Part of that will be the (hopefully) returning injured like Brett Gardner, Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera.

Fixed, right ? Wasn’t there some wishcasting story about Mo maybe pitching this year, yet ? Of which I am against, if it involves any smidgen of rushing him back and creating a setback, or him being ineffective due to rust and/or compensation.

Another part of it may be finding a way to squeeze Russell Branyan (currently hitting .309/.438/.655 in 137 AAA PAs) or Jack Cust (.259/.400/.498 in 370 AAA PAs) onto the roster as DH options.

Branyan hasn’t played since July 6th.  He’s listed as active and I’m not seeing anything about him being injured but…Cust is still playing and an option. 

I think after the trading deadline you may see some action with one or the other.  They’re not going to do any jiggering of the roster - especially for guys who don’t have options - until they have a “final” roster for the stretch run.  Then they can figure out what internal pieces may be an upgrade over what is on the team now.

[1] I read that article and what I got out of it was that the doctor was saying “If anyone can come back, Mo can!” and not “Mo can come back!” Maybe I misread it though. He did say he was ahead of schedule and working hard, which we sort of all expected would happen.

Iguana and Jones have proven to be perfectly cromulent, so far. Our fears and reflexive revulsion have at least not come to pass. Igauana playing more in the field than we hoped, but it hasn’t been the total farce it might have been. If Gardner comes back and is where he was, we end up having a terrific bench/4-5 OF/DH platoon to play with.

Iganez has a sub .300 OBP, that isn’t exactly what you want out your DH, or even half of your DH platoon. Wouldn’t mind finding out if Branyan or Cust could top that against RHP. But I guess they need Iganez at least until Gardner’s back or Jones becomes a fulltime player.

Who am I kidding? Gardner is never coming back or by the time he does they will have surgically removed his aforementioned back.

[5] that’s basically what I’m thinking, the Yankees can’t afford to get rid of Igauana until they have an everyday LF (Gardner or Gardner/Jones platoon), once he’s back (if that ever happens, which it won’t) I think there’s a decent chance we see Iguana DFA’d and Cust or Branyan called up. I like Branyan more.

I’ve been anti-Ibanez from the start, and while I know he’s hit some big HRs (great), his sub-.300 OBP is bad. 

What does Branyan project to do?

[8] I guess someone should find out why he hasn’t played since early July first.

I’m betting Ibanez is here to stay no matter what and somehow I doubt Branyon or Cust would accomplish more for us then a challenge to create new snarky nicknames.

What does Branyan project to do?

I haven’t redone his projection based on what he’s done this year, so this post should probably be close enough.

Something like .240/.335/.475 or so.  Basically Iganez plus some walks and with less defense.

Yeah, I kind of think Ibanez is not going anywhere.  His production is not what it could be but he’s ‘earned” his place with okay hitting and acceptable defense.  Not sure how much better Cust or Branyan would be over less than half a season, unless they know how to catch.

Ibanez is actually the third string catcher now too.

[13] Can’t wait for Girardi do find a way to take advantage of that in extra innings of a playoff game!