by With the July 31st trade deadline came many surprising (and some fairly obvious) moves. Only one uniform change had yours truly dancing in the streets, and it was that of the former Yankee Chan Ho Park. In his brief tenure with the Bombers, Park did nothing but give up hits and homeruns. Brian Cashman’s signing of Park in the offseason always seemed odd to me given his unimpressive numbers from past seasons.
Another move that induced some head scratching was that of Boone Logan, who was sent to the Bronx with Javier Vasquez in the 2009 offseason. The Yankees wanted another hand throwing lefty to complement Damaso Marte in their bullpen and hoped to find it in Logan. In April, Logan batted around to the tune of a 3.86 ERA and in May his ERA rose to 5.40. The Yankees knew that these weren’t exactly big league numbers, so they sent him back to the minors to work things out.
The trip to Scranton/ Wilkes-Barre paid off as Logan pitched to a 2.35 ERA in June and, since the All Star break, has been lights out with an ERA of 1.04. To date, this pitching performance is the best of his five year career including time spent with the White Sox and Braves.
Logan’s performances are even more important now that Damaso Marte’s barking shoulder has landed him on the disabled list once again. Marte was an unsung hero of the 2009 postseason, getting the job done every single time Joe Girardi called on him. Marte’s delivery when it really mattered has won him a spot in the hearts of all true blue Yankee fans, if not the box score Yankee fans. Post season play aside, his regular season numbers leave a lot to be desired.
The Bronx is gearing up for the inevitable hard nose fight between the Rays, Red Sox, and Yankees in August and September. With the Yankees and Rays neck and neck, every single at bat and pitch is going to matter and, unless you’re a fool, you can’t count the Red Sox out no matter how many injuries they tally up. I may have been among those who doubted his ability, but I truly believe that Boone Logan is the Yankees best chance to record an out during the home stretch of this regular season.
Jay Ferraro is the Executive Producer of Baseball Digest LIVE and Gotham Baseball LIVE. He is also the Fantasy Editor for Gotham Gridiron and Baseballdigest.com as well as a columnist for Baseball Digest Magazine and Assignment Editor for Gothambaseball.com. You can reach him at Jay_Ferraro@Juno.com , follow him on Twitter , add him on Facebook and check out his Official Website.
