Eiland's return helping Burnett

One day after his first bullpen session since the return of pitching coach Dave Eiland, A.J. Burnett is confident he can bounce back from his June woes.

Eiland relieved to be back with Yanks

For the first time since he took a personal leave of absence on June 4, pitching coach Dave Eiland was back with the Yankees on Tuesday for their series opener with the Mariners.

Eiland set to rejoin Yankees Tuesday

Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland is scheduled to return from his extended leave of absence on Tuesday, and his staff of hurlers will be elated to have his input once again.

Eiland takes personal leave from Yanks

Pitching coach Dave Eiland is not currently with the Yankees in Toronto and has taken a personal leave of absence, according to manager Joe Girardi on Friday.

Yanks' Robertson exits with back strain

Right-handed pitcher David Robertson left Saturday's game in the seventh inning with a mild lower back strain. Pitching coach Dave Eiland came out to visit Robertson after he threw a first-pitch ball to Jhonny Peralta with one out, one on, and a run in during the seventh inning. Eiland summoned team trainers, and Robertson was removed from the game, with Sergio Mitre taking his place.

Mariano breezes through first session

Mariano Rivera was back to business on Monday in his first time back on a mound, throwing a breezy 21-pitch bullpen session under the watchful eyes of manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland.

Yankees map out spring rotation

Manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Dave Eiland finalized mapping out the first 11 games of the Grapefruit League slate, tabbing Chad Gaudin to throw the first pitch of Wednesday’s exhibition opener against the Pirates.

Eiland looking forward to fifth-starter battle

Dave Eiland figures to have his hands full helping the Yankees make their pitching-related decisions this spring, and the pitching coach says that he is looking forward to the challenge.

Girardi’s staff intact for Yanks’ 2010 run

The Yankees announced on Wednesday that pitching coach Dave Eiland, bullpen coach Mike Harkey, first-base coach Mick Kelleher, hitting coach Kevin Long, bench coach Tony Pena and third-base coach Rob Thomson will all return to their same roles for the defending champions.

MYTH BUSTED: Wang and the Minors

Since Chien-Ming Wang’s most recent implosion on April 18^th, where he gave up 8ER over 1.1IP and his ERA ballooned to 34.50, I have been hearing much talk about how the Yankees should option Wang to AAA in order to work on his mechanics and get back to form. Unfortunately for the Yankees and their fans, this is impossible.

The rule for options can be very tricky, in general there are two ways that a player can run out of options. The first is that a player can be optioned as many times as the club wants top option him, per season, over a coarse of three different seasons. Unless the player has 20 or less days in the minor leagues for that season, then the option does not count for that year, unless he is sent back down. Once a player has been on the 40 Man Roster for 5 seasons, any options to AAA are lost. Wang is currently in his 5^th season with the major league club and spent 2003 on the 40 man roster, for Rule 5 protection, so there are currently no options left for Wang.

I have to do more research on this (because I have not been able to find the rule on this), but there is no way that Wang can be sent to the minors on assignment without exposing him to wavers, even if he were to consent to the assignment, he would still have to pass through waivers. If this were to happen it would pretty much guarantee his Bronx departure.

The good news is that a temporary solution can be had. The Yankees have an off day this Thursday, which gives them a perfect window to skip Wang to prevent him from further destruction against Boston on 4/24/2009 (the probable opponent is Jon Lester). This is very beneficial because we would not have to call up Phil Hughes to spot start in Wang’s place. However the one problem would be that the Yankees are going to be wasting a roster spot on Wang (unless they move him to long relief). Which I cannot see being a great option ether.

Yankee pitching coach Dave Eiland has stated that there is nothing wrong with Wang outside of being plain rusty from not pitching in such a long time. I would like to add that when a pitcher keeps getting hit this hard, his confidence will eventually run down the toilet and will travel further to self destruction within the game.  A mix of being rusty, and not being confidant is the cause for this, the answer, wait for him to come back to his right self. It will eventually happen.

Average Fastball Velocity - Chien-Ming Wang
Year	Pitch	Velocity
2005	Fastball	92.0 mph
2006	Fastball	93.1 mph
2007	Fastball	92.7 mph
2008	Fastball	91.8 mph
2009	Fastball	90.5 mph
TOTAL		92.5 mph