Another Proctor Rumor

This rumor comes from the NY Post (so take it with a grain of salt) via Fake Teams. The Yanks are allegedly still interested in Wilson Betemit, their offereing either Proctor or Farnsworth, but the Dodgers aren’t sure either guy is the answer to a hole in their pen. Fake Teams is wondering why the Yanks don’t just ship both of them to L.A. I’m wondering why Proctor’s name keeps popping up in these rumors.

Joe can’t be happy about this. Proctor is the guy he trusts most out there, and he’s the first guy up after the 6^th inning. I don’t see the logic in moving him at this point, especially when you have Farnsworth stinking up the joint on a regular basis. That being said, I think Betemit would be a huge addition to the team. Right now, they have zero options off the bench. Betemit can play anywhere in the infield, he has pop in his bat, a history of being a good pinch-hitter and he’s cheap. I don’t know how Erin from Blue Thoughts would feel about this deal, but I say eat Farnsworth’s salary and make the deal happen without Proctor.

Speaking of Farnsworth, according to the Lohud Yankees Blog, he knows he sucks.

One more piece of bullpen news. Rob Neyer, in his blog for ESPN (Insider), is quoting a story from the Newark Star Ledger (Actually, he’s not quoting it, he just cut and pasted the whole friggin’ article in there, so no link for Neyer). Anyway, the story is about how the Yanks found Edwar Ramirez. No scouts saw him pitch, they just went by his numbers and a few phone calls to find out if he had any character/injury issues, when no red flags came up, they signed him, sight unseen.

It would be a really nice feel-good story if Joe would pitch the guy. He came up July 1^st and has appeared in two games since. If Torre doesn’t trust him, or doesn’t want to use him, then send him back to the minors. I can tell you right now that having him rot on the bench is going to end badly. Joe will eventually put him back in a game, and he won’t be able to throw strikes because he’s rusty from sitting. Then Torre will have even less confidence in him. It’s a vicious circle, and it really shouldn’t have come to this. The kid was impressive in both of his outings, he should’ve gotten some of the innings wasted on Farnsworth in the past three weeks.