Igawa turning into Contreras

Saturday, July 28, 2007 | Feedback | Print Entry

Five years ago, the Yankees won an enormous bidding war with a $32 million bid and signed Jose Contreras. But by the middle of his second season with the team, the Yankees had determined that Contreras couldn't cut it in New York, couldn't handle the pressure. And, some 15 months later, Contreras was the ace of the staff of a team that won the World Series.

Now it appears the Yankees are prepared to cut ties with another international free agent, Kei Igawa. Talent evaluators with six different teams indicated Friday that he is very much available in a trade, and while some have serious reservations about what they saw in his performance this year -- the erratic command, the tendency to leave pitches in the middle of the plate -- you do wonder if this is going to turn out a little like the Contreras departure.

 
 

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

    Ask Buster a question: Buster's Mailbag

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