New York Yankees pitcher Alfredo Aceves, right, shakes hands with
catcher Jorge Posada after getting the save as they defeated the
Toronto Blue Jays 10-8 in a baseball game Sunday, July 5, 2009,
at Yankee Stadium in New York. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
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With Chien-Ming Wang on the DL with a shoulder strain just as he was getting over the terminally hanging sinker he has been nursing all year, Joe Girardi has confirmed that Alfredo Aceves will be your Thursday starter.
The decision was presumably between moving Phil Hughes back to the rotation given his recent success out of the bullpen, trying to stretch Brett Tomko out for five innings, or handing the ball to Aceves.
Any of the potential moves would have been a blow to the bullpen that has become a Yankee strength in recent games, but giving Hughes some stability in his role and the question mark around the veteran Tomko’s durability makes Aceves the spot starter.
Sergio Mitre, the convicted performance enhancer, was also in line for the Thursday start, but Girardi confirmed that he just didn’t have enough innings under his belt to make the jump.
In 2008, the big righty Aceves from Sonora came up late in the season for four starts and a pair of relief appearances with good success. Over the 30 innings Aceves worked a 2.40 ERA and recorded 16 strikeouts to only 10 walks.
Sounds good, right? Well in 21 relief appearances, but no starts yet, this season he has been even better – 2.03 ERA over 40 innings with a considerably improved 34 strikeouts to just 7 walks.
After a long road back to respectability that he was finally making headway towards, patience are thin and no one is really too eager to get Wang back with the big league club. Aceves, on the other hand, has shown he can handle both the starting and relief roles – now we get to see what he can do with consistent big league work.
Comments
As usual Pete, you are spot on!
I like this (Aceves) move - however temporary it may be. We've lost games with much better pitcher's throwing the ball for us this year, and won with worse ones, and right now a lot of offensive things are going well. Gardner is putting pressure on both on offense and defense, and DJ is his usual self, Tex and Matsui are chiming in with key hits and even Cervelli has been excellent in giving Jorge the regular day off (I like him better than Molina at this point - I think) and if Cano can ever even his game out from "I hit everything" and "I hit nothing" we are doing alright as I also believe the "Nation" will take a take a serious dip exposing their spotty starters and hittable bullpen and we'll walk away in the 2nd half. I am hoping to get to a game in Anaheim this weekend and watch the eventual world champs in action for myself!
LET'S GO YANKEES"
Be cool,
Phil
Hey Phil, good to hear from you! You're right, there's a lot that is going right for the Yankees at the moment and if they can get someone to step up in the pen in Aceves' place then things could be looking good. Have fun at the game this weekend and report back for us!
Pete
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