$36M for 4 years.

“If Rasner stays with the team, somebody has to be sent down (or DL’ed). The only likely candidates for a demotion to AAA are DeSalvo or Igawa.”

it seems like this might happen. i think the Yanks ARE going to send Igawa down for a few starts.

Any chance, Clemens adds the title of Strength and conditioning coach? We all know about his workouts. Its perfect

If he could play the position consistently at the ML level, they wouldn’t have abandoned the experiment in ST.

Not a lot of 6-6 catchers out there. Especially, those who haven’t caught fulltime in the majors in years.

Josh Phelps will not be the backup catcher on this team. He has outgrown the position.

If Rasner stays with the team, somebody has to be sent down (or DL’ed). The only likely candidates for a demotion to AAA are DeSalvo or Igawa.

Personally, I hope its Igawa because he can’t pitch up here. I don’t buy into all the Japanese pitcher nonsense.

Their best pitcher (Dice-K) has faced last place teams (at the time he pitched against them) in all but one of his starts this year. The league is hitting .327 against him and his ERA is 5.45. Not exactly a $100 million dollar pitcher.

Its significant because, he has the advantage over hitters right now. The weather has been cold, which negates power, and hitters do not know him yet. Despite those advantages, and the insane hype, he hasn’t pitched up to his contract.

What’s going to happen to him when the weather gets warmer (which saved him from giving up 2 3 run HR’s to Seattle in his last start) and hitters have a book on him?

And, to the dolts who have compared him to Pedro Martinez, you have to stop. You show what you don’t know about the game if you think this guy is even remotely in the class of what Pedro was in his prime. He isn’t in the same time zone as Pedro was at this age.

Igawa won strikeout championships in Japan and he looks lost out there.

Folks get too sucked into all the hype regarding Japanese players. The facts are, aside from one or two good years by Hideo Nomo, and a couple of good years by Sasaki when he was saving games in Seattle, their pitchers haven’t been successful in Major League Baseball.

Whether they signed Clemens or not, Igawa needs to be in AAA to see if they can salvage anything out of this signing.

Having him up here now is a waste. Especially, when they need to win games these next 3 weeks and not give up anymore ground to the Red Sox. It serves no purpose to be 8-12 games out by the time Clemens and Hughes are ready to pitch. These games in the next 3 weeks are too important to risk putting Igawa out there every fifth day.

I can’t imagine the players on the team having much more confidence in Igawa.

They have Pettitte, Moose and Wang going Tuesday-Thursday. Rasner can pitch Friday.

If DeSalvo does a good job, keep him as the #5 starter for another start. If not, try Tyler Clippard.

My point is, they can easily replace Igawa in the rotation right now. It should be done ASAP.

They paid over $100 million dollars for a guy who had never thrown a pitch in a ML game.

They paid another $70 for a career underachiever to play RF.

They paid over $20 million dollars for an average (at best) SS.

That’s almost $200 million dollars in long term contracts for 3 players who, despite the hype fall FAR short of elite on the ballplayer scale.

Its a tad hypocritical to me to hear Red Sox fans, and their ownership, complain about how much money the Yankees spend.

Just follow your team and don’t worry about the Yankees. You strain logic when you play the, “little engine that could” car when talking about the Red Sox.

The Yankees have a one year committment to Clemens. That’s it. If Dice-K, Lugo and Drew don’t measure up, Red Sox fans are stuck with them for years.

Both teams spent money. Now, we see who spent it wisely.

They need his versatility.