Will Ian Kennedy contribute in 2010?
November 27, 2009, 4:30 pm by iYankees · 14 Comments
On Wednesday, in a live chat over at FanHouse, Frankie Piliere, a former scout for the Texas Rangers, was asked about the Yankees’ Ian Kennedy, 24, who missed most of the 2009 season due to an aneurysm in his right arm. Kennedy had surgery in May to remove the aneurysm and ended up surprising everyone by rehabbing quickly enough to return to the Yankees and pitch a scoreless inning out of the bullpen against the Angels in September.
Here’s what Piliere had to say about IPK’s future with the team:
I think he’s more in the plans than Yankee fans like to believe. Just not sure why people so easily forget about this guy. I think he’ll be in the mix for the rotation in ST barring a spending spree on more pitching.
Kennedy is definitely a guy you want to root for given his impressive minor league career. In 248 2/3 innings pitched, he has a 1.95 ERA, a 0.96 WHIP, and 273 strikeouts. As you can see, there’s a reason why teams have called Brian Cashman about the young Californian. IPK also participated in the Arizona Fall League this year and posted a 4.25 ERA over 29 2/3 innings (he struck out 28 and walked 5). Basically, he has been a dominant force in the minor leagues and, although he failed to prove himself as a starter in 2008, as Piliere suggests, the Yankees will likely provide Kennedy with opportunities to succeed in 2010. What those opportunities are have yet to be determined, however.
While the team could look at Kennedy as a rotation option “barring a spending spree”—he’s an unlikely option, but an option nonetheless—I wouldn’t be surprised to see them use him as a reliever in order to develop his confidence against big league hitters. This strategy seemed to work for Phil Hughes, at least until the postseason arrived.
In the end, I know many are down on Kennedy, however, I think he can be a contributor next season.
Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images
Who is he going to beat out in the rotation in ST?
CC Sabathia
AJ Burnett
Andy Pettitte
Joba Chamberlain
Phil Hughes
Say they spend money on no other starting pitcher Chad Gaudin gets the first start from “the best of the rest” group based off of what he did last year and the respect he earned in putting up really good numbers both as a starter and a reliever in NY. So that means both Hughes and Joba have to go to the minor leagues for Kennedy to even stand a chance of cracking the rotation in ST. Even then you have to think since they are bringing back Mitre that he would also be in line before Kennedy in getting a starting spot, I mean if they didn’t at least think he would be the 2nd emergency starter they wouldn’t keep him meaning that 3 starting pitchers have to go down in ST or perform their ways out of the spots.
I think Kennedy can contribute in a big way next year and it’s out of the pen… Kennedy has much better pure stuff than Aceves does and out of the pen he throws much harder than Aceves with more movement and he has spent this AFL developing his 2-seam fastball which could prove to be a very good thing. I think Kennedy in a role that Aceves helped play this year (but tired out to the end) would be more effective than Aceves was and can help in the same ways Ace did. Kennedy is the kind of guy who can come out for an inning and do the job or come in and do 2 innings of work and get through when a pitcher goes out early.
A bullpen with both Aceves and Kennedy being able to pitch more than 1 inning while also being able to get quality innings of work in is very deadly… Just think if once Aceves stared going down at the end of the year what could have been if Kennedy could have stepped into his role for a while and take some innings off Aceves so he could have been more sharp for the playoffs.
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It depends, really. I don’t think he’s a realistic rotation option if the Yankees sign Pettitte, but if they don’t and one of Joba or Hughes is traded, I think they would be tempted to use IPK over Gaudin. IPK has more of a future with the organization and was Yankee-bred, so they could opt for him and keep Gaudin in the pen as a long-reliever.
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What are the likely hood Pettitte doesn’t come back and Joba or Hughes is traded? If Pettitte doesn’t come back you know they will sign Lackey over trading for Halladay.
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I agree, but there’s a remote possibility.
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I read a week or so ago that Kennedy has taken his time in the AFL to develop his 2-seam fastball which is really something I like to hear, the best thing about Kennedy is his movement and the fact that he can move his fastball all around the zone. He can be a little Roy Halladay with his pitch tendencies because he has a 4-seam FB with some movement on it, he throws a sinker with solid movement on it and a decent cutter and now he has taken time to further develop his 2-seam FB so he can move the ball in out and down and up which is really the key to him being successful at his velocity no matter what role he is.
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Kennedy has definitely built up his repertoire and maybe if he can refine having movement on everything he throws he can be a starter, I think his value right now lies as a reliever but if he can put it together maybe he can start. He just has such average velocity that he has to offset that with great location and movement on everything he throws, anything straight is going to get hammered so I’m glad to see him developing other fastballs.
4-seam fastball
2-seam fastball
cut fastball
sinker
change
slider
curve
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Good to hear. He has great command and the more movement he adds to his fastball, the better. The one problem he had (well, he had several, but the main one) in 2008 was threw his fastball too much. He didn’t use his secondary pitches nearly as much as he should have. Even with a 2-seamer, he’ll have to use his slider and changeup a lot more and I hope he does that in 2010.
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He seems like a guy who wants to rely on his cutter, 4-seam, 2-seam and sinking fastballs more than being a changeup guy or an offspeed guy, he likes being a fastball pitcher but he does need to mix it up more.
I’m afraid he is going to try and be Mr Fastball though and use his movement to bust all around the zone and then use his change and curve as strikeout pitches.
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He’ll just have to use his fastballs wisely. I wrote something about him last year or early this year and found out that he threw his fastball more than any starter did in 2008 (outside of, I think, Sidney Ponson).
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Well if he can put more movement on it that might not be terrible, I mean if you can move a fastball in out up and down to righties and lefties you have a chance. Add a change to that and even a a few curves and sliders and you can win, it’s really to bad he doesn’t have better velocity… Give his command and pitches to Joba throwing 96…
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He dialed it up to 93 or so in the bullpen this year. Hopefully, in 2010, we’ll see him in the 89-92 mph range.
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Yeah I saw that outing, it was the longest scoreless inning I have ever seen!
Even at that point he only has slightly more velocity top out than Aceves because he can touch 94 maybe. I just don’t believe in Kennedy going through a lineup 3-4 times a game like I don’t believe in Aceves going through a lineup 3-4 times. It just hurts their effectiveness to be seen that much and to be studied that much, even good movement cam be hit if you time the speed… Except for Mariano.
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Hahaha, yea the inning took forever. Awesome game.
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Looking at Joba’s minor league numbers again it is really obvious that he needs to go back down to the minors and learn to develop as a starting pitcher. Everyone has this idea that Joba tore up the minor when in fact he did good but not overally great in his short minor league career.
A Ball- 40.0 IP, 7GS, 4W-0L, 2.03 ERA, 2.43 BB/9, 11.43 K/9, 5.58 H/9, 0 HRs
AA Ball- 35.1 IP, 7G-6GS, 3W-2L, 3.82 ERA, 3.33 BB/9, 14.58 K/9, 7.38 H/9, 4 HRs
AAA Ball- 8 IP, 3G-1GS, 1W-0L, 5 H, 1 BB, 18 Ks
He stumbled as one would expect making the jump to double A so what do they do? Because he has a great fastball they fast track him through Triple A in 8 innings as a reliever to make him a major league pen arm in the process messing up his development as a starter and now who knows what we have.
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