The LoHud Yankees Blog

The Yankees drafted New Jersey left-hander Evan DeLuca (Immaculata High in Somerville) in the 44th round. The MLB-suggested bonus for a pick that low is pretty much a bus ticket and a bag lunch.

The Yankees gave him $500,000 to sign according to Baseball America. The commissioner’s office will be real pleased with that. DeLuca has been planning to attend San Diego State before the windfall.

Based on BA’s list, the Yankees invested well over $6 million in draft picks this season.

Brett Tomko was pretty upset the day the Yankees designated him for assignment. Maybe with good reason.

He felt he had done enough to make the team out of spring training, posting an ERA of 1.17 in 15 appearances. The Yankees disagreed and sent him to Scranton to work as a short reliever.

Tomko did what he was told and did it well. He had an 0.64 ERA in 14 innings and struck out 18. But when the Yankees called him up in May, it was just as fodder. Tomko was on the roster for 73 days and appeared in 15 games, getting only 20.2 innings.

Tomko was designated for assignment on July 21 and released July 29. The Yankees offered him the opportunity to go back to Scranton and start but he refused.

He instead signed with Oakland and as fate would have it, he was called up to face the Yankees tonight.

You know what happened next. Tomko threw five scoreless innings and the Athletics won 3-0.

Put yourself in Tomko’s shoes for a second. What would you have said when four Yankees beat writers and a radio reporter came over to ask a few questions?

Brett took the high road.

“When I got the call that I would be facing the Yankees, it was kind of emotional,” he said. “But I had no bad feelings against the Yankees. It worked out for the best. I wanted to start again and Oakland had a game plan.”

Oakland made sense for Tomko. He makes his home in San Diego and his wife is a month away from having twins. The Athletics, who are well out of contention, will want to protect their young arms down the stretch and Tomko will get a chance to pitch and audition for a contract in 2010.

It’s embarrassing to the Yankees to lose to a guy with a 5.23 ERA making his first start since May of 2008. But Tomko made pitches when he had to make them. When A-Rod came up with the bases loaded in the third inning, Tomko located a cutter and Alex tapped it feebly back to the mound. The rare 1-2-3 double play ended the inning.

Tomko hopes the Yankees lose the next two games then go on to the World Series.

“I have a lot of good relationships there,” he said. “As much as I wanted to show them what I could have done, I tried to take that could of it. I just wanted to make pitches and I felt like I did that.”

YANKEES (74-44)
Jeter DH
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF
Pena SS

Pitching: RHP AJ Burnett (10-5, 3.71).

ATHLETICS (52-65)
Kennedy 3B
Davis CF
Suzuki C
Hairston LF
Sweeney RF
Ellis 2B
Cust DH
Crosby 1B
Pennington SS

Pitching: RHP Brett Tomko (1-2, 5.23).

TIME/TV: 10:05 p.m. YES.

STATE OF THE ‘STRIPES: The Yankees had their five-game win streak snapped yesterday. They have won 12 of their last 14.

STRAIGHT A’S: The Yankees are 5-1 against Oakland this season and 10-2 over the last two seasons.

CANO STREAKS ON: Robbie Cano has hit safely in 14 straight games at 25 of 58. He has nine extra-base hits in the streak. His average has gone from .305 to .321.

BURNETT BURNING: A.J. Burnett is 6-2, 2.50 in his last 11 starts. He is 2-2, 4.14 in six career starts against Oakland.

WILD THING: Burnett has thrown 17 wild pitches. The team record is 23 by Tim Leary in 1990.

RELIEVERS ON A ROLL: Brian Bruney has thrown five scoreless innings in his last four appearances and Dave Robertson six scoreless innings in his last seven games.

AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER: The Yankees are 12-3 this month.

THE DISH ON SWISH: Former Athletic Nick Swisher has 20 homers. Seventeen have come on the road and 13 have come against right-handers. So Brett Tomko is in trouble.

FOLLOW THE LEADER: Derek Jeter is 8 of 16 on the trip with five RBI and three extra-base hits. He is up to .323.

GRAND OLD TIME: Jerry Hairston Jr.’s next game will be the 1,000th of his career.

OUT OF THE CIRCLE OF TRUST? Alfredo Aceves’ last nine appearances: 15.2 15 12 12 4 11 and two home runs.

ON THE iPOD RIGHT NOW: Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) by Looking Glass. No, not my proudest admission.

Back with more later.

UPDATE ON DRAFT SIGNINGS: 6:28 p.m.: The Yankees have agreed to terms with 16th round pick Bryan Mitchell ($800,000) according to Baseball America. I’ve also been told they have come to an agreement with 21st round pick Joe Talerico of New Jersey.

UPDATE, 7:32 p.m.: Matsui is out for today and questionable for tomorrow. … Chad Gaudin remains in the rotation for Wednesday. … Birthday boy Jorge Posada reported that Derek Jeter picked up lunch and their Starbucks order.

UPDATE, 10:07 p.m.: We are underway in Oakland. 57 degrees, not a cloud in the sky. Thanks for staying up and enjoy the game.

UPDATE, 10:33 p.m.: A.J. has the curve biting tonight. Unless he loses his command — which is always a possibility with him — the Oakland hitters could be in for a long night.

UPDATE, 10:41 p.m.: Great catch by Johnny. Haven’t written that too often.

UPDATE, 10:48 p.m.: Damon has hit two balls off Tomko that would have been homers at the Stadium. Easy.

UPDATE, 10:50 p.m.: Loaded up for Alex, who crushes Tomko, 4-0 soon?

UPDATE, 10:50 p.m.: Or the 1-2-3 DP. How bad is that?

