Yankees at the White House

The New York Yankees visited the White House today on their day off. Nick Swisher was there as well as Xavier Nady, Joba Chamberlain, Cody Ransom, Edwar Ramirez, Jose Veras, Phil Coke, Jonathan Albaladejo, Ramiro Pena. They took a 90 minute private tour that included the West Wing, Rose Garden and Oval Office. There were a total of 22 players, coaches and others in the traveling party in attendance. Peter Abraham of the Journal News and http://yankees.lhblogs.com had this on his blog, thanks to him for pointing this out.

Yankees minor league rosters set

UPDATE: 9:46PM: Chad Jennings of the Times Tribune and AAA beat writer and has his own blog is reporting that Brett Tomko will be the closer at AAA and Austin Jackson will be hitting sixth to start the season. I have been waiting for this to be official for about a week, the Yankees announced their rosters for Scranton-AAA, Trenton-AA and Tampa-High Class A, Charleston-Low Class A. I am not going to list the whole rosters here but you can find it on http://yankees.com/ under minor league affiliates or on http://milb.com/ which is the minor league site. I am going to list some of the top players though first with Scranton: Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, Mark Melancon, Austin Jackson. The Catchers down here are Kevin Cash PJ Pilittere and Chris Stewart. PJ was in Trenton for a couple of years and is known as a good game caller. The other names most of you are aware of, I am looking for Austin Jackson to have a big year and maybe be up in the big leagues in September. I also look for Mark Melancon to be on the big club at some point this year. AA Trenton-Kyle Anson and Francisco Cervelli are here as the catchers both pretty good prospects although Cervelli is thought of as the most advanced catching prospect the Yankees have and could be up in AAA at some point this year, he of course had a lost year least year when he broke his wrist in spring training. They have some interesting pitchers here such as Zach McAllister, Mike Dunn, Wilken Arias, George Kontos and Ryan Pope. Zach McAllister is one of the top young prospects that the Yankees think very highly of. The position players Eduardo Nunez impressed a lot of people in spring training and suprisingly Justin Snyder is at this level, Snyder was in his first year last year. A Tampa- The pitchers here are led by supplemental 1st round pick Jeremy Bleich who could move quickly and Dellin Betances who is just a stud and many have labeled the Baby Unit. They also have the 2 big catchers in Jesus Montero who reminds me a lot of Mike Piazza although he seems to be improving a lot behind the plate and may actually stay as a catcher and also Austin Romine who is a good catcher with a good bat. It will be interesting to see if either moves up and they break these two up for the first time in their young careers. I wouldn't really get too worked up over any of the other prospects but I will be watching the minor league teams all year also and update you on what is going on and if anyone else emerges. A-Charleston- The pitchers here are led by Andrew Brackman they also have Manuel Banuelos, Brett Marshall and the ambidextrous reliever Pat Venditte. The infield has Carmen Angelini who is a well though of ss and also Garrison Lassiter who they drafted last year, these guys are very young and a ways off. I have been to both Scranton and Trenton and love going to both places, its a lot of fun and you get to see some prospects and possibly future Yankees. If you have a chance to go, check it out, neither is too far away and pretty easy to get too. I will be in Scranton for an outing July 5th and plan on having a good post about it afterwards. I don't know if I will get to Trenton this year but that is where I have met Melky Cabrera, Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Shelly Duncan, Jeff Karstens and more.

Big night for Asia

The Yankees game tomorrow night in Baltimore is going to be a big deal in Asia. Chien-Ming Wang will pitch for the Yankees vs Koji Uehara. Wang is from Taiwan and Uehara is from Japan and Hideki Matsui from Japan. Hideki Matsui and Uehara played on the Yomiura Giants and in 2002 Matsui won the MVP award and Uehara won the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young. Peter Abraham of the Journal News and the Yankees lohud blog which can be found on http://yankees.lhblogs.com and also Tyler Kepner on his Bats blog and the NY times also had a post on this. Uehara has broken down the last few years and had a hamstring injury in spring training but was cleared to start tomorrows game.

