Vasquez Set To Pitch In The Bronx In 2010

For the second time in his career Javier Vasquez will put on the pinstripes and pitch for the New York Yankees.

The 33 year old right hander pitched very well during the 2009 season for the Braves, he went 15-10 with a 2.87 ERA in 219.1 innings.

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It was an excellent five player deal for both teams, but I feel like the Yankees got the upper hand at the end of the trade.

The bigger names in the deal other than J. Vasquez were Melky Cabrera and Mike Dunn who were sent to the Atlanta Braves.

Many Yankee fans are going to definitely be upset with the departure of Melky Cabrera who was a solid player.

Melky in the my mind was not an everyday player, but he was good guy to have in clutch situations, and it should be interesting to see if he will take his game to another level with his new home.

The Atlanta Braves will welcome a 25 year old outfielder who has 518 hits in 1,923 career at bats knocking out 36 home runs, and driving in 228 runs in 569 games played.

Not too mention Melky also has some playoff experience at a young age which will be very valuable to his new team.

Last post season he put up a .271 batting average going 13 for 48 with 4 RBI, and 2 doubles as he came up big down the stretch although getting hurt toward the end of the World Series.

The Bronx Bombers also got a young 25 year old reliever in the deal Boone Logan.

B. Logan's numbers last year were not very impressive, but there is always hope for a young arm.

With this deal now being done you look at the Yankees rotation, and your first four starting pitchers are all all stars.

You now add someone who could be a #1 or 2 pitcher for most teams, and he has experience dealing with the pressure in the Bronx.

He pitched for New York in 2004 where he went 14-10 with a 4.91 ERA chucking 198.0 innings on the year.

Many fans blame him for game 7 of the 2004 ALCS where the Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, but they should think a little harder because it was the manager at the time Joe Torre's fault.

Going into that game New York had the luxury of starting "El Duque" Orlando Hernandez who would have been pitching on 9 days rest.

Orlando Hernandez was always a big time pitcher for the Yankees especially in the post season his career playoff numbers are at 9-3 with a 2.55 ERA in 106.0 innings striking out 107 batters.

4 of those innings came with the Chicago White Sox in 2005 but after his lack of innings in the later part of 2004 it was very hard for him to pitch at the level he was once at.

You could make a case that he had a 5.40 ERA in the 2004 playoffs, but that was in only 5 innings who knows what he would have done if he found his groove?

Instead former Yankees manager now LA Dodgers manager J. Torre was foolish in giving the bal to Kevin Brown to start that game because to me I knew he was a choker.

K. Brown was a very selfish pitcher during his time in New York, he had to miss a good amount of time late in the 04 regular season because he broke his left hand punching a wall out of frustration.

When he punched the wall at the time he came out of a game he was winning 3-1, the man was a maniac and didn't have much of a brain.

Kevin had terrific career regular season numbers with 211 wins only 144 losses posting a 3.28 ERA, but his playoff statistics tell a different tale.

His career post season numbers are 5-5 with a 4.19 ERA going 1-1 in the 2004 playoffs with a 8.68 ERA in 9.1 innings.

K. Brown was a 6 time all star, but in the end when you have someone who is better in the big games you use them.

If you look back in 4 days of baseball against the Red Sox in the 2004 ALCS in 3.1 innings gave up 8 earned runs on 9 hits allowing 2 home runs, he was absolutely brutal.

In game 7 of that series Kevin didn't last two innings for New York when he got the ball to start and he left the Yankees in a tough position with the bases loaded down 2-0.

In the first inning of that game it was obvious that Kevin didn't have his stuff, the score could have been 3-0 after the top half of that opening frame if former Yankee Hideki Matsui didn't throw Johnny Damon out at the plate.

Johnny Damon who has played the last four seasons for the Yankees will always be remembered by the city of Boston for what he did for the Red Sox.

J. Damon was the player who blew that game out of the water he he gave the Red Sox a 7-0 lead in the 2nd inning with a grand slam on Javier Vasquez's first pitch of the ball game.

Javier was placed into a very tough position the bases were loaded down by two down by two runs facing the top of Boston's order.

I don't know why this man has received so much criticism for that game because it was not his fault at all.

I don't know why he has to prove to the Yankee fans that he is a good pitcher because he has been a solid arm his entire career.

Either way 2010 should be a great year for J. Vasquez he will rejoin his former ball club who is the defending champions so it should be very easy to erase the memory of the 2004 season.

The fans who are for whatever mad at Javy for that playoff series won't think about it as much because there is so much more talent on this team than what they had during his first stint with the organization.

The Yankees GM Brian Cashman has made the biggest transactions during the last two off seasons, he has done a brilliant job of bringing this team to a level that even he didn't expect.