Written by Greg Fertel | 26 January 2007

So JB Cox broke a bone in his pitching hand. It's really not a big deal, but when a pitcher of his caliber gets left off the Spring Training invitee list with no reason given, everyone gets suspicious, especially when 2 other guys went down with elbow surgery this offseason. I've broken my right hand on 2 occasions, and both times it was because of a premeditated act of violence (once against another person, once against an inanimate object), so think what you will about how JB broke the bone. I will add this though, when I went to the CWS in 2005, I saw JB chillin' at some bar with about 4 of the hottest women I've seen in my entire life (that is no exaggeration). Bro's before ho's JB. Keith Law - formerly of the Jays front office - loves the Yanks farm system, but apparently doesn't have his facts straight (I'm have a FJM moment, sorry):

What sets the Yankees' system apart from most others is the presence of two of the 10 best prospects in baseball, something no other organization can claim. [sorry Keith, but as talented as Tabata is, he's not one of the 10 best prospects in the game. Secondly, the only team that can claim to have 2 of the 10 best prospects in the game is the Reds, who will inevitably find a way to ruin Bailey and Bruce. It's just how they roll] Hughes has two consistent plus-plus pitches in a 93-95 mph fastball with fair sink, and a 12-to-6 curveball [if by 12-to-6 he means 1-to-7, then he's right. But he doesn't, so he's wrong], and he has a promising changeup as well. Hughes pounds the strike zone and his command made some strides late in the 2006 season, although he still relies a bit too much on his secondary stuff. A year ago, Hughes had promise, but had missed time with minor shoulder injuries and had command issues. [command issues? He had a 1.96 BBper9 from '04 to '05, and it actually declined to 2.10 in '06. There's about 250 pitchers in the bigs that would like to have those kind of command issues] Now he's one of the top two pitching prospects in the game. ... Tabata has an outstanding package of tools, but also has a degree of baseball acumen not often seen in players so young. He has a quick bat with developing power and good command of the strike zone. He has good instincts in center [which he hasn't played regularly since 2005], with a plus arm that will allow him to move to right [which he already did] if he outgrows center [which he already did]. His season ended in early August [July 18th really, but I'm nitpicking]due to a thumb injury, but he's playing in the Venezuelan winter league and swinging the bat with no trouble [he's swinging the bat with no trouble because he isn't swinging the bat period. He left the VWL after aggravating his hand injury, what, a month-and-a-half ago?]. Tyler Clippard passed the Double-A test and looks like at least a fifth starter in the majors, while 2006 sandwich pick Joba Chamberlain, who fell out of the top 10 picks due to serious concerns about the state of his shoulder [what the...Joba missed 2 starts with Nebraska in '06 because of a strained forearm, and has had knee surgery in the past. There's never been a concern about his shoulder], threw extremely well in the Hawaiian Winter League. ... It's a significant improvement for such a short period of time, and it's very bad news for the other four teams in the AL East.

Sigh. BA has a nice article up on new Yankee prospect Alberto Gonzalez (subscription required). Sounds like the kid can really pick it. He's gotten a rep as a no-hit/all-glove guy, but he's hit .301-.356-.403-.759 with only 85 K's in 801 AB since the start of 2005. He's legit. Very nice pickup by Cash. The Sawx can have Matsuzaka, Yanks are in the process of picking up a small land mass known as China. Over a billion people in that country, there's gotta be someone in there who's better than Phil Hughes, right? BA's latest Podcast has some early '07 draft banter. If you need a daily college baseball fix, BA's launched a blog. Man, have you played that Resistance game for Playstation 3 yet? Talk about a game that'll make you lose track of time. I'm hoping to be done with it by the time MVP NCAA 07 comes out in a week-and-a-half (I just entered the Chimeran Tower in London for those that have the game), which I think will take alot of neglecting the missus on my part, which is a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Have a great weekend, and remember, it's a poodle, put it on delicate.

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