Yanks Call Up Royce Ring

Andrew Marchand is reporting that the Yankees have recalled Royce Ring to be a second lefty in pen. To make room for Ring, Chad Huffman has been designated for assignment.

In 52 games with the SWB Yanks, he went 2-1, with two saves, and 1.93 ERA. In 42 innings, he allowed 9 earned on 35 hits, walked 11, and struck out 39. Lefties hits just .202 against him.

Yanks May Call Up Melancon To Help Bullpen Issues

Chad Jennings is reporting that the Yankees will likely call Mark Melancon up from Triple-A Scranton, but they're waiting to see if tonight's game can be played before they make the move. He also says that Boone Logan or Greg Golson could be heading to Scranton to make room on the roster.

With the exception of Sunday's game, both Joba and Mo have looked good at the end of games, the problem is getting there. The loss of Alfredo Aceves has really started to take its toll on the pen. David Robertson has been better lately, but still isn't the same pitcher we saw most of last year. He's walking 6.17 batters per nine compared to 4.74 last year, and his homers are way up, from 0.82 per nine last year to 2.31 so far in 2010. He also has relied on his fastball a lot more this year, throwing it 78.1% of the time, compared to 68.7% last year. Batters may be sitting on his fastball, and that could be causing the jump in homers.

Besides Robertson's struggles, the Yankees have no idea what they have in Chan Ho Park. He had a couple good outings before hitting the DL, but overall has been a disappointment. And Damaso Marte and Logan have both been ineffective.

The bullpen is an issue right now, there's no doubt that. But it has been like this in each of Joe Girardi's first two seasons as manager and each time he found a formula that eventually worked. Hopefully, Melancon can pitch well at this level and help the pen find itself. Other pitchers to keep your eye on are Jonathan Albaladejo and lefty Royce Ring, who have both pitched well for Scranton this year.

Marte has "Cranky" Shoulder

Via Chad Jennings:

Damaso Marte felt some discomfort in his left shoulder while throwing long toss a few days ago. He’s been scratched from today’s scheduled relief appearance.

Marte and Joe Girardi described it as a “cranky” shoulder. Marte said it’s sore, but nothing like last year’s injury. He doesn’t expect this to land him on the DL.

Eric Boland of Newsday also tweets this Cashman quote:

He's not on my red flag list at this moment.

Hopefully this is just some end of spring training soreness and nothing more. At best Marte is a high quality lefty specialist, and at worst...well let's just say there are a few moments of his I would like to forget. Last year we got through the season fine without him, and this year should be no different with lefty depth such as Boone Logan, and Royce Ring. Marte really only becomes extremely valuable in the post-season when teams like Minnesota, or Philadelphia come in with big lefty bats to shut down.

A second lefty or Mitre?

Via Mark Feinsand:

It has been widely assumed that the Yankees would take either Sergio Mitre or Chad Gaudin as their long man to open the season, but Joe Girardi said this afternoon that he's still considering taking a second lefty in the pen instead of a long reliever.

That means that Boone Logan or Royce Ring still have a shot at making the Opening Day roster, something I figured was the longest of long shots.

With CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte and Javier Vazquez filling the top four spots in the rotation, Girardi may not think he needs a traditional long reliever. Even when Phil Hughes pitches, the Yankees have Alfredo Aceves and Chan Ho Park in the bullpen, giving them a pair of pitchers that can go 2-3 innings if necessary.

"With our four experienced starters, you expect some distance out of these guys every day," Girardi said. "In the back of your mind, though, you always have to have that just in case, because you can really fry a bullpen if you don’t."

While the fifth starter race is a big deal, there are still other areas of the Yankees roster that haven't been ironed out yet. One of, and maybe the only area I'm talking about is the last spot in that bullpen.

If it were up to me I'd go with the second lefty. For this team, with this rotation, I think having a second lefty in the pen can be more useful than a tradition long man. Of course that second lefty will have to be able to get lefties out consistently, but that kinda goes without saying, doesn't it?

Here's how the two finalists--Boone Logan and Royce Ring--have done this spring:

• Logan: 0-1, 2.57 ERA, 7 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
• Ring: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Lefties have hit .266/.333/.398 against Logan in his career, and .229/.350/.321 against Ring. Based on their splits and their spring performances, I think I'd have to go with Ring.