Wednesday Wrap Up

Apparently, the bullpen situation for the Yankees looks to get a bit more interesting in 2008.  According to good ol’ PA at the Lohud Blog, both J.B. Cox and Mark Melancon will be ready for spring training, allowing them to throw their names into the already confusing middle relief mix.  PA recieved his information here, from the SWB Yankee Blog by Chad Jennings (Jennings spoke to farm director Mark Newman).

The post by Jennings is rather interesting and provides us with a lot more information regarding next year’s pitching corps.  Jennings basically states that the bullpen will be a “free-for-all” in spring training and there will be a ton of guys competing for a roster spot (Farnsworth, Hawkins, Mariano are the locks), including the usual suspects (E. Ramirez, Bruney, Henn, Britton, Veras, etc.) and the newer faces (Cox, Melancon, Albaladejo, Horne, Marquez, Wright, etc.).  Check out Jennings’ post, it’s got some good info about the Yankees resigning Nick Green, bringing back Bronson Sardinha, Juan Miranda in 2008, and a few other bits.

Also, in terms of the bullpen, Ron Mahay is no longer in the picture, as the Royals and Mahay have agreed to a 2-year deal worth $8 million.  This is good news for a lot of us Yankees fans.  The team is constantly spending so much money and their relief pitching has been terrible the past few years despite the rampant spending, so it’ll be nice to see them work on developing some guys who can prove their abilities a bit in spring training.

Oh, and for the Darrell Rasner fans (I know you guys visit), I’m happy to inform you that Rasner has seemingly resigned with the Yankees.  I always liked the way Rasner worked.  He’s not a flashy guy, but I always enjoyed watching him do fairly well for the Yankees and eat some innings when needed.  Seems like a good guy.