Yankees Can't Keep Putting Ian Kennedy Out There

• Angels 10-Yankees 5:
  

Developing players is one thing, but having a young pitcher like Ian Kennedy go out to the mound and be non-competitive is another. (At this point, they might be better off using Ted Kennedy.) If the Yankees have any intention of staying within striking range of the Red Sox and

Rays, they're either going to have to make a deal for another starting pitcher or they're going to fade out----it's that simple. And if they think that Kennedy is capable of doing anything in his career other than being a colossal bust, they have to seriously think about sending him back to the minors and leaving him there for the rest of the season because there is such a thing as big league shellshock and if Kennedy gets it into his head that he's dominating in Triple A and can't pitch in the majors, it will quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or it could be that he's just not that good; that he's fine when pitching to the career minor leaguers and fringe major leaguers that permeate Triple A, but can't get true big leaguers out; that's something that has to be seriously considered as well. The problem the Yankees have is that the word is out on Kennedy and any team that felt the same way about his potential as the Yankees did before the season isn't going to give up anything of consequence to get him, so he's untradeable unless the Yankees give him away, which they won't. The best course of action may be the

first option I suggested in sending him down and telling him to be ready for spring training 2009 because anything and anyone would be a better option at this point. Speaking of which...
Carl Pavano has been discussed as being "solid" in his rehab starts and again there are expectations that he's going to be able to contribute something in the last month of his four-year, $40 million contract for which he has provided nothing more than a load of deserved ridicule. I don't want to hear one word about Carl Pavano and if anyone's expecting anything from the worst free agent signing ever, they're either taking hallucinatory narcotics or are living in NeverNeverLand.

• Brewers 5-Nationals 0:
  

With every complete game and scoreless inning that C.C. Sabathia puts up, it's possible to hear two syllables over and over again: Cha-ching!

• Brian Giles vetoes a trade to the Red Sox:

There's a sense of annoyance on all ends when a player exercises his contractual right to veto a trade. The trading team gets irritated because they could've gotten a body or two for a player that they're not going to have after the season anyway; the acquiring team and their fans get offended because it's as if they're being rejected----"You don't want to join us? How dare you!!" But the entire idea behind a player receiving a no-trade provision is that he can reject his current team's attempt to send him somewhere that he doesn't want to go.
Sometimes it's because of money (many players have the Yankees, Red Sox and other big market teams on their no-trade list because the player will demand a contract extension to join them);

sometimes it's because they sign contracts for less money to be in a more comfortable spot so they can be near their families and don't want to pick up and leave in August. It's not a matter of going, in the case of Giles, from an atrocious Padres team to a contending Red Sox team; it's a matter of moving on short notice and leaving his home for the last two-plus months of the season.
I think Giles would have been a good pickup for the Red Sox had he okayed the deal and the dimensions of Fenway might have returned his power to a point. Giles hits the ball to all fields and with the Green Monster to shoot at, would have at least provided some extra base power if not the home run power from earlier in his career; he rejected the deal, so the point is moot.
There was some suggestion that the Red Sox claimed Giles to keep him from going to the Angels or Rays, but I believe those allegations of waiver "blocks" are overblown. If Giles were a true difference maker who'd be a power bat for either of those teams then maybe (such a player would be a Matt Holliday or Chipper Jones), but I don't believe that anyone's going to get into such a twist about Brian Giles at this point in his career. The Red Sox claimed him because they could use him; if the "block" to keep him from the Angels or Rays was a part of the equation, it was only an ancillary thought