UPDATE, 11:01 p.m.: I want to be careful how I word this because its important to be accurate in my line of work. So here goes:

It’s an absolute disgrace the Yankees have not scored off Brett Tomko in four innings. A travesty.

UPDATE, 11:13 p.m.: 2-0 Oakland as A.J. is falling apart. Three hits and a balk so far this inning.

UPDATE, 11:14 p.m.: Make that 3-0 as Ellis doubles.

Oakland has a lineup featuring Scott Hairston at cleanup and Brett Tomko on the mound and it’s 3-0 in the fourth inning. Brutal.

UPDATE, 11:21 p.m.: That rest really seems to have helped Melky. Two weak outs, now 6 for 50.

UPDATE, 11:27 p.m.: Brett Tomko takes the shutout into the sixth inning. 5 5 0 0 1 1. The Yankees should be ashamed of themselves.

UPDATE, 11:33 p.m.: What a break for the Yankees, Brett Tomko is out. He was at 78 pitches.

UPDATE, 11:59 a.m.: Need to write my newspaper story. Enjoy the rest of this thrilling game. What a disaster.

There is no more wretched a place for baseball than Oakland Colisem.

Hard off the highway in Oakland’s industrial wasteland, the field features acres of foul ground, a concrete mountain of seats in center field designed for football and a terrible playing surface.

The yard lines for football are down and stretch across the outfield and infield. Second base is at the 40 and the 50 is right behind the mound. There’s a dirt patch out in center field, too.

The A’s nearly had a deal to build a new park in Freemont. That fell through and now the rumor is they’ll end up in San Jose. Anywhere else has to be better.

According to MLB’s informal “slot system” for paying draft picks, the Yankees were allowed to spend $1,734,30 to sign first-round pick Slade Heathcott, second-round pick J.R. Murphy and fifth-round selection Caleb Cotham.

They dropped $4,125,000.

The Yankees, Tigers, Red Sox and other clubs routinely ignore MLB’s policy, which is their right. There is talk that MLB will fine teams this season for going “over slot.” But those teams interested in winning will chalk it up as a cost of doing business.

It’s a ridiculous system that stunts the growth of prospects. The Yankees should have been allowed to give Heathcott his money and June and sent him to the Gulf Coast League. Instead they had to pretend there were negotiations and meanwhile the kid is playing video games all summer.

The NBA has a rookie salary system mandated by their CBA. You get picked here, you get paid this. Take it or leave it. Their players signs, they go to summer league and everybody is happy.

But in baseball, some of the best players fall into later rounds. The Yankees probably benefit because they can get better players. But a draft should be an equal playing field and in baseball, it’s just not.

Via Ken Rosenthal:

Yankees Class AAA right-hander Russ Ortiz has exercised his right to become a free agent, according to his agent, John Boggs.

The Yankees, unable to currently offer Ortiz a spot on their major-league roster, asked him to remain in their organization. But Ortiz wants to be part of a contender and return to the postseason, Boggs said.

Teams have until midnight tonight to get their draft picks signed. Most of the attention will be focused on whether the Nationals strike a deal with Scott Boras for Stephen Strasburg.

As for the Yankees, Damon Oppenheimer has confirmed that first-round pick Slade Heathcott and fifth-round pick Caleb Cotham are signed. Heathcott signed for $2.2 million.

Second-round pick J.R. Murphy signed for $1.25 million, according to Baseball America.

That would mean the Yankees have agreements with 13 of their top 14 picks.

We’ll try and keep you posted as the news comes in.

As of this roughly 1 p.m. today, this blog recorded its 957,000th comment since we got on the new WordPress software in January of 2007. You people have way too much time on your hands.

Roughly 400,000 of the comments were complaints about the lineup or from people wanting Brian Cashman to trade Jonathan Albaladejo and Andrew Brackman for Justin Verlander.

That said, whoever does post the millionth comment (which will be in a few weeks, more or less) will get lunch or dinner at Foley’s Pub and Restaurant in Manhattan after the season on me and a Yankees media guide and other stuff. Seems like the least I can do. If you live out of town, we’ll figure something out.

Seriously, thanks for reading. I still can’t figure out how this all happened, but it has been a lot of fun.

Jorge Posada turns 38 today.

I don’t plan to mention it to him because he might smack me in the head with a garbage can lid like Sonny Corleone. Jorge is a tough dude.

No word on what best buddy Derek Jeter will get him. Maybe the Captain will pay for their daily Starbucks order.

Tonight: RHP AJ Burnett (10-5, 3.71) vs. RHP Brett Tomko (1-2, 5.23), 10:05 p.m. YES

Tuesday: LHP CC Sabathia (13-7, 3.64) vs. RHP Vin Mazzaro (4-8, 5.54), 10:05 p.m. YES

Wednesday: RHP Chad Gaudin (1-0, 5.13) vs. LHP Brett Anderson (7-8, 4.55) 10:05 p.m. YES

————

Yes, that is the Brett Tomko. The Yankees DFA’d him on July 22. Tomko signed with Oakland and did not pitch particularly well with Triple-A Sacramento. In three games he went 5.2 innings and allowed five earned runs on nine hits and two walks. He struck out eight.

But Oakland is so desperate for pitching, they’re calling him up. Tomko texted Nick Swisher on Saturday night and told him to expect a fastball in the ribs. “I’m charging the mound if he does that,” Swisher said with a laugh.

Tomko was pretty bitter that the Yankees released him and he’ll be out to avenge that. But he’s also a guy who gives up hits in bunches. He’s 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in five career games against the Yankees.