Steve Brown

 From Chad Jennings (beat reporter of the SWB Yankees):

Curious upcoming rotation for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees...

Monday: LHP Kei Igawa
Tuesday: RHP Alfredo Aceves
Wednesday: RHP Ross Ohlendorf
Thursday: TBA

You'll notice Dan McCutchen's name doesn't appear. McCutchen said this afternoon that the Yankees want him to skip a start to keep his innings down. He's already topped 120 innings this season after throwing 142 last year. McCutchen said he doesn't expect to be shifted to the bullpen and his understanding is that he's just skipping his next turn in the rotation, but as always with the Yankees pitchers, you never know.

His inning pitched limit for the season, will probably be anywhere between 165 to as much as 190 innings. By the Yankees holding him back to save innings, it suggests one thing and one thing only:

The front office is planning on calling him up this year to help in a possible playoff run. If they weren't planning on calling him up, he'd have more than enough innings remaining to close out the minor league season. There's really no other way around it other than the above conclusion.

For those that are interested, here is a quick overview of the situation that the Yankees are in with Wang being shut down.

With the distressing news that Wang will be out until late August / early September, comes some good news regarding J.B. Cox from Chad Jennings:

Just got an email from Nardi Contreras saying J.B. Cox started throwing again Monday. He labeled the injury as a "tired shoulder" and I assume that's to be expected when a guy's coming back from a year off the mound. Throwing this quickly after going on the DL seems to be a good sign. Probably not an injury to be too worried about.

For the meantime, Brian Cashman says that the Yankees are choosing to replace Wang from within. "We look internal first. You keep your ears open at the same time, but really nothing's revealed itself at this moment in time." He also said, that the Yankees are not going after Freddy Garcia. "That's not an immediate choice. I wouldn't track him down for a Wang replacement, if at all."

Tyler Kepner asked Cashman on Hughes's status in the organiztion. I asked Brian Cashman on Monday if anything had changed in the organization’s perception of Hughes, who was untouchable in trade talks last summer (Eric Gagne) and – to Cashman, at least – last winter (Johan Santana). Cashman said that Hughes was valued the same as ever – as a 21-year-old future ace.

“Phil Hughes is sitting and waiting in Tampa,” Cashman said. “He’s waiting for his throwing program to begin, and then you add four weeks. It’ll probably be close to August.”

It seems that, for the time being the Yankees will give over the empty rotation spot to Dan Giese (Saturday?). No word yet on who will get called up to take Wang's roster spot, but I hope that they'll go with David Robertson to piggyback Giese.

Kei Igawa is pitching this afternoon for SWB, and all of Yankeeland is hoping he gets knocked around, to put it mildly.

The real problem is going to pop up next Friday, when the Yankees will need a 6th starter due to a double header with the Mets. Hopefully the likes of McCutchen/Horne will have pitched well in their next few starts and they'll earn the call over Igawa/Karstens.

The skepticism of moving Joba to the rotation voiced by many fans, seems to be a moot point at this stage. It's a good thing he's finished the transition and is cleared for 100+ pitches in his next start.

Here is the pitching matchups for the upcoming series against the Padres:

Tuesday: LHP Randy Wolf (5-4, 3.83) vs. LHP Andy Pettitte (6-5, 4.64), 7:05, Channel 9

Wednesday: RHP Jake Peavy (5-3, 2.64) vs. RHP Darrell Rasner (3-4, 3.64), 7:05, YES

Thursday: RHP Josh Banks (2-0, 1.29) vs. RHP Joba Chamberlain (1-2, 2.48), 1:05, YES