Yankees make some roster moves
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Nov 20, 2008 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Today was the deadline to set the 40-man roster for the Rule 5 Draft. The Yankees made some moves.
Added to the roster: RHPs Anthony Claggett, Christian Garcia and Steven Jackson and LHP Michael Dunn.
Designated for assignment: Darrell Rasner (who was sold to a team in Japan).
The roster is now at 40.
Based entirely on the fine work of Chad Jennings, here are some of the notable players who are now eligible to be selected in the Rule 5:
Pitchers: J.B. Cox, Alan Horne, Jason Jones, Zach Kroenke, Kevin Whelan
Infielders: Reegie Corona, Ramiro Pena, Eric Duncan
Now keep in mind that a player selected in the Rule 5 Draft must stay on the major league roster the entire season or he offered back to his original club. So it’s not like the Yankees are casting these guys out. Horne is coming off surgery and is unlikely to be taken. Whelan is coming off a decent stint in the AFL (17.1 11 5 4 14 21). Jones and Kroenke had good seasons in AA.
I suspect the Yankees will at least get a player selected, maybe Cox. But other right-handed relievers have gone past him in the last two years.
The Yankees still have a few players on the 40-man who may or may not be in the plans. But for now at least, guys like Cody Ransom, Justin Christian, Chris Britton and Shelley Duncan remain Yankees.
Is Britton under some other category? If not, how the hell do we protect Britton but expose Whelan and Cox?
Whelan is sure going to get picked. He’s unhittable, and has been nasty.
I have no idea why we are protecting Shelley Duncan
Where’s CC already
My question is this: If the Yankees sign CC, AJ, ect. to a deal before Dec.11 do they have to drop a player from the 40?
I would take Britton off and put Whelan on. I don’t know that any others would stick on a 25-man, but if there are any others worth protecting, I would take Shelley off.
bodhisattva,
Send me your addy if you want that recipe.
la-nkee@hotmail.com
update >>>>
Eric Duncan…I remember when I was told he was going to be the man, blah blah
i think Cox will get drafted Whelan has been very good in the AFL so maybe some bad team takes him also.
Trades must be coming.
how do you decide who gets pick in teh Rule V draft, everyone?
Smart move protecting Garcia
So much for the JB Cox and Alan Horne hype.
Horne is coming off of an injury and I guess the Yankees feel he will slip through.
It sounds like his upside is too considerable to miss out on.
How the efff is JB cox on this list and Whelan, they will both be taken by someone. I hope Corona is not takes because he is so young, we cant be giving up on him already. But you never know when we have an idiot in charge of the team in cashman. He screws everything up, the draft, FA, everything. How did we take Gerrit Cole over shooter hunt and no draft Tim Mellvile in the 2nd round, instead of having two stud pitchers we have nothing. And how did we not get Inoa, we should have offered $8M. Cash is clueless, what has he done right? Iwaga, relying on Hughes and IPK, Pavano, Wright, Lofton, now swisher. We should have offered theo 6M a year to run this team.
Britton, Shelly, and others aren’t safe – as NY signs FA’s, players will have to be dropped to make room. Cash is just not making moves before he has to.
And with all the RP talent at upper levels, someone’s bound to get picked. But they have to stick on the active roster, so there’s a good chance they’ll be offered back (like Mike Gardner last year). San Diego will probably be knocking on our door again – they’re always looking for cheap pen pickups.
don’t know why NYY would choose to protect Steven Jackson over Whelan, Cox, and even Jason Jones.
Jackson has never shown me anything.
“Britton, Shelly, and others aren’t safe – as NY signs FA’s, players will have to be dropped to make room. Cash is just not making moves before he has to. ”
That’s true. Assuming three new starters are coming (including Pettite), there’s going to be a minimum of three spots that will need to be opened up. I’d certainly argue that I’d rather protect Whelan than Britton or Giese but I’d guess Britton and Giese will be removed with the first two FA signings barring any other trades so those spots aren’t really available anyway.
sold to japan??? is that common?
I am in shock. Why protect Justin Christian over Cox or Whelan???
Chad Jennings’ opinion:
“I would start by protecting Alan Horne, Chris Garcia, Steven Jackson and J.B. Cox.”
Guess the Yanks don’t entirely agree… gulp.
“I am in shock. Why protect Justin Christian over Cox or Whelan???”
Because he isn’t a pitcher and they have 23 pitchers by my count on the 40 man roster.
My guess is someone will take J.B. Cox but that we won’t really miss him. I don’t think Whelan has pitched much above AA, had some control problems last year and I’d hope that would discourage someone from taking him but you never know. I like Whelan enough that I’d have probably tried to trade some of the pitching above him (Chase Wright?, Edwar?) for younger talent that didn’t need to be protected to open up a spot for him but I can’t argue too much with the decisions they made.
Why in the world would we protect Steven Jackson. Isnt he like 26 years old and not even a good AAA pitcher. To me Whelan wouldve been way more valuable
Chad Jennings blog has an interesting graph one each of these guys and some surprisingly positive feedback on the progress of Jackson.
First off Whalen walks batters more than I walk my dog. That being said If another team is to take him in the rule 5 draft they have to keep him on their 25 man roster for the entire season. Think about it if you are the GM are you going to put a AA player that walks 14 batters in 17 innings in the AFL on your 25 man roster for an entire season? Of course your not. I also believe that if the yankees wish to participate and pick up someone from another team they need to have an open Roster spot which they currently do not.
Whelan will probably not get picked. He’s a good project, but he has little command right now and would get rocked at the big league level. He walked 14 men in 17 AFL innings and almost 7 per 9 innings this past year. I just don’t think he’d make it through an entire season on someones roster.
““I am in shock. Why protect Justin Christian over Cox or Whelan???†Because he isn’t a pitcher and they have 23 pitchers by my count on the 40 man roster. My guess is someone will take J.B. Cox but that we won’t really miss him.”
I disagree with you on both Christian and Cox completely, but I hope I’m wrong. Who cares if we have 24 pitchers? The Yankees can sign a 5th OF at any point. At best, Christian will be an avg bench player. At best, Cox will be a solid late inning reliever and is more likely to become that than Christian a starter. Cox was injured and angered the team over the cause of the injury but that shouldnt take away from the fact that he’s a pretty good prospect.
I wasn’t trying to argue that Christian has a high ceiling. He doesn’t. He’s a reserve outfielder/pinch runner. The only reserve players the Yankees have on the 40 man though are Molina, Cervelli, S. Duncan, Ransom, Miranda, Christian and Melky (assuming Gardner is the starting CF).
Christian may not end up on the 40 man by opening day. If the Yankees were to acquire Mike Cameron or some other outfielder, Christian would be the obvious guy to lose his roster spot and Melky or Gardner would likely be in the minors. You can’t not have a guy on your 40 man roster though to bring up without making major roster moves if Damon, Melky or Gardner were out for three weeks.
If you want rank Cox higher than Jackson or Claggett that would be a different story but I think its hard to argue that they should have more than 24 of the 40 roster spots devoted to pitchers. I know its 23 now but I’m guessing after they sign a few FA pitchers, it will be 24 with Duncan sent packing. As far as Cox’s potential goes, I’m pretty sure I read that he was only hitting high 80′s with his fastball after coming back from his injuries so I’d assume he’d been passed by a lot of the prospects. Maybe I’m wrong or maybe it’ll come back with time or maybe he can be effective with that, I just trust the Yankees to know how to rank their prospects more than any of us.