No, I was not included in this roundtable, but they got three good representatives from the Yankosphere to chat about all things Yankee. Here’s part 1:

Q: [...] Which of the two [Joba or Hughes] is better suited to be the Yankees’ fifth starting pitcher this season?

Kabak: Both pitchers are perfectly suited for the starting rotation, and both pitchers should be given a fair shot at starting. That said, I’m very mystified by the Yanks’ thinking. At River Ave. Blues, we’ve long been supporters of giving the young pitchers a chance to start. After all, top-notch starting pitching doesn’t grow on trees, and the Yanks have a rare (for them) opportunity to develop two front-line pitchers out of kids who are both under 25. These two have spent their careers starting and should be doing so in the majors.

That said, the Yanks’ decision — seemingly made before spring training — to go with Hughes boggles my mind. I love Hughes; I’m ecstatic to see him in the rotation; but after the Yanks yanked Chamberlain around for the better part of three seasons, they’re willing to move him into the pen for all of 2010. Brian Cashman says he’ll still be a starter when the Yanks need pitchers in 2011, but I’m beginning to doubt the team’s willingness to develop a plan and stick to it for their young pitchers.

Nice job by Ben, Steve and Cliff.

I’ve said similar things about the handling of Joba as Ben did above. Given the chatter from Eiland and from Billy Eppler, you might want to infer that the Yanks have ditched the “Joba-as-a-starter” plan. Of course, Cashman debunked this.

Got this in an email from Tyler Hissey (from BlogTalkRadio):

Your post on Mike Silva saying the Yanks deserve Mauer was my inspiration

Evidently, I was the inspiriation for the following video. I’m flat out giddy.

Now, I will say that I debated running this because it features Hitler (from this movie), but you have to give Tyler credit, he made it hilarious, brilliant, incredible.

(I’m having trouble embedding the video, so just click thru and enjoy!)

I’m going to steal an idea from Keith Law for a moment. I don’t know when he first came up with the idea or when he first publicly stated the idea, but the first time I saw it was last summer during the Stephen Strasburg debates (I found it funny that there were vehement arguments stating he should have gotten more money and others barking that he made too much considering he had never thrown a major-league pitch; both seem fairly legitimate to me, but I side with the former).

Initially, I thought it was a terrible idea, but it has grown on me the more I’ve thought about it. We’ve been taught that the draft was the solution to the Yankee domination from the 1920s to the 1960s (they won 20 World Series during that time; only one other team has even won 10 in all of baseball history!). The Yankees had essentially been buying up some talented prospects and using the Kansas City A’s as a farm team, and with everyone tired of it, they instituted the draft (okay, that’s not exactly why it happened, but it’s what we’ve been led to believe; perception is reality). Instituting the draft in 1965 was supposed to redistribute talent throughout baseball, making the game fairer. And you know what, it did (or at least appeared to). It was the right solution. The Yankees have only won 7 World Series since, and the Cardinals have only won 3 (the Cardinals are the team with 10 World Series Championships).

But just because it worked then, does it mean it continues to work now? It’s odd how we perceive things. In this instance, the draft initially worked to create (better) competitive balance, and now as we search for more competitive balance, we can’t let go of the draft. Free-agency for amateurs is what caused the problem necessitating the draft, so how can it be the answer now? How can the draft have been a solution and now be part of the problem? The answer is that times change.

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Like many of you, I’ve been aware of switch-pitcher Pat Venditte for a few years. I mean, how often do you hear of a guy able to throw nearly equally well with both hands anyway? Looks like the big boys wanna take a gander:

Yankees minor league ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte is expected to pitch in his first major league spring training game during Tuesday’s split-squad contest against Atlanta.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi says he has wanted to see Venditte pitch all spring.

I’ll do my best to watch this guy. If you can’t, and if you want to click through, here’s the ESPN piece on him as well as the YouTube classic video below:

(click “view full post” to read more)