Its 1 of 162 not the end of the world

I admit it was a terrible way to start the season and I get just as upset as everyone else but you have to calm down over one bad game. I think I know enough about baseball and am a big enough fan to say this: I have always thought you can't accurately look at a baseball team until they have played 25 games, not 1, 5, 10 of course we can be upset before then but lets just wait. I also look at the season in series and sometimes more like this 9 game roadtrip. I looked at it at the beginning and say the Yankees should be 6-3m 5-4 would be acceptable but no worse then that before returning home to officially open the new stadium. The object is to play around 500 on the road and win your home games, the Yankees have Wang and AJ Burnett going the next couple of days, if they pitch well they will win those games and be ok. The point is lets just calm down and wait a little before we go nuts or say whats wrong with the Yankees? The Yankees have a very good pitching staff and you are not going to see much of what happened yesterday. The Boston Red Sox play the Tampa Bay Rays today at 4:00pm after getting rained out yesterday. Josh Beckett will go against James Shields. There are a whole slew of other games also today and I will go through them later on today. The Yankees will play 12 straight games starting tomorrow so there won't be much time to get all upset about one game, just got to keep chugging along.

Mets win opener

The New York Mets won their opener today in Cincinatti by a score of 2-1. The Mets ace Johan Santana went 5 2/3 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits with 4 walks and 7 strikeouts. It wasn't his best performance but it was a terrible day and was effective. The Mets showed off their new look bullpen today and they didn't disappoint. Sean Green, JJ Putz and Francisco Rodriguez combined to go 3 1/3 hitless innings giving up 0 runs with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. The offense saw Carlos Delgado and Ryan Church go 2-4. Jose Reyes went 1-4 and Daniel Murphy went 1-5 with a homerun and 2 rbi. David Wright went 1-3 with 2 walks and Carlos Beltran was 1-4 with a walk. The Mets are off tomorrow and will be back in action on Wednesday night at 7:05 with Mike Pelfrey on the hill against Edison Volquez. This was a good day for the Mets, but the problem they have is can they get any starting pitching after Johan Santana, lets see what happens on Wednesday.

Will the real CC please stand up

The New York Yankees were spanked by the Baltimore Orioles today by a score of 10-5. This was a horrible way to open the season, the Yankees stranded runners and didn't pitch well at all. The Yankees left 11 runners on base, at least one in every inning. The bottom line though is the Yankees Ace was awful, he just didn't have command of his fastball and couldn't get anything going. He pitched 4 1/3 innings giving up 8 hits, 6 runs and 5 walks with 0 strikeouts. The starting pitcher sets the tone for the game, and the Yankees were in trouble right from the get go. The Yankees got close cutting it to 6-5 and having a couple of chances to at least tie but then the bullpen just let it get away and that was it. The Yankees have gotten off to bad starts the last few years and seem to struggle with Baltimore lately but this year they can't do that, they have to have a good road trip here heading back home to the New Stadium. If Wang comes out and pitches the way he can I am sure the Yankees will be fine and score some runs. The positives of the game were Derek Jeter had 3 hits, Brett Gardner had a hit, a sac bunt and threw out a guy at home plate. Johnny Damon was 2-3, it looks like the top of the order switch worked out today. Hideki Matsui and Jorge Posada hit homeruns, the offense looks a lot different with them in the lineup. Jorge Posada also caught all 9 innings with no problem. I hope the Yankees got a bad one out of the way and now go on a good run. Joe Girardi said I guess we won't be going 162-0 and didn't seem overly concerned with the game. He said CC is fine and that they just didn't execute the way they did in Florida. He said it is only one game and you just have to move on. The Yankees will be off tomorrow and then play Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon before heading to Kansas City.

Opening Day

It looks like the Yankees will get the game in today. Joe Biden the Vice President of the US will throw out the first pitch. We will get our first real look at the New ACE, the big lefty Carsten Charles. The Yankees lineup looks pretty good even with Gardner and Ransom at the bottom of the order and no Arod, they still have Matsui, Posada, Jeter, Damon, Big Tex, Cano. I will be back later with a lot more, opinions, analysis and hopefully some postgame reactions. The Rays at Boston game was already postponed and will be made up tomorrow. Today is opening day around the majors, lets hope not too many games get postponed.

New York Mets opening series

I don't want to forget about the New York Mets, they open up the season tomorrow at 2:00pm in Cincinatti. The pitching matchups for the series are Johan Santana vs Aaron Harang tomorrow. Game 2 will be Mike Pelfrey vs Edison Volquez and Game 3 will be Oliver Perez vs Micah Owings. The Mets are off Tuesday and then play Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon. The games will be on SNY and WFAN radio 660am in NY.

