SMinDC, that was out of desparation. Yankee starters were going down faster than, well the analogy would involve Paris Hilton, dunno if Steve wants the site to go blue like that.

**Will they make the majors at the same time? Would the Yankees have two rookies in the rotation at the same time?**

At some point this year, the Yankees had a group of Karstens, Clippard, Wright, Igawa and Hughes starting games… surely they had two rookie starters in the rotation already this year.

What this move does is give me hope that we’ll see a 2008 rotation that looks something like this:

Wang-Hughes-Pettitte-Chamberlain-Moose, with Kennedy starting the year in the ‘pen as long man/Moose’s backup, and a 2009 rotation of all five guys making near ML-minimum. *tear*

FWIW, I think Clippard is a very good prospect, that most teams would love to have him, and that he could be a very good big league pitcher someday.

Steve wins this in a KO.

Anyway, baileywalk has a thing for Clippard. Nice pitcher but never a top prospect. Could be a solid bullpen guy if he remains with the Yankees.

~~But 39 hits in 24 IS a lot.~~

And, that’s why I wrote: “Clippard did get banged around a bit in his last 5 AAA starts.”

Stress: “A BIT”

Hey, I’m not pissy here. You’re the one who came after my initial statement.

I guess a dumbbell fell on your toe last night and you woke up pissy, Steve.

Giving someone’s stat line doesn’t tell the entire story. How many of those runs were inherited runners scoring? How many times did he just have one blowup inning?

All I’m saying is that he didn’t deserve a demotion. All I’m saying is that his main problem was that he was wild.

But 39 hits in 24 IS a lot.

~~~Clippard didn’t get banged around. He was walking too many people and his strikeout numbers were down.~~~

I said “Clippard did get banged around a bit in his last 5 AAA starts.”

Here’s the stats:

5 GS, 24.2 IP, 17 ER, 39 H and 13 BB

I stand by what I said – because it’s a fact.

Clippard didn’t get banged around. He was walking too many people and his strikeout numbers were down.

I still hate the idea of demoting him to AA, especially if the less-talented Ohlendorf gets to stay in AAA.

The “problem” right now for the Yankees is that they have too much pitching talent to know what to do with. Yes, that’s a good “problem” to have. There literally aren’t enough spots on the upper levels to house all these kids.

The Yankees will be making a huge mistake if they hand Joba over to Torre as a setup man. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Would the team have two rookies in the rotation at the same time? How about THREE rookies? Hughes, Chamberlain and Kennedy. I think it’s possible. Wang is the only guy guaranteed to be back next year. Pettitte might be back, too, but after that: Clemens will either pitch half a year or retire; Igawa is bullpen-bound (and hopefully other-team-bound or minor-league-bound or he-mysteriously-disappeared-and-was-never-heard-from-again-bound); and Mussina has been pitching so poorly this year you might see him pack it up or request a trade to the NL or do something to allow himself to have one last good year in the bigs.

As for Joba and Ian being good friends — Joba called Ian his brother. So I would say they are close.

FWIW, Clippard did get banged around a bit in his last 5 AAA starts.

Were Clippard and Wright pitching poorly at AAA? Seems odd that Clippard would be demoted all the way down to AA after being in the big leagues just a few weeks ago.