Hideki Matsui retires from baseball and the Yankees react

Hideki Matsui announced his retirement from professional baseball today. Matsui played in the United States for ten years after coming over from Japan where he played for ten years. Matsui was nicknamed Godzilla, he played with the New York Yankees from 2003-2009 after playing for the Tokyo Giants which is Japans version of the Yankees. He was a very good player, very clutch and also very classy.. He batted 292 with the Yankees, scoring 536 runs, hitting 196 doubles, 140 homeruns and driving in 597 runs. He became the first player in Yankees franchise history to hit a grand slam in his Yankee Stadium debut. He accomplished that feat against the Minnesota Twins on April 8, 2003. He was a two time all star who didn’t miss a game in his first three years, 518 consecutive games which is a record still today for longest streak to start a career. Matsui always had a flair for the dramatic and in his final game as a Yankee he went 3-4 and drove in six runs to clinch World Series Game 6 on November 4, 2009 against the Philadelphia Phillies. He was loved by everyone and that came out today upon the news of his retirement. Here are some of the Yankees reacting to the news. 
Hal Steinbrenner: “Hideki Matsui in many ways , embodied what this organization stands for. He was dedicated to his craft, embraced his responsibilities to his team and fans, and elevated his play when he was needed the most. He did all these things with a humility that was distinctly his own, which is why he was such a big part of our success and why he will always be a cherished member of the Yankees family.”

Brian Cashman: “Hideki is proof that baseball is an international attraction that brings people from all over the world together in their passion for the game. He was the type of player and person you want young fans of this game to emulate. He played with pride, discipline and of course talent, and flourished when the lights were at their brightest. People naturally gravitated towards him, and that’s a direct reflection of his character. He was a true professional in every sense of the word and it feels good knowing he was able to raise the championship trophy as a member of the Yankees.”

Derek Jeter: “I’ve said numerous times over the years, but it’s worth repeating now. I’ve had a lot of teammates over the years with the Yankees, but I will always consider Hideki one of my favorites. The way he went about his business day in and day out was impressive. Despite being overshadowed by a large group of reporters, having the pressures of performing for both his fans both in New York and Japan and becoming acclimated to the bright lights of New York City, he always remained focused and committed to his job and to those of us he shared the clubhouse with. I have a lot of respect for Hideki. He was someone we counted on a great deal and he’s a big reason why we became World Champions in 2009.”

I was at that first game in 2003 and he became an instant fan favorite. He always had a flair for the dramatic and was so clutch and that is why he was loved in New York. The Yankees today don’t really have guys like that and that is why they have struggled in the postseason. I like what they have done this off-season because I feel like they are going back to what made them successful, not so much guys that just hit homeruns but guys who can do a lot and be clutch players. I wish Hideki all the best and I am sure his fans and the Yankees look forward to seeing him at future Old Timers day celebrations.

Andy Pettitte shines in Yankees blowout win over the Rays

The New York Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 7-0 on Tuesday night. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx,NY. Andy Pettitte started for the Yankees and he was brilliant. Freddy Garcia finished off the last five outs for the Yankees. Russell Martin had a big night to lead the Yankees offense. James Shields started for the Rays and didn’t pitch well but he also