting with him about the decision this year on what to do with Joba Chamberlain: Keep him in relief or move him into the rotation. I remarked that this choice would become easier if Ross Ohlendorf and/or Brian Bruney proved so capable as set-up man that the Yankee manager would feel comfortable moving one or both into the eighth inning, so that Chamberlain could be moved to the rotation with less angst. “Yeah, I agree,” Girardi said. “But don’t forget Kyle Farnsworth. I still believe that Farnsworth is going to help us a lot.”

Girardi played with Farnsworth with the Cubs, and since he was named manager he has indicated a belief that he could reach the frustrating Farnsworth and get him to use his very good stuff to greater effectiveness. The innuendo in all of this was that Joe Torre had given up on Farnsworth and that Farnsworth had lost his confidence and effectiveness. But Joe Torre had lost his confidence in Farnsworth for a very good reason – it is all but impossible to be confident in Farnsworth, who endured another poor outing and a loss Wednesday night. Girardi just might learn the hard way what Torre learned

As Sherman says, Torre lost confidence in Farnsworth for a good reason - he stunk. One thing I've learned after watching this guy for several years now is that he's good in low-pressure spots and only for an inning at a time.

He's also a guy who pitches better when he's well rested. Last season his ERA with three days rest was 2.00, with two days rest it was 2.70, but as his amount of rest decreased his ERA increased. With one day of rest his ERA was 5.47, and with no days rest it was 6.75.

If Girardi is as smart as everyone thinks he is, he would stop trying to push Farnsworth that "extra mile," because it's only going to hurt the Yankees. Use him the right way, or don't use him at all, personally I'd prefer the latter.