I don’t know if the Kennedy for Ankiel rumor is fan or media driven or if it is something that’s really been explored or not. Hank Steinbrenner seems to have all but given up on a youth movement in his rotation after missing the playoffs for the first time in what seems like forever. With Andy Pettitte’s “inevitable” return to New York, and the talks with the Brewers for Mike Cameron breaking down, the scenario for the trade is definitely there.
Right now the Yankees are looking at the unexciting prospect of a Melky Cabrera/Brett Gardner platoon in center field, so I could see how they would be interested in Rick. As much as it pains me to think of my man crush in Yankee pinstripes, Ian Kennedy would be a fantastic return. But there is a rub. While The Slick Rick Show may be ready for Broadway, I’m not so sure I.K. is a good fit for with the coaching staff. There are some eerie similarities with him and someone else…
- Kennedy is a USC grad whose pitching mechanics are directly from the school of Tom House.
- He’s an extreme fly ball pitcher, and doesn’t have a sinker in his arsenal.
- His pitches grade as average, with the exception of his change-up, which is a very good offering.
- Kennedy dominated the minors but struggled with control in the majors.
Do we really want to go through this saga again? I personally would probably make the trade, but I don’t think Duncan could help himself, he would tinker. My heart can’t take standing by and watching that happening again.
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It seems like a lot to give up for a young pitcher of questionable value to us. If we have to ditch an outfielder just for numbers reasons then Duncan’s my candidate. Am I overrating our prospects or aren’t there plenty of guys that other teams might be interested in beyond our top two or three? Doesn’t it also seem like we’re not exploring this? I live in Minnesota and have run this trade past several Twins fans….Freese and Duncan for Scott Baker. The Twins need a third baseman with potential and a lefty DH and all my friends have accepted this. I almost think that we’d be over paying but Baker is a decent, young, cheap middle of the rotation starter with upward potential. There must be many more needs that teams have that we could fill with the number of real prospects we have at the AAA and AA levels. My feeling is that, beyond Rasmus, Perez and whichever 3b prospect the team thinks is the future, we should be willing to offer any of the rest of our prospects to fill our immediate needs.
i think the problem is that we birdophiles believe rick will be very good, that cd will recover and hit well again, and freese is a sure bet. from the other side of the fence, it seems we are offering two players who could not finish the year due to injury and one with no mlb at bats. i’m afraid those facts combined with age, rick in particular, mean that the their risk factor seems high to other teams. i think we are more likely to get a minor trade going with schu. as a way to reduce our outfield logjam. if not, we’ll need to hope rick and cd can re-establish themselves quickly once the season starts and, thereby, establish better value.
duncan is worth nothing til he can prove he is healthy from the neck surgery.Ank is the logical choice free agent after 09,boras is his agent,and is probably due a big raise of the “healthy” OF you trade him you have rasmus to take his spot and is cost controlled for several seasons.to me ludwick isnt a trade option hes our only RH OF except for mather who isnt ready to start in the show
There’s no way the Twins would make that deal. Baker is on par with Wainwright, IMO. They would probably give us Blackburn for those two, which would be kind of a shoulder shrug trade but I think one I’d probably do.
I don’t think the Twins rate Baker that highly. I like him a lot but don’t think he’s in Wainwright’s league. Of course that doesn’t mean the Twins would make that deal but my point is that it doesn’t seem that we’re exploring the value that some of our prospects may have to other teams.
You missed something Erik, The Cardinals drafted Ian Kennedy in 2003 out of High School but he elected to go to college instead. So obviously someone in the organization liked him. I think this deal will go down if Tex goes to the Angels.
It would pretty much mean the Angels would not get involved with Fuentes. By us trading Ankiel to NYY it would prevent Brewers dumping $10M of Cameron’s salary. It would save us millions possibly in negotiating with Fuentes.
This deal makes too much sense not to get done. Ankiel is the best CFer available right now and that is the Yankee’s most glaring hole. If the new Yankee stadium plays anything like the old Yankee stadium (same dimensions) than Ankiel will be a monster there. Yankee stadium was the second most friendly park to lefties in baseball.
Even though Kennedy didn’t far well in the Majors he did put good numbers in AAA and he is still young. He also had a very good run in Winter Ball this year.
I think you are missing my point. I like the deal. But they drafted Reyes, and it turned out to not be a fit. And my point is his career and stuff is pretty similar to Reyes.
I just finished up an analysis of Ian Kennedy’s pitching mechanics
- Analysis of the Pitching Mechanics of Ian Kennedy
The bottom line is that I hope the Cards pass.
Any chance the Cards go for Hughes instead of Kennedy? I think he’s recovering from TJ right now, but that means we could potentially get something else in return as well.
At one point, early on in this rumor, I heard that the deal was Ankiel for Kennedy AND Hughes. I doubt one year of Ankiel could net both of those guys, but if it could, I would certainly do that! I am very shaky on Kennedy. I personally believe that his high prospect ranking from a year or so ago had much more to do with the fact that he is a yankee prospect, than how good he actually is. It seems as though players coming up on the east coast tend to be rated much higher than they actually are. Could you imagine Daryl Jones in the Yankees system and how highly touted he would be?
And did Hughes really have TJ surgery? I can’t seem to find that online, but who knows.
I thought I heard somewhere that he was recovering from TJ. Maybe it was just a scenario like Garcia 2 years ago where he had ‘elbow pain’ and they just shut him down to avoid TJ. Or it might have been shoulder pain.
Or I could just be thinking of someone else entirely. I honestly don’t remember, unfortunately.