Boston Signs Schoeneweis and Embree

The Sox shored up their bullpen recently by signing oldsters Scott Schoeneweis and Alan Embree. Sox fans will remember Embree as one part of Boston's lights-out bullpen in 2004. The sequel is never as good as the original. Embree is the very definition of a journeyman reliever. Other than the 2004 postseason, his resume boasts a mediocre 4.59 ERA and 1.340 WHIP. But hell, he's left handed. Let's sign him.

Schoeneweis, 36, is a young pup compared to Embree at 39. His ERA is slightly worse along with his WHIP and he is also a lefty. I found it amusing that the redsox.com article said that he was eager to prove "he's still got it." Got what? A 5.00 ERA? All kidding aside, he's got good stats at Fenway at least. And you have to root for the guy. The father of four lost his wife last spring to a drug overdose.

I think the Sox are just chucking mud up against the wall hoping that something sticks. But that's what you have to do with your bullpen; sign a bunch of guys and pray. This year's star might end up on next year's scrap heap.

Now I'm Excited

It's stuff like this that gets me geared up for the season. Let's play ball already. At the beginning of March, I don't think I'm going to be into it, but after listening to NCAA Tournament and NFL Draft junk for a couple of weeks, baseball can't get here fast enough.

Hughes Will Be Fifth

The word is out all around that Phil Hughes will be the Yankees fifth starter on Opening Day. I can't say I am terribly surprised, but I am a little disappointed. I have always been a big Phil Hughes fan, and I always wanted the Yankees to groom him for a rotation slot. Still this move essentially throws away the past two years of Joba's development unless the Yanks send him down to Scranton, a move which seems highly unlikely.

I will say that Hughes showed a lot of improvement this spring. The one time I was able to watch his full "start" on Monday, he looked like a much more mature pitcher than in the previous two seasons. Perhaps his time in the bullpen allowed him to regain his aggressive approach on the mound. The five home runs he allowed in 13 spring innings is more likely a result of him toying with his change up than anything else. Despite that his change up has looked good at times and could become a difference maker for him this year.

It is also worth mentioning that Hughes will likely have a slightly higher if not the same innings limit that Joba had last season. How the Yankees handle that as the season goes will be telling. Have they learned anything from last year season's mistakes? We will soon find out.

Yankees Fifth Starter Race Down to Four

According to Ed Price via Twitter, the Yankees have put Chad Gaudin on waivers. It makes considering he would make the most money of any of the fifth starter candidates and his performance was the worst of the five this spring. So that leaves just Alfredo Aceves, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Sergio Mitre.

Aceves is most likely ticketed for the bullpen, while Mitre could end up back at AAA Scranton. Chamberlain and Hughes pitched yesterday and while I couldn't watch Chamberlain because it was an intrasquad game, I did catch Hughes four innings against the Phillies and they were some of the best I've seen him throw.

Obviously the results were not what you would want considering the three home runs he gave up. Still his changeup looked very effective. He had Jimmy Rollins falling over as he rolled over on a changeup that went for an easy grounder to first. Later he even had Chase Utley jumping out of his shoes at one.

Joba, on the other hand, seems to have remember how to pitch of late. He is throwing more strikes and attacking hitters. He is getting groundballs at a better rate than earlier in the spring. His recent performance has given Joe Girardi something to pause over as Hughes continues to dominate.

Many think that the logical choice would be either Hughes or Chamberlain while one of the two goes to the bullpen as Mariano's set up man. I think the logical idea would be to send the loser to AAA as a means of keeping them stretched out for when a call up is needed. I would be very disappointed if either Chamberlain or Hughes was forced to waste another year of their career in the bullpen. Sure they don't have much to learn down there, but at least it will keep them hungary when they come back up.

State of the Rotation: The 5th Starters

We come to the end of the rotations, and being that both teams have so many candidates I figured I would take the extra time to include the extra pitchers for each team.

The Yankees have the most candidates to fill out the final spot in their rotation. The group includes top candidates Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Al Aceves. Normally Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin would be included in this list as well, but the reality is they never really had a chance unless Joba and Hughes were hurt or completely inept. The Yankees simply have too much invested in Joba and Hughes to not have one of them in the rotation.

If the Yankees were to simply go by the performance of the top three candidates, this race would go to Hughes or possibly Aceves based on his early spring dominance. It seems though, that Chamberlain will end up with the job after his recent revival. Plus the Yankees didn't go through all of the trouble of expanding his innings total to the point where he could pitch an entire season uninhibited just to throw him back in the bullpen now. They owe it to the Joba Rules to see the process out to the end.

That being said, Chamberlain in the rotation wont be as bad as many think it would. Last year showed that until the Yankees handcuffed their young righty with ridiculous pitch counts he was more than adequate. Chamberlain reached his career high of 110 innings after eight shut out innings against the Rays, the Yanks went about skipping his turn and limiting his pitches. That severely curtailed his performance. I think that if he is left alone his performance will greatly improve.

The Red Sox on the other hand have fewer candidates for their fifth spot than a year ago. That season it seemed that the Sox were signing every rehab veteran around with the hope that one would return to form. In the cases of Brad Penny and John Smotlz the results were far from favorable. However there was a bright spot when Clay Buchholz was able to stabilize the last spot over the final two and a half months of the season.

The young righty will be coming into this season as a main contender for the fifth spot. He and Tim Wakefield will both start the season in the rotation until Daisuke Matsuzaka is ready to take a rotation slot. After that one will probably be shifted to the bullpen and, as long as Buchholz doesn't choke in his first few starts, that one will probably be Wakefield since it will be much easier for the knuckleballer to adjust back and forth between the pen and the rotation.

If you had to compare the overall pool of fifth starter candidates from both teams, I would give the nod to the Yankees for having more talent, but if you were to go by which two starters are most likely to get those jobs, I would go with Buchholz over Joba. They have both had their ups and downs over their short careers, but Buchholz was more consistently effective over the final two months of the season which is a lot longer than any stretch Joba has had in his major league starting career.

I'll give this one and the rotation battle to the Red Sox, 3-2.

A Victory for the Little Guy

The word is out and Joe Mauer is staying with his hometown team. The Twins locked up Mauer's historic bat for the next eight seasons (2011-2018).

Personally I am glad to see the Twins finally shell out the cash for a hometown hero. Too often they have let their best players go just to ensure that their late billionaire owner Carl Pohlad could continue to line his pockets. The Twins needed Mauer to stay in Minnesota and baseball needed him to stay in Minnesota. It's a good thing to see.

The New Look

It's the same Bros. at Arms you've come to know and love with a bit of a face lift. We wanted the colors and layout to be more reflective of the our favorite teams, the Sawks and Yanks. The format is also cleaner and more minimalist to make content easier to sort through and find what you're looking for. Enjoy.