Who is Buddy Carlyle ??

The Yankees just announced that Hector Noesi was being optioned back down to the AAA Scranton Yankees and moving Buddy Carlyle to the major league roster.  Noesi never actually had an opportunity to pitch after being called up by the Yankees last week when Luis Ayala went on the DL.  The closest Noesi got to pitching for the Yanks was on Wednesday night when he was warming up in the bullpen, but Pendleton was called in for the 9th inning instead.  It's probably a smart move to option Noesi back down to AAA as he is a starting pitcher and should keep himself fresh, rather than hanging around the bullpen waiting for an opportunity.  If Noesi continues to pitch well in AAA, it's likely he may be optioned back up for a rotation spot.  Find out more about Hector Noesi here

Calling up Buddy Carlyle seems like a somewhat unusual move for the Yanks.  Carlyle was signed as a free agent in December to a minor league contract.  He was yet another, low risk possible high reward signings by Cashman this offseason.  I think most people though Carlyle would just be used as a spot filler in AAA to eat up innings while the young prospects rest between starts.

Carlyle has pitched for three major league teams since 2007 and last year played in Japan.  He has not had much success in the Majors or Japan.  He has started 27 major league games and had an ERA of 5.61.  Last season in Japan, he only pitched 27 innings allowing 35 hits and went 0-3 with a 4.88 ERA.

This spring he only had one opportunity to throw 2.1 innings for the Yankees in the Grapefruit league.  He was not very succesful this spring allowing 7 Runs in those 2 innings on 5 hits, two of which were homers, against the Twins.  The Yankees had spent nothing more than a minor league contract so they held onto him.

Carlyle has done a bit better in AAA as a relief pitcher.  He has appeared in 5 games and pitched 7.2 innings.  He has struck out 11 batters in those 7 innings and only allowed 3 runs.

I suppose Girardi is calling him up to use as an extra relief pitcher out of the pen.  I doubt they will allow Carlyle to start a game like they did in spring training.  Between Pendleton and Carlyle, they can eat up some badly needed innings as the starting pitching hasn't pitched far into any games.

Side Note:  Carlyle actually pitched in the minor league system for the Yankees back in 2004.

WHO IS HECTOR NOESI  ??

WHO IS LANCE PENDLETON ?? 


UPDATED MAY 5, 2011:  Carlyle has been used sporatically by the Yankees for mop up duty later in games and has done pretty well.  He has pitched in 5 games with a total of 4.1 innings.  Carlyle has only allowed 1 hit and struck out three.  He retains the lowest ERA on the Yankees with a 0.00

UPDATED JUNE 22:  Carlyle has just been recalled from Triple-A Scranton to replace Marquez on the Yankees roster as Marquez is going on the DL.  Since being sent down to Scranton, Carlyle has appeared in 13 games, pitching a total of 27 innings.  He was used as the starting pitcher in two of those games and it didn't end well.  In his 2 starts he went 0-2 and since has been used in relief.  His Triple-A ERA is 4.67. 

On the bright side, he does strike out a lot of batters and has 25 strikeouts in the 27 innings pitched.  He is more effective against righties than lefties, so I would imagine he wouldn't be used too often against a lefty late in the game as lefties are hitting .314 off him compared to righties only at .204.

This isn't a big move and Carlyle probably won't last too long on the Yankees roster.  Last time he was called to the big leagues, he pitched in 7 games and only 6.2 innings.  Although he struck out 8 batters, he did allow 5 walks and 2 runs.  To be honest, he seems to be nothing more than a band aid for a bullpen that is bleeding, but somebody needs to do the mop-up duty!