Bombers keep on rolling out intriguing kids
IT was early in Friday night’s game, Kevin Cash said — after the first or second inning — when he turned to his bench coach, Charlie Montoyo, and dropped the comparison of a lifetime on Jonathan Loaisiga.
“[I] said he looked like a young Mariano Rivera,” the Rays manager said, after Loaisiga won his major league debut to the tune of 5-0 at Yankee Stadium.
All righty, then. Remember when every Yankees prospect, at a time when there weren’t many, arrived with great hype and hope and didn’t come close to meeting expectations? The pinstriped world has flipped: The Yankees run out so many intriguing youngsters that some, like Loaisiga, can sneak up on you and, apparently, motivate opposing managers to evoke future Hall of Famers.
“They’re just so talented,” said Rays outfielder Rob Refsnyder, a Yankees prospect from their previous universe.
Loaisiga, the 23-year-old native of Nicaragua, displayed some debut jitters in addition to his gifts. After issuing just four walks in 45 combined minor league innings with Single-A Tampa and Double-A Trenton, he handed out four free passes in his five innings.
Then he showed his toughness and his pure stuff by cleaning up each of his messes. Thanks to a fastball averaging 96.8 mph (thanks, Brooks Baseball), a twoseamer, a slider and a changeup, the right-hander induced a total of 17 swings-and-misses en route to six strikeouts. He escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the fourth inning by fanning Christian Arroyo.
“I know the walks came in, but the fastball was around the zone enough that you had to respect all of the off-speed pitches and re- spect the fastball command,” Cash said. “And then, once we got a little bit of a feel for it, we got some good at-bats. The pitch count went up. But he still had plenty of swing-and-miss stuff.”
As for Cash throwing out Rivera’s name, “Just his mannerisms on the mound, the way he’s built, all of those things,” Tampa Bay’s skipper said. He added: “Don’t give them any ideas, though. He doesn’t need to be pitching in the ninth inning anytime soon.”
In the wake of Domingo German picking up his first big league win on Thursday night, the two rookies became the first Yankees pitchers to record their initial career victories in back-toback games since Chase Wright, Kei Igawa and Sean Henn won back-to-back games from April 17-19 of 2007. That provides some sobering perspective, as does the tidbit that the last Yankees rookie to throw five-plus shutout innings in his major league debut was Sam Militello in 1992.
Those highlights, however, occurred in a time when a kid who stuck served as the aberration rather than the inspiration.
“I’ve said a lot since I’ve taken this job, the talent in this organization is evident to people across the baseball world,” said Aaron Boone, who is shining himself as a rookie manager. “There’s no question that as an organization, we do a really good job of preparing these guys. Not just from a physical, baseball X’s and O’s, but all the mental stuff, all the emotional stuff that goes with being a big leaguer. That goes with being in New York.”
“Those coordinators have done a really good job,” Refsnyder seconded. “It’s nice they’re getting an opportunity to play. I think Boone probably instills a lot of confidence in those guys.”
Whatever the Yankees’ recipe might be, it’s working some seri- ous magic. They can do little wrong nowadays. Masahiro Tanaka goes down with a bizarre baserunning injury, and the Yankees dig up Loaisiga, a Giants castoff and Tommy John surgery recipient who hasn’t spent a day at the Triple-A level.
“Hopefully he doesn’t develop a cutter or anything,” Cash said of Loaisiga.
Even if you don’t buy the Rivera parallel, you want to see this guy pitch again, don’t you? In the last three years, have you lost count by now of how many times you’ve said that of a Yankees youngster?