Joba To Start Tuesday

Yup, it’s official.

Cashman Still Being Patient

From the MLB:

GM Brian Cashman has made it clear that the Yankees have decided to allow their young talent to develop before testing the market and trying to obtain players. Cashman often says that the Yankees want to try and find the answer from within before they try to find it elsewhere. That helps explain why the Yankees, too, decided to keep young pitchers Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and outfielder Melky Cabrera instead of pulling the trigger on the Santana trade. Instead, they signed Andy Pettitte to a one-year, $16 million deal as a stopgap.

“We made long-term decisions when we made those assessments. I have a healthy left-hander in Andy Pettitte in the rotation, taking the spot where Santana would have pitched. I have the use of a guy [Cabrera] who is playing a heck of a center field and is one of the emerging center fielders in the game today, along with two potential starters for our rotation as well as some kids down in the Minor League system that we still retain. They’re assets.

“That money went to Pettitte and the remainder is still in place for us to utilize as we see fit. I think we made a long-term decision and you don’t judge a long-term decision in two months or in one year. That’s not why you make a long-term decision.”

Added Hank Steinbrenner: “We’ll just see what happens and bring these kids along, and not let them lose confidence. They shouldn’t. This is what the Red Sox have done, even though Lester is a little bit older than our three guys, and they’re bringing along Buchholz, too, at their own pace.

“We’re building for the future too. You can’t just do it year by year. Before the great team we had in the late 90’s, there were some real lean years there. We don’t expect to have it to be that lean this year or next year, but people forget there were some really tough years before the great teams of the late ’90’s. We’re building for the future as well, and we have to look at it both ways.

“We’ve got to keep going with the farm system and build them up as strong as we can, get everybody we can. If we have to, we’ll hoard everybody.”

Cashman’s making the right moves for the future. We’ll have to see whether or not those moves pan out for 2008.

Igawa Homesick?

From Jayson Stark:

Kei Igawa isn’t quite as buried on that Yankees’ depth chart as Carl Pavano, but it’s close. And he’s already homesick. We’ve heard from two different baseball men recently that Igawa asked the Yankees over the winter if there was any way he could return to Japan. The Yankees quietly explored their options, got nowhere and gave up. They’re still on the hook for nearly $11 million to Igawa through the 2010 season.

The Yankees should just cut the guy already. I know they’re afraid of releasing him and then letting him land in San Diego where he goes on to win 15 games one season, or even in Boston because, for some reason, they’re interested in him. However, those rumors about the Sox and Igawa are probably Boston’s way of keeping him in our system so that he can continue to be an embarrassment.

Minor League Notes

Impressive right-handed starter, Zach McAllister, has been promoted to High Class-A Tampa. In addition, here are some notes, courtesy of Newsday, on J.B. Cox and Mark Melancon, two prospects that have a good chance of maybe chipping in for the Yankees this year:

Righthanded pitching prospects J.B. Cox and Mark Melancon have two things in common: Both missed all of 2007 after elbow surgery and both frequently are mentioned by people looking for a sequel to Joba Chamberlain’s ‘07 success.

It’s unreasonable to expect anyone to match Chamberlain, but Cox has a better chance of reaching the majors this year. “He’s a little farther along in terms of being able to execute his pitches,” Yankees senior vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman said by phone yesterday. “Some chance of Cox [debuting this year], not much chance of Melancon. He’s still got to execute some pitches a little bit better.”

Said general manager Brian Cashman, “Their performance will dictate how quickly they get to the major leagues.”

Cox could certainly fill the void left in the bullpen once Joba has completely transitioned. However, he’s going to have to compete with Edwar Ramirez as Edwar continues dealing (he attributes this year’s success to his renewed confidence, brought on in part by Pedro Martinez, who spoke to Edwar in the offseason about trusting his fastball).