Looks like we just found Tim Wakefield’s replacement…

I still want Wake as well, but this will kill the Yankees, I didn’t realize his numbers were so good!

To replace Wake, you need 300 innings win or lose. Wake is still valuable!

Why would he sign as a potential starter, on a deal with reported incentives for 35-50 appearances?

Wake will not be starting so this isn’t about him, I see this as insurance.. Does he throw a gyro Ball?????

bibsley Says: Why would he sign as a potential starter, on a deal with reported incentives for 35-50 appearances?

Re: Not too tough to figure out. Members of the starting rotation are expected to make 30-38 starts per year. This gives him the incentive to stay healthy as a starter and have some relief duties coming out of the gate. Oh yeah, getting to the postseason will certainly make 35 games played easily attainable for this kid and who doesn’t think that is going to happen this year and for years to come.

As far as Wake goes…I love him to death but penciling him into the rotation is hilarious at this point. Don’t get me wrong he is a great knuckleball pitcher but his body is racked by injury and every start is either really good or really bad. There is no consistency.

I think the biggest effect that the Aceves signing will have during Spring and at the beginning of the year is for Dice-K. There is no reason why Dice-K can’t come back and have a 20 win season. He has the STUFF and his consistency was improving. Now he has some competition the old fashioned American Way to get his stuff together. No more $50 Million talk to him payments, no more worries about contract cost vs. production. Basically Dice-K is looking at either getting it together or being sent packing. I think with the off-season additions, the money they spent and the quality of players they got shows that this ownership has learned from their mistakes and one mistake they do not want to make again is holding onto an unproductive player because they owe him a lot of money. Team comes first.

Sorry So Long

Sure, his numbers look great, but the Yanks aren’t complete morons. To think he’s going to just step-in at the back of the rotation and log 200 innings is wishful thinking. The guy has serious back issues and we’ve got to be prepared for him to be both a good pick-up and a regular on the DL. Considering the Yank-mees need for any kind of starter, I’m pretty sure they would have brought Aceves back if they believed he had any shot of working out in a major league rotation.

I’m a Yankees fan from México. I know Alfredo Aceves since his days pitching down here. If healthy, he is a very good starter. But, like Southie just said, that’s a big IF.
Anyway, I’m dissapointed with Cashman, who should have given Alfredo another opportunity to show how his back is. I remember that after 2010 World Series, Cashman told NY reporters that Ace was going to be in the World Series roster if the Yankees would have beaten the Rangers. Just a week from that statement, Ace suffered the bike accident in México and broke his left clavicle. Then, Cashman decided to non-tender him. A big mistake because if they were thinking to include Ace in the WS roster, even without pitching for a while, that can only means that his back was OK. And the clavicle injury was not on his throwing arm, so, there should be no problem about it.
The fact is that we’ll soon know how he’s going to be. But, as I said before, I think this was a big mistake from Yankees Front Office.

Southie Says: Sure, his numbers look great, but the Yanks aren’t complete morons. To think he’s going to just step-in at the back of the rotation and log 200 innings is wishful thinking. The guy has serious back issues and we’ve got to be prepared for him to be both a good pick-up and a regular on the DL. Considering the Yank-mees need for any kind of starter, I’m pretty sure they would have brought Aceves back if they believed he had any shot of working out in a major league rotation.

Why would anyone here expect 200 innings from this guy?? At most, the expectation would be around 120, which isn’t too much to ask from a SP. If proven effective, he’d be a great long reliever/spot starter, with the ability to throw in the 6th and 7th to hand the ball off to Bard. He would be much, MUCH more useful than Wakefield, who is basically a mop up duty/terrible spot starter at this point.

I think Acevedos is a good addition to an allready good pen especially when acevedos can be a starter/reliever/long reliever,but got to find a way to keep wake

“There is no reason why Dice-K can’t come back and have a 20 win season”

I can name you multiple reasons.

1. Dice-K’s strikeout rate per 9 has dropped every year since 2007.
8.84 in 2007, 8.27 in 2008, 8.19 in 2009, to 7.79 in 2010. While 7.79 strikeouts per 9 innings is good when you are throwing more than enough groundballs to offset the amount of balls you put in play (which he doesn’t) Dice-K doesn’t throw anywhere close to the type of groundball rate you need to achieve this. His ground balls account for only 33% of balls in play, an extremely poor number.

Aside: Those ground balls were one of the main reasons why Clay had such a marvelous season. Over half of his balls put into play were groundballs. Elite defense at the corners can quickly shrink your ERA with that.

2. Dice-K still can’t stop walking people.
When you combine a poor groundball rate and a declining strikeout rate with Dice-K’s control problems, you spell nothing but trouble. 4.35 walks per 9 innings is a terrible number, and is probably the major cause of his headaches. Unless you’re striking batters out at prolific rates(Pedro, Lincecum, etc), walking more than 3-3.5 batters per nine will never allow you to be an elite pitcher consistently.

Pitching involves 3 key things: Stirkeouts (removing the ball being in play from hurting you), lack of walks (don’t put guys on for free) and groundballs (the easiest type of in play event to convert into an out). Right now, Dice-K has an above average strikeout rate, while being well below average in the other two.

He had one lucky year (2008) fueled by an unnaturally low homerun rate, and one very unlucky year (2009) where he rebounded a bit. It’s pretty clear what his true talent level is, and it a mix between those two seasons. He’s a low to mid 4 ERA pitcher who can still strike enough guys out to have competitive stretches, but walks too many batters to establish any consistency.

It’s sad, because he had this great potential, and his control (walks) just disappeared when he came to the states. I wish it could have unfolded differently. He he had kept those same walk rates from Japan, he would have been a solid #2.

Except for hall of fame caliber pitchers, there are very few who consistently (year after year) have very good years. Easy examples here are several big name Red Sox starters, Greinke, etc. Combined with/because of injuries, that is why teams really need to have at least three creditable (#4 or 5 caliber starters in reserve when the season starts). Hence, Acevedo (part of a year “rehabbing” with th Pawsox seems a good possibility).

i hope the red sox do not fall back into where they kept signing personnel who used to be good—-has beens—-and have them fall flat on their faces

Aceves? Good luck with that Sox!

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