Edwar Ramirez and Francisco Cervelli

I think it might be time soon for the Yankees to give Edwar Ramirez a shot in the bullpen. He's only in AA right now, so I think they should get him to Scranton immediately to get increased competition. When Carl Pavano goes on the 60-day DL they'll have a spot for him on the 40-man roster.

Ramirez was horrible when he started in the minors in 2002, and got pounded that season and 2003. The now 26-year old was out of baseball in 2003. In 2005 he hooked on with an Independent League team, and started out rough as well. Then after throwing 28 consectuive shutout innings, he was purchased by the Angels organization and sent to AAA. It was already at the end of the season, so he only pitched 2 innings (perfect ones though), but the Angels let him go.

He was back to an Independent League to start the '06 season. In 25 innings as his team's closer his problem were walks as he walked 10, but since he struck out 46, it still kept his ERA down at 1.07.

This is when the Yankees got him and sent him to Tampa. He finished out 2006 by pitching 30.2 innings for the Yankees' advanced A-Ball team where he struck out 47, and pitched to a 1.07 ERA.

He made people take notice of him this off-season in Winter Ball. So far he's following it up with a strong start in AA-Trenton. In 10.2 innings he's given up just 3 hits while striking out 18, and allowing 1 run (thanks to those 6 walks).

I think they need to get him up to AAA and start seeing if he's ready to fill in next.

The other prospect I want them to promote is I want them to move Francisco Cervelli up to AA. Cevelli is a 21-year old switch-hitting catcher. He was at rookie ball last season where be batted .309, .397, .426. That had him skip low-A and move to Tampa. He currently ranks 3rd in the FSL with a .354 average, to go along with a .420 OBP.

The problem of course is I have no idea what his catching skills are like right now. I've looked back at box scores and saw that he's thrown out 11 of the last 27 attempted base stealers (41%) and threw behind a guy to pick him of second base. So his throwing at very least shouldn't hold him back.

I just want him up at AA now to see how he does because, sadly, if Posada gets hurt Cervelli is the organization's best option right now. The three catcher the Yankees have that are getting significant playing time in AA and AAA, none of them have an OBP anywhere near Cervelli's batting average. You don't want to rush him, but if he can bat .240 in the Majors, that would be significantly better than any other option the Yankees have.

I don't want him to be Posada's backup, as he needs regular playing time, but if Posada gets hurt, the Yankees need to start figuring out if he can be an option. Move him to Trenton.