Player Profile: Cesar Cabral

With the recent release of Hideki Okajima, Cesar Cabral's chances of sticking with the Yankees have improved quite a bit. He would (at east initially) fill the role of second lefty in the bullpen behind Boone Logan. Aiding his cause is he must stay on the 25-man roster or be offered back to the Boston Red Sox.

The Kansas City royals drafted Cabral in the Rule V Draft and sold his rights to the New York Yankees for $100,000. The Tampa Bay Rays drafted him in last year's Rule V Draft but could not keep him on the active roster and had to offer him back to the Red Sox. That the Rays picked him is almost an endorsement in itself. They are that good at scouting and evaluating pitchers.

Here is the SoxProspects.com Scouting Report:

Lefty with a solid frame and a smooth delivery. Pitches exclusively from the stretch. Fastball sits between 88-92 mph and tops out at 95 mph. Secondary pitches include an excellent 81-83 mph circle changeup, a mid-70s slurvey curveball, and a sharp 79-82 mph slider. Gets a lot of swings and misses with his changeup, which has nice downward movement. Excellent command and control, attacks hitters. Cabral was selected in the Major League phase of the 2010 Rule 5 Draft by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, but was returned to the Red Sox at the end of spring training.

He has strong strikeout rate, strong groundball rates, and control that isn't ideal but far from disastrous. He has now played well through double-A and seems ready for a real shot at a major league job. I expect he will do well.

Kuroda Joins Yanks

Hiroki Kuroda - Brooks Baseball Player Card

Hiroki Kuroda will be a huge part of the New York Yankees rotation this season. He discussed some of his reasoning for making the move from Los Angeles to the Bronx.

Kuroda said he received offers from five or six major-league clubs. With the Dodgers out of the picture, he said, he narrowed his choices to two: the Yankees and the Hiroshima Carp of Japan, for whom he pitched for 11 seasons.

Kuroda said he had better financial offers than the one from the Yankees. Kuroda will earn $2 million less than he did last season with the Dodgers.

“They have an incredible tradition,” Kuroda said of the Yankees. “They contend for the championship every year. I wanted to play for a team like that. When you get to my age, you don’t know how much longer you can pitch and I wanted to experience that before my career ended.”