Baseball Predictions

The baseball season started tonight and it is time for the season predictions. AL East AL Central AL West Yankees Minnesota Anaheim Boston Cleveland Oakland Tampa K.C Texas Baltimore Chicago Seattle Toronto Detroit NL East NL Central NL West Philadelphia Chicago Los Angeles Mets St Louis Arizona Atlanta Cincinatti San Francisco Florida Milwaukee Colorado Washington Pittsburgh San Diego Houston I am going to go with the Yankees over the Red Sox in the ALCS and the Dodgers over the Cubs in the NLCS The Yankees will defeat Joe Torre and the Dodgers in the World Series Houston

Yankees ready to go

I talked about the matchups for the Baltimore series yesterday with a TBA for Thursdays series finale. The pitcher for the Orioles for that game is RHP Alfredo Simon who was 0-0 with a 6.23 era last year he will face AJ Burnett who was 18-10, 4.07 era last year. CC Sabathia who opens up the season tomorrow is 5-0 in his career against the Baltimore Orioles. He is 3-0 with a 2.60 era in 4 career starts at Camden Yards. He said he didn't know the stats just that he has pitched well there. " I'm excited to get the season started." Jorge Posada said he has been looking forward to opening day a lot, it's been a while since he has been out there on the field. He said you have to put the time in when your hurt and a lot of work, it will be fun to just be out there again. He said he is eager to see how the team looks and how they play. Derek Jeter said on paper we have a pretty good pitching staff we have guys that can dominate you. It is a challenge facing any one of them 1-5, for us that's a good thing, you need pitcheres that can shut down teams in order to win and we have that. It looks like the minor league rosters are set and hopefully tomorrow or maybe later in the week I can post something about that when I have more information. The lineup for tomorrow is as follows Jeter (ss) Damon(lf) Teixera(1b) Matsui(dh) Posada(c) Cano(2b) Nady(rf) Ransom(3b) Gardner(cf) Joe Girardi said he had a brief talk today with the team and said basically keep doing what you have been doing in the spring. The team took a special train from Penn Station to Baltimore which is interesting. I wonder if Joe Girardi did this for team bonding, usually they take a charter. Tomorrow it all begins at 4:00pm on YES and ESPN also WCBS 880 radio for those who will be at work or in the car coming home. Lets go Yankees and enjoy the game.

Baseball 2009 almost here

The baseball season is set to kick off tonight with the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Atlanta Braves. Brett Myers will get the start going against Derek Lowe. The game will be on ESPN sunday night baseball. It will be interesting to see how the MLB network will be during the season, I think they have done a great job so far and it should be fun to watch. They will have the nightly show beginning at 7 and not ending till the last pitch of the last game. They will have live look ins, highlights, analysis. The New York Yankees are in Baltimore now taking batting practice and working out. You can see some pictures over on Peter Abrahams blog http://yankees.lhblogs.com Joba Chamberlain made his final start of the spring down in Tampa pitching for AA Trenton against AAA Scranton. He threw 75 pitches going 5 1/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 2 hits. He was so good though that he faced 5 additional batters with 3 outs. He started out giving up 2 hits and a walk but then retired 16 straight, he had 5 strikeouts. He said he was working on fastball command and his changeup. He said it was good, one of his best days as far as consistency goes, He said he is excited to get going.

Some notes and 1st series preview

The Yankees announced after the game that Ramiro Pena made the team, Angel Berroa was sent down and Dan Giese was placed on waivers. I don't think this is a big deal since once Alex Rodriguez comes back, Cody Ransom will go back to this role and Pena will go back down but it does signal the change in philosophy the Yankees have had with younger players. They are really trying to mix in the younger guys and it shows with Pena, Gardner, Joba, the bullpen guys, Phil Hughes, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera. Mark Teixera, CC Sabathia are also younger guys as well as Nick Swisher. The Yankees seem to be getting younger and more athletic with a mixture of veterans but soon you may see guys like Austin Jackson and Jesus Montero as well to replace the older veteran guys. A quick other note is that Arod can technically come off the DL on April 11th, he won't but he could, I expect him in Tampa this week and to be back the first week of May. The Yankees will take on the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards for 3 games. CC Sabathia makes his debut on Monday against Jeremy Guthrie. The 2nd game will be Chien-Ming Wang vs Koji Uehara and the final game will be AJ Burnett vs TBA. I would expect the Yankees to win 2 out of 3. I don't know anything about Uehara as he is making his debut and the 3rd game will probably be a rookie also. The Orioles are showing signs of getting back to respectability with some good young players but at this point the Yankees are just better and should beat them. I think Guthrie is a good pitcher but CC Sabathia can dominate that young orioles lineup and if the Yankees scratch out a few runs and maybe get to the bullpen they will be fine.

