Kei Igawa and Edwar Ramirez

Is Kei Igawa Still With The Yankees?

Every year at this time, so-called experts and curious fans ask two things about Kei Igawa: 1) Is he still on the team; and 2) Can Kei Igawa be the Yankees 5th starter? Igawa, who Brian Cashman paid $46 million dollars to acquire, was last seen in the big leagues in 2008, and is not even on the 40-man roster, and the Yankees couldn’t even give him away- in fact, no other team wants Igawa. In 13 career major league starts, Igawa went 1-4 with a 7.41 ERA. If you include his relief appearances, his ERA is an apt 6.66. I check on Igawa all the time, and he seems to enjoy the two great cities of Scranton and Tampa.

kei igawa sucks

Igawa just kinda shows up for minor league games, and blogs for his Japanese fans. No one actually knows if he’s supposed to show up to work or not and rumor is that he will continue to report to duty even after his contract is over. (Just kidding.)

Peter Gammons seems to think it’s because former pitching coach Ron Guidry ruined him (Gammons said the same thing about Chien-Ming Wang), but Igawa was done way before the Yankees tried to fix him. Igawa was always afraid of American hitters and lacked the steel nerves he was hyped as having. The man had no control.

Brian Cashman tried to temper out expectations when Igawa was first signed by saying Igawa would be a 4th or 5th starter in the American League. [The obvious question which my grandmother asked me back then was why pay some idiot $46 million as opposed to giving a AAA pitcher like...oh...Ross Ohlendorf  or Tyler Clippard a real chance to start?] Turns out Cashman was dead wrong; Igawa is actually banned from starting another game for the Yankees. Romulo Sanchez has a better shot to be in the 2011 Yankees rotation. Gosh, Mark Prior has a better shot.

Rumormill is that Brian Cashman will fire any of his office employees for even mentioning Kei Igawa’s name.

Any wanna-be expert who thinks Cashman will give Igawa another chance to start needs to change his marijuana pipe.

Kei Igawa sucks. He’s a clown. Why does Kei Igawa suck?

Well, besides having no idea how to pitch in the big leagues…actually there is nothing else to say besides Kei Igawa sucks. Kei Igawa makes Hideki Irabu look like Nolan Ryan. You would think after the Irabu scandal, Cashman would stop going East.

$46 million on Igawa and $40 million on Carl Pavano, yet Cashman pinched pennies with Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Derek Jeter, and everyone else.

Jerk.

Can’t wait when Cashman “moves on” and becomes General Manager of the White Sox.

***

Okay, so with Andy Pettitte retiring and the Yankees only having one legit “sure thing”  starting pitcher in the rotation (CC Sabathia), it’s time to list the players that either snubbed Cashman or weren’t even contacted by him:

Cliff Lee
Brandon Webb
Ted Lilly
Zack Greinke
Shaun Marcum
Hiroki Kuroda
Jake Westbrook
Jorge De La Rosa
Jon Garland
Not to mention a bunch of names from the 2011 Free Agent List.

Also, one would think Jesus Montero and Joba Chamberlain could be traded for an elite starter.

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  6 comments for “Is Kei Igawa Still With The Yankees?”

  1. Hermano
    January 1, 2012 at 12:55 AM

    I have to agree with "hermano" ……… what were you doing when she handed you your book. Were you listening attentively? Where you taking notes. Something you were doing was giving off the "I take this class seriously and I'll be a good student vibe" or you might of just had a kind face that she thought she could joke with a little and still give you a compliment.

    Either way you caught her eye and she will be watching you a little. Don't worry she can't put too much extra pressure on you that she wouldn't give the rest of the class ….. that wouldn't be fair.

    So far so good. ;-)

    Good luck…… all I have to say is AP Chemistry …. Wow!!!!

  2. tenseikei
    September 17, 2011 at 9:28 AM

    and meccha kawaii KEI INOO ^ ^

  3. Bill
    May 31, 2011 at 1:06 PM

    if the Yankees place Kei Igawa back on the 40 man roster his contract will count towards the luxury tax. The Yankees will have to pay $2 million in luxury tax on the $4 million owed to him for 2011 if they call him up to the majors or give him his outright release. Igawa won’t go back to Japan until the contract expires or else he will be in breach of contract and won’t get the money. The players union won’t allow the Yankees to renegotiate his contract to allow him to go back and take less money. No other team wants to claim him because then they will be on the hook for the money owed to him. The Yankees didn’t really give Igawa a huge contract – he only got $20 million for 5 years which is $4 million a year which is small compared to a lot of other contracts. The problem is they paid $26 million to his Japanese league team for the right to sign him.

  4. arodaman
    April 22, 2011 at 11:17 AM

    Brian Cashman is the reason for the yankees decline. I’ll never forget when the fucking idiot chose Gary Sheffield over Vladimir Guerro from Free agency 2002. If we got Guerro we could have one more titles but dumbass decided to grab an ageing Gary Sheffield. Cashman has never been good at obtaining premier pitching. Hes the one who should be fired.

    • Bill
      May 31, 2011 at 12:54 PM

      You can’t blame Cashman for Sheffield. Cashman didn’t sign Sheffield. George Steinbrenner went around Cashman and Sheffield went around his agent to get the deal done. George had wanted to sign David Ortiz a year earlier when the Twins released him and Cashman said they didn’t need him. When Ortiz went on to star in Boston, George decided not to let the same thing happen with Sheffield and went and got him on his own. And it was in 2003, not 2002.

  5. hsuehkat
    April 10, 2011 at 5:30 PM

    Barosu

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