A Few Pitching Moves

The excitement is building as we head towards the first pitch of Yanks-Sox Round 4. Jay will be back in a bit with the preview, meanwhile I'll be hitting the road momentarily so I can watch tonight's action in person.

In the meantime, here are few notes regarding the pitching situation:

The Yanks signed Russ Ortiz to a minor league contract yesterday (I'd link to Tyler Kepner's original Tweet on this, but apparently Twitter is being destroyed by cyber terrorists as we speak). I'm hopeful that this move is only to provide some depth for the beleaguered Scranton rotation. Ortiz was once a good pitcher, but hasn't been for quite some time now. Over the last five seasons, he's posted an ERA+ of 67 over 312.2 innings, almost all of which were spent in the weaker hitting National League. I'm no fan of Sergio Mitre, but if this is the alternative, I say keep running Sergio out there.

In another move yesterday, Paul Byrd, who we pegged as a target Tuesday morning, signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox yesterday. Byrd finished last season with them and Ken Rosenthal has indicated Byrd could be Big League ready by September 1. Knowing Rosenthal, that probably means September 1st of 2010.

Old friend Brett Tomko, who I jokingly identified as a 5th starter candidate Tuesday, signed a minor league deal with Oakland. I'm sure Billy Beane and Bob Geren will treat him far, far better than then mean old Yankees.

And just for the hell of it since I forgot to mention them Tuesday- Tom Glavine and El Duque are both available. Neither has thrown a Major League pitch this year (El Duque hasn't since 2007), but these are two guys I've thoroughly enjoyed watching through the years. Unfortunately either would get lit up like a Christmas tree pitching in the AL East.