Why do some fans want to buy pitchers when we have enough now? Most everyone complains about the farm system, but keeping kids on the farm is not the way to go. We lost a good pitcher in the rule 5 draft, plus a few others. One can only protect 40 players then what do you do?
It has to be a "Use'um or lose'um thing. Depending on injury reports we have about 5 pitchers to fight it out for the number 5 spot and the same or more for the bullpen all of them are good... are they a good enough force to be reckoned with...no one knows until they pitch against live major league hitters. A few of them have a few innings under their belt already and did well.
Who was it that said, we had to have the best players at every position, the core 4+1 came from the farm...so can others. Jeter, Mo, Posada and Andy all came to spring training not knowing if they would make the cut...except Jeter, he was the replacement for our injured SS.
Once a player gets to AAA and does well...after 4-5 years on the farm...they can develop a real bad attitude quickly.
The history of minor league players is hard to figure out. One reason is because some are better than what they have shown on the Farm or not as good. There have been many players come up to the Show and take-off like a pro and then fizzle out, conversely, much more adjusted to the game and became Jeters and or Andys.
One prime example was Don Mattingly, he was a double and Avg. hitter, so they said, but he adjusted. The great Mickey Mantel was sent back down because he didn't adjust to the big show and the speed etc. Brett is another one, all the experts said he would be a good 4th or fifth outfielder at best.