End of Exhibition schedule

The Yankees ended their exhibition schedule today with a 10-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. The Yankees were very impressive this spring going 24-10-1. They won 10 in a row to finish and 19 out of their last 21 games. These stats mean absolutely nothing but they are interesting and Joe Girardi seems to like that they have fostered a winning attitude and got used to winning. The Yankees had one of their best exhibition records ever. The bottom line is their pitching was great and if they get that, it will be hard to beat them. The Yankees have also been getting production out of their big guys who were hurt last year, Matsui, Posada and they change the whole linup even without ARod and of course Tex is a huge addition. Robinson Cano looks like he has learned his lesson and should be a huge upgrade over himself from last year. The Yankees 5 man starting rotation was 13-3 with a 3.35 era this spring. They allowed 37 runs in 99 1/3 innings and that is including a couple of bad starts from Joba and CC in the spring and AJ got lit up one start also as well as Wang. The point here is if these guys are taking the ball basically every 5th day they will win a majority of the games they play. Mark Teixera had the highest avg 433 and most hr 5 and rbi 15 on the team this spring. He usually gets off to slow starts but lets hope he keeps this up going into the season, I am sure he feels great and ready to go. Jorge Posada caught in 12 games this spring and gunned down 6 out of 12 runners trying to steal on him, he seems fine. The Yankees just have to keep an eye on him but he should be good to go and he may be the most important guy on this team other then maybe MO. The Yankees get it all started on Monday afternoon at 4:00pm on YES at Baltimore. CC Sabathia takes the mound against Jeremy Guthrie.

My thoughts and observations of the New stadium

I parked on the street about a block from the stadium so I walked down along the side of the stadium. I noticed the new garage which is very nice first, too expensive though and I don't pay to park hardly ever. As you walk down along the side of the stadium there are huge pictures of Yankee players which is a very nice touch. The players entrance to the underground parking garage is very interesting, they have huge pillars that go down when the players need to get in and they stop everyone from walking. The main entrance to the New Stadium is very nice, they have vendors outside and you can still see the old stadium. The lines to get into the stadium are a lot quicker and better organized, you scan the barcode on the ticket and go right in. The first thing you see when you enter is the Great Hall which you are in, there are huge banners above of all old Yankee players, if you go straight there are elevators and escalators. You can go to the right and there is a huge HD video screen and you can walk up the ramp to get to other levels of the stadium including the NYY steak and the Hard Rock Cafe as well as the Yankee Museum. The stadium is very well marked with signs and it is pretty easy to navigate around, there is a Yankee team store to the right also as you first walk in. The Great Hall is just amazing and this will be a main meeting point for people I am sure. The field itself looks like the old field, I love the frieze back up on top of the stadium all the way around. The huge HD scoreboard in CF is amazing, it is so big and clear. I like the armitron clock in the outfield all the way up top in left center. The concourses are so much wider you don't feel so cramped and that you are constantly bumping into others like the old stadium. There is so much room to walk and wander around, you walk up from your seats right to the bathrooms and concessions and it is all open so you can just turn around and watch the game, also I like the fact you can walk around the main level or wherever you want and stand and watch even if you don't have a ticket there. The old stadium they would make you keep walking, no stopping without a ticket. The stadium is just amazing, it is breathtaking, there is any kind of foods you could want from PBJ for the kids to the restaurants to Jhonny Rockets and spanish and Japanese food. I don't think they missed a thing in this stadium. There are Tvs all over the place also so you don't miss anything. The between innings stuff and music is pretty much the same although they didn't do the YMCA today. I hope everyone gets a chance to see this Grand Stadium, it is just a treasure. The key of course though will be the team, if the team wins it will continue to be a great place and if they don't then it won't be as great. It is hard for me to describe in words but I tried to give as good of an explanation as I could, if you have any thoughts or questions please comment and I will gladly try and anwer. The staff was very friendly and I hope this continues, at the old stadium there seemed to be some grump employees. I did not see Freddie but I am sure he is still around.

