Mark Melancon on his way to Boston!

Written by Greg Fertel | 25 April 2009

Peter Abraham is reporting that Mark Melancon is on his way to Boston.

The circumstances that surround this move suck, but I am very excited to see Melancon pitch for the Yankees. He's the type of guy who can stick in the majors for good right now. I suspected something was up with Bruney when he wasn't used in the extra inning game against Oakland and then it was obvious last night he had a problem.

My guess is that his MRI didn't go so well, prompting the Yanks to add Melancon. Bruney was pitching great and it is a significant loss to lose him, so lets hope that Melancon lives up to his hype.

So far this season in AAA, Melancon has pitched 10.1 innings, and allowed four hits and no home runs to go along with some beautiful ratios. He has a 17:3 K:BB ratio and a 2.50 GO:AO ratio.

What you can expect to see from Melancon

He works within the strike zone. Last season he pitched 95 innings because he was getting through them on so few pitches.
His fastball should be around 92-95 with good movement that allows him to get so many ground balls.
Along with his fastball, he brings a great 12-to-6 curveball which he will throw in the strike zone or drop out of the strike zone to get swinging strikes.
He also possesses an average changeup which I suspect we won't see much of in his first few outings.

I was hoping Melancon would break into the majors in a different way, to give them a ridiculous pen with Mo, Melancon, Bruney, and Marte. Losing Bruney definitely hurts the Yankees team, but I'm glad they decided to be aggressive and promote Melancon instead of a lesser pitcher like Anthony Claggett.