Strange. I thought the Dice-K signing meant that the Sawks already had control over the entire Asian continent.

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It can't hurt. Why not? It's a good move. They are nothing more than prospects, and at positions where its always good to be reinforced. The Yankees phenom catching prospect from Venezuela Jesus Montero is around the same age, if not younger (I think he may be 17...), so if Zhang can show some competency behind the dish, that works out great. Frankly, while it would cost more prospects - I'd love to see Jarrod Saltalamacchia in a Yankee uniform. The Braves have McCann (who, if you watched Monday Night Baseball last night, had a great game), so having Saltalamacchia is a luxury. I'd like to see if the Yankees could snag him.

And left handed pitching is always a commodity. Speaking of which - Tyler Clippard was sent down to AAA after bombing out against the Mets, and, yep, our Miracle Man Kei Igawa is back, with his reinvented delivery and three strong starts in AAA (including one against my Buffalo Bisons). He'll make his re-launch this Friday.

Clippard was a bit of a mystery to me, in a way. I do think that, like Hughes, he was rushed because of the injury and instability at this level, and with some refinement (now that he knows how difficult it is on the MLB level), hopefully the pitching coaches in AAA (especially Nardi Contreras) can get him to be a viable major league option. The funny thing is that Clippard broke his stride...in previous levels, he's struggled his first 1 or 2 outings, and then became dominant. Clippard did well his first couple of outings for the Yankees, and then lost it.

Hopefully, Igawa will be able to come back strong, and now show some of that "superior" control he was touted to have when he was in Japan.

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BTW - Irish - I figured you'd be all over Schilling's loss last night, getting rocked by the Braves. He didn't throw a strikeout, which hasn't happened in forever.