My Day at the New Yankee Stadium

This is a picture of inside the Yankee Museum. Here is Thurmans Locker

I t I took an assortment of field and all over the stadium, to the right is the great hall and above it is just a concession stand. I have the Old Stadium below since it is still standing.

Here is the outside of the main entrance to the Stadium.

Getting ready for the game

I am about to head out to the stadium and I will have a lot more later on when I get back. I do not have the lineups or anything because its too early but it should pretty much be the same as yesterday until the 5th inning. AJ Burnett gets the start and Andy Pettitte will pitch the second half. I will be looking to see how much more room there is, where everything is, where I will be sitting etc. I am very excited to be going and can't wait not only to get out there but for Monday and the season to begin. I know it doesn't matter but once again with yesterdays victory the Yankees have now won 9 in a row again, maybe they need to lose today before starting the season, it kind of makes me nervous. I will be back later on with much much more, remember to check back and for anyone heading out also, have fun and don't worry the weather is going to get better.

Yanks keep on winning

I hope this continues to be a theme when the games count,the New York Yankees beat the Chicago Cubs 7-4 tonight in the first game at the New Yankee Stadium. I liked the coverage as YES did a great job with that, I really enjoyed seeing Kim Jones and Bob Lorenz around the stadium showing different things during the game. Chieng-Ming Wang looked a little off to me but he hung in there and reached the amount of pitches he wanted too. It was nice to see Robinson Cano hit the first homerun in the New Stadium and Derek Jeter get the first hit. I think Robbie Cano looks great and I think he will have a huge year. It was good to see Hideki Matsui drill one and also Cody Ransom hard not to like and root for this guy. The bullpen looked great as I don't think they allowed a baserunner between MO, Albaladejo, Veras and Ramirez. The stadium was the star of the show and I am going to talk about some things. The one thing that they said on YES and I noticed right away was how much the new stadium looks like the old on the field. The Great Hall looks great and so does the huge scoreboard in CF. It looks like people can mingle around the ballpark more and there is a ton of room. I am more of an oldschool guy that doesn't get up from my seat until the game is over but it seems nice for people that do get up and that you never have to miss a pitch since it is open. It was hard for me to tell if the upper deck is closer, i will be checking out the view from all over tomorrow when I am there and can report on that. The clubhouse looks great and I am sure Kim Jones will have fun tracking guys down in there. I can't believe the players have their own lockers for just their bats. It will be interesting to see how the field plays, which the players said to check back with them, the infield looked a little fast but it was wet and the grass hasn't had time to grow. The stadium got a test with the rain and really seemed to drain well. I can't wait to tomorrow and I will have a lot more then and Monday we start the long journey that hopefully will culminate in a World Series Title.

Spring Game 36: Cubs at Yankees

It looks like this game will be played after all, the sun is out now and its pretty warm out. The lineups are in the link below and Chieng-Ming Wang is the starting pitcher. The lineups are via Peter Abraham of the lohud Yankees blog. The game is on YES, I will be watching all night as many of you will be, enjoy the game. I will be back later with updates and observations and tomorrow I will be at the stadium and give you a good in depth look of what I see there. Spring Game 36: Cubs at Yankees Posted using ShareThis

Some shots of the new stadium

This from the Yankees: CHESLEY “SULLY” SULLENBERGER TO THROW OUT CEREMONIAL FIRST PITCH AT YANKEE STADIUM ON SATURDAY, APRIL 4, PRIOR TO YANKEES’ GAME VS. CUBS The New York Yankees today announced that Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot of Flight 1549 who successfully landed the impaired plane safely on New York’s Hudson River in January, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the start of the Yankees’ 1:05 p.m. exhibition game vs. the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, April 4. The Yankees will honor “Sully” (a Yankees fan since boyhood) as well as Flight 1549 co-pilot Jeff Skiles and flight-crew member Doreen Welsh in a pregame ceremony. In addition, the Yankees will welcome Challenger, the renowned American Bald Eagle, who will fly across Yankee Stadium from the top of the Bleachers Café to the pitcher’s mound at the conclusion of the national anthem.

