But now onto the real news:
You never really want to claim that one player could determine the fate of your club's season, but that's pretty much what Brian Bruney is to the Yankees. If he stays healthy, the bridge from Startersville to Motown (and I don't mean Detroit) could be renamed from its previous name of "Verascokeandeveryfifthdaysabathia Bridge" to "Brian Bruney." That would go a long way towards pushing the Yankees to a very strong run deep into the postseason.
Today, the first step was taken as Bruney was activated from the disabled list. However, I praise the Yankees for the second part of that move more than the first. For in order to clear up roster space, the Yankees had to DFA RP Jose Veras, a move that was the entire 2009 season in the making.
Veras struggled with his command all season long so it seemed like he was the obvious choice for the boot. The other possible candidates were RHPs David Robertson and Brett Tomko.
Robertson has put up very nice numbers this season and has been probably the most reliable reliever for Joe Girardi. Tomko had good numbers, although his last outing quickly inflated those, and gives the Yanks a lot of versatility in the pen.
In the end, I'm sure that Veras will get picked up by a club in desperate search of relief pitching (like the Nationals who the Yankees kick off a series with in a little over half an hour from now, wouldn't that be interesting if Veras pitched against the Yanks in this series). He's a flamethrower who's still only 28 and could be very attractive to said teams. However, the Yankees got rid of another Kyle Farnsworth-type pitcher in favor of a dominant setup man so it's still a win for them.
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