Yanks Sign Another Cuban

It was announced today (while the Yanks were getting smoked) that the Yanks had won the bidding on 19 year old Cuban Lefty Omar Luis Rodriguez. They reportedly paid somewhere between 4-5 which is a lot cheaper than the other notable Cubans have gone lately, though a little higher than the Yanks have successfully bid for their current crop of Cuban players, all of whom are older than Rodriguez. As mentioned, he's a lefty with an 88-92 mph fastball and some other stuff. It will be interesting to see if he fits the Bill James model of a Cuban pitcher - ie everything including the kitchen sink - or if he is more of the classic control lefty that he appears to be. That remains to be seen, as does the Yankee system's ability to turn a pitching prospect into a big league starter. Hughes and Nova are showing signs (outside of today) but the last great starter from the system was Andy Pettitte, and he's the one really helping Phil and Ivan now. It's perplexing.