Yankees New Home

The Yankees had a beautiful day to workout in their new home. There were a bunch of players who couldn't wait and when them got home last night went right to the stadium even before going home. Sam Borden has a nice video tour of the stadium on lohud.com and there is a lot of information from Kevin Delvaney who covered the workout today for Peter Abraham who was off today. You can also get a great feel over at http://yesnetwork.com They have lots of pictures and reaction. I am going to start with the players reaction, I will have my own reaction and thoughts about the new stadium and may try to give a tour with pictures and words. Joe Girardi: "“Last night when we walked in, it felt like it was Christmas morning. Just listening to players talk about it, and the excitement of visiting every nook and cranny in the ballpark and in our clubhouse, it’s an unbelievable building.” Andy Pettitte: “I was out there last night and, the dimensions, it looks exactly like the old ball park. You just look from the dugout, it looks like it’s going to play big in left and there’s a short porch in right. “Obviously you walk through the door and see this, the clubhouse. Just the facilities we have, how beautiful everything is and the lighting, it’s state-of-the-art. For me, I’m a big-time whirlpool guy. We have unbelievable facilities as far as swimming. It’s just unbelievable.” Joba Chamberlain: “You’re kind of in awe at first. It’s like having a new toy. You want to come in and play with everything. “It’s going to be a little bit different because you have to get adjusted to the backdrop. You have to adjust. Your depth perception is different everywhere you go. So we’re going to have to get out there on the mound and just get your surroundings.” Derek Jeter: “Homefield advantage is in the crowd. Our fans are always going to be the same. The atmosphere is what makes it fun for the players, so I expect it to be the same as it’s always been.” Mark Teixera: “It’s special to be a part of this. It’s going to be the greatest the sports venue in the world. We’re going to be excited to be playing on it for a long time. “I loved playing in the old stadium. It was my favorite place to come to as a visiting player and I’m going to miss it. But when you come in here, it makes you forget about the nostalgia a little bit.” Johnny Damon: “You could see by the looks on some of our faces that Christmas came a little bit early this year. My first thoughts were that we’re very fortunate to have a place like this. The old Yankee Stadium was definitely very special. This player is special from the moment you walk into it. As a player, you’re fortunate to put on the Yankee pinstripes and have this nice new ballpark.” I am lucky enough to be going to the game saturday and as I said before will provide a preview of the stadium. I also lucked out as Saturday is the better day, it doesn't look good for tomorrow and who knows what will happen if they can't play. I wonder also if they want to risk health of pitchers on a wet mound?? I guess we have to wait and see what happens. Saturday is going to be nice but windy which I will take over the rain.

Yankees workout

The Yankees are in the midst of their workout at the New Stadium and their is no game today so no news. I will have something later when everyone posts their reports of the workout. It turned out to be a nice day and it will be interesting to hear what the players say about their new home. I can't wait until I get to the Stadium on Saturday morning, only 2 days away now and only 4 days until opening day.

AL East Preview

I forgot to mention this before maybe because it doesn't mean much of anything although it did to the Rays last year who rode the grapefruit league success to the World Series. The New York Yankees won the grapefruit league title with a 22-10-1 record, they lost 2 more games to Team Canada and Team USA but that didn't count. I got tired of reading these articles against the Yankees. I know Ken Rosenthal of foxsports.com was trying to be funny with his article about the Yankees getting ready for a circus this year but I didn't find it too funny. The Yankees won 89 games last year with Carl Pavano, Dan Giese, Sidney Ponson and Darrel Rasner making a lot of starts and Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes going 0-9. The Yankees pitching this year is CC, Wang, AJ, Pettitte and Joba with good arms in the pen. I don't see how the Yankees don't win 95 plus games unless they have major injuries. I understand why cynics might say well lets see Posada get through a whole season and Matsui. Damon and Jeter are just getting older and Mo also. I can only say that so far so good for everyone, if these guys stay relatively healthy then there really isn't much weakness. I also ask you well what about Boston with Lowell, Papi, JD Drew, Wakefield. These guys have injury questions not to mention Beckett. This is the first full season without Manny and is Dice-K really as good as he was last year or just lucky with all those walks and wiggling out of trouble. Who is their fifth starter, ok John Smoltz might and I say might come back and if he does he is old and in the AL East now. I think Boston is a very very good team but I don't think they are as good as everyone thinks. I think CC is better then Beckett but you can call it even if you want. Wang or Lester, I will take Wang. AJ or Dike-K, I will give them Dice-K but what really seperates the Yanks in my mind is the backend Pettitte and Joba or Wakefield and Penny/Bucholz/Smoltz. I will take that, and I don't think the bullpen of Boston is so much better, I think they are pretty good there but so are the Yankees. I would take the Yankees lineup, they have a better left side of the infield and catcher, and as good as Youkilis is I would say Tex is better, I will give them Pedroia but I think Cano will be a lot closer this year and I will give them CF and LF but not RF. It will be a close battle but I see the Yankees winning the division. I didn't forget the Rays but I look at the Rays as not suprising anyone this year and they can win around 90 games either way but their pitching went way above the amount of innings they ever have and usually the next year is trouble for guys like that. I don't think the pitching will be as good and everyone is gunning for them now, not taking them lightly. I do think the AL East has the potential to have the 3 best teams in baseball but the Yankees are due to come through in the end, I think they have more of the teams like they used to have with pitching, defense and less emphasis on the slugging and they just have a lot of heart and determination and good chemistry. I know Arod will be Arod but they are used to that now and I don't think it ill affect them. Lets go Yankees.

