Salivating On DeSalvo
From The Star-Ledger -
Though Rasner made the team out of spring training as the fifth starter due to injuries to Chien-Ming Wang and Jeff Karstens, manager Joe Torre said they want to take a look at what DeSalvo has to offer.
“He has more natural stuff than Rasner,” Torre said. “We just feel Matty, it may be his time … we just decided we want to try Matty’s stuff.”
DeSalvo, who won in his last start Tuesday with 5 1/3 scoreless innings against Toledo, began last year at Triple-A but went 1-6 with a 7.68 ERA in 11 games and was sent down to Double-A.
“We liked him a year ago, but then he went and pretty much self-destructed during the season,” Torre said.
But DeSalvo impressed the Yankees in spring training this season and is 3-0 with a 1.05 ERA with Scranton this year.
“He showed a lot of resolve this spring that he had it going in the right direction,” Cashman said.
Funny, back on January 22, 2006, I said that “I like the chances of Henn and DeSalvo the most (out of all Yankees farm system pitchers) to be the ones to help at the major league level in 2006.”
Looks like I was off by a year. Then again, who knew that DeSalvo would have off-the-field issues in 2006?
It will be interesting to see if Matt DeSalvo can be to the 2007 Yankees what Worm Killer Wang was to the 2005 Yankees. It will be a good story if he can help – considering he was not on Yankees fans radar as recent as four months ago.
It’s official: Torre is the most bizarre man in baseball.
Why do this to Rasner? What has Rasner done that Torre apparently dislikes the guy? I’m sure this is one of those “gut” issues where Torre’s Spidey senses tell him that Rasner isn’t good enough, or he doesn’t have the grit and guile to make it with the team.
It’s amazing that they would put it out there, before DeSalvo throws a single pitch in the big leagues, that they want DeSalvo to stick around and Rasner back in SWB. Shouldn’t it be a competition based on who looks better? Exactly how motivated can Rasner be for his start?
Considering the pup-tent Torre has for DeSalvo, I’m guessing this is the reason he’s up and Clippard is not.
Torre might be in for a rude surprise — because DeSalvo doesn’t have good control, and he doesn’t go deep in games because of his pitch count. Considering the lows DeSalvo fell to last year — actually getting DFA to make room for someone on the roster — it probably would have been better to leave him in AAA.
I guess you could look at this as DeSalvo’s last shot with the team — he has so many players about to overtake him on the depth chart. Hughes and Clippard are already there, and Wright, Horne and Kennedy aren’t far behind.
I like Rasner. But, the Nationals, of all people, let him go. Maybe there’s something there that we don’t see – that the Nats did – and now the Yankees see it too?
The Nats left Rasner unprotected because their GM is a moron. If he was still with the team, there’s little doubt he’d be a part of their horrible rotation.
I’m not saying Rasner is anything but a fringe major-leaguer like Karstens, but he’s not BAD — not so bad that you automatically take Matt DeSalvo — who hasn’t pitched in the majors, has major walk issues and had a mental breakdown last year — over him.
Torre is supposed to be the ultimate people person, and yet then he says something like this, which can do nothing but negatively affect the psyche of Rasner.
“…Torre is the most bizarre man in baseball.”
That’s one way to put it.
Steve, the Nationals front office was/is a train wreck. This is the same team that had opportunities to trade Sori mid-season but instead let him walk at the end of the season. That, in itself, borders on negligence.
I checked out DeSalvo’s minor league stats, looks like last year he had major control issues and walked almost a batter an inning but in his previous seasons his WHIP was alot better and his ERA in turn was lower. So I’m thinking maybe if he has good control in his start against SEA then he’ll be fine but if he walks batters he’ll probably have no chance and won’t last more than 3 or 4 innings.
Here’s an idea kids! Why not turn this DeSalvo thread into a bash Joe Torre thread…. errrrr…..
Sorry, already happened.
Saying that DeSalvo has more natural stuff than Rasner-The-Great and then saying lets try him out, try his stuff, wow! Bad Joe, bad, bad, bad Joe.
Now that is really bizarre.
Don, you should try living on the planet Earth.
Why not try to comment on our discussion of Joe Torre honestly instead of using hyperbole and make an actual cogent rebuttal… errr… I guess that’s impossible.
Why didn’t Torre just say “We want to see what Matt has”? Or “We life Matt’s stuff”? Why did it have to be a direct and negative comparison to Rasner?
Torre is flat-out saying he thinks DeSalvo is better than Rasner, and DeSalvo hasn’t thrown a pitch in the big leagues.
Rasner also knows he has no shot of sticking with the team.
If you were Rasner, how would you feel?
If you were Rasner, how would you like to hear that you don’t have as much “natural talent” (translation: ability) than someone else who’s accomplished nothing so far in his career?
So instead of looking at every criticism of Torre as illogical and out of line, you might actually want to look at the facts for once — instead of overreacting as soon as you see Torre’s name in a comment section.
Maybe Torre was just being honest. What is so wrong with that? It’s refreshing this day in age, but I understand that since it came out of Torre’s mouth then I understand why the Anti-Torre crowd would be so annoyed.
I have to agree with bailey. Obviously, Rasner will still be motivated to go out and throw a good game, or he doesn’t belong. But Torre, increasingly, seems to struggle with managing personalities from my outside perspective. I do like Torre on balance, but they say as you get older, your dominant personality traits become more pronounced, and not to play armchair psychologist or gerontologist here, but it seems to be happening with Torre. DeSalvo might have better stuff, and unfortunately somebody does have to start the first game and then get sent down, and I guess these are the honest reasons, but I think at this point Rasner deserves a longer look since has has pitched decently in the majors, whereas we have no idea what to expect from DeSalvo other than “good stuff.”
I gave your post all the due it deserved, baileywalk. Your response is a priceless piece of gibberish.
Aw, screw it, keep Rasner and Desalvo, and send Igawa down to AAA. I guess Ortiz was right about him.