Coke To Start

Yankee September surprise LHP Phil Coke has been told to prepare to start this year. Coke had been a starter in the minors last year, when his sudden development of a knockout slider made him into a real prospect. The Yanks called him up as a reliever as he approached his innings limit and his stuff worked at the major league level. In all, Coke, whose development was slowed by injuries is a lefty with a good fastball, nice change and an absolutely filthy slider. This makes much more sense of the Marte deal, and give the Yanks yet another starter candidate for that 4/5 spot if Andy doesn't come back.

In other news, Shelley Duncan was DFA'd to make room for Mark Teixeira. Good luck, Shelley.