Bob Sheppard?

There was a report today in the New York Times that Bob Sheppard is retiring, we found out yesterday that he won't be there for the exhibitions this weekend or for opening day. Bob Sheppards son said that this isn't true but the thing is he hasn't done a game since 2007 and he is ill and believed to be 98 years old so I don't think we can realistically expect him. If I were the Yankees why can't they get him to announce from his house and then have the recording for all time, no one else should be the public address announcer other then Bob Sheppard. I hope with the technology we have today they figure out a way to do something where he is the guy to announce everyone. Does anyone else have any ideas, if you do I would love to hear them, I am sure we can come up with something.

I'm getting nervous now-Yanks win again

The New York Yankees have now won 8 in a row and 17 of 19. They keep winning and of course some people are saying its because Arod is away LOL. The bottom line is if the Yankees are healthy and they pitch they will win, they have great pitching. I would like them to lose friday, not Saturday when I am there. They won today by a score of 8-5, they were winning 8-2 and one of the minor leaguers I don't know anything about gave up 3 runs in the 9th. CC Sabathia started and gave up 2 runs in 3 2/3 innings giving up 6 hits, he had 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. This was just a tuneup and he said he is ready for Monday when the season starts. Jose Veras pitched 1 1/3 innings, 1 hit, with 1 walk and 1 strikeout. Damaso Marte pitched a perfect inning and s did Brian Bruney who had a strikeout. Bruney has put it together lately after a rough start. Steven Jackson closed out the game getting the one batter out he faced. Mark Teixera was the offensive star going 3-3 with 3rbi. He stated he has loved working with Kevin Long and wished he could start the season tomorrow. He was on Michael Kay today and said they are having so much fun, working hard and they have the attitude if they continue to work hard and stay healthy then no one can beat them, its all up to them. Hideki Matsui was 2-3 with 2 rbi and a walk. He hit a 2 run homerun, Jorge Posada was 1-3. Robinson Cano was 1-2 with a walk, Nick Swisher was 1-1 with a rbi and Cody Ransom was 1-3 with a rbi. The Yankees may be on their way home now, im not sure what time the plane left. They will have a workout tomorrow from 1:10-3:10, gates open at 11:00am. The workout is not open to the public, members of the community and certain season ticket holders got tix for this event, also tomorrow they have the special ceremony with Bernie Williams at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Stadium. Check out the lohud yankees blog with Peter Abraham for reports at http://yankees.lhblogs.com/ I will have my report from the Stadium at some point on Saturday evening.

Spring Game 35: Phillies at Yankees

The Yankees will be flying home tonight, I can see this being a quick game as the players will be anxious to get out of dodge and head home to NY. CC Sabathia makes his final tuneup today and will tone it down a little before starting Monday in the first game of the season. Xavier Nady was a late scratch for precautionary reasons after being hit on the elbow yesterday. The Yankees are bringing some extra guys to NY for the exhibitions with the Cubs. MO already flew ahead of the team and Joba will be meeting them in NY from Nebraska where he pleaded guilty today on his DUI charge and got probation. The only thing left to be settled before opening day is Ramiro Pena or Angel Berroa going to be the backup infielder at least until Arod gets back. I will be back later with the recap and I have some other things I am thinking of. There is no TV or radio of this game and it really doesn't matter. The two games will be on YES against the Cubs with a pregame starting it off on friday at 6, for anyone going to the games the gates will be open 3 hours ahead of time, i will be heading out at 10:00am for the game saturday. Spring Game 35: Phillies at Yankees Posted using ShareThis