Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Say what?

OK, I had some fun bashing KC and their Farnsworthless acquisition, but reading this made my head spin (emphasis mine):

Brett Tomko will be the Triple-A closer

Pitching cordinator Nardi Contreras said in spring training that the Yankees would rather control a young reliever's innings than his role. That's why you saw Scott Strickland in the closer's role last season and that's why Tomko will be in that role this year.

Tomko is going to pitch in the closer role right now, and we’ll go from there," pitching coach Scott Aldred said. "We’ll see how it works. I think it will be fine. A lot of experience. Give him some intense work instead of being a long guy and pitching in some games that don’t mean much, I think we’ll get the best out of Brett Tomko by pitching him at the end of the game.”

As for the rest of the bullpen, Mark Melancon, David Robertson, Steven Jackson and Anthony Claggett are lined up to get most of the innings.
At least they have a rational reason for it, ya know, besides winning.

(Of course, Tomko posted a 1.17 ERA in 15 1/3 Grapefruit League innings, so maybe... nah, nevermind.)

2 comments:

Zach Sanders said...

Don't forget about how clutch Brett Tomko is. I would love to have him as my closer.

Jason @ IIATMS said...

Zach, there's always to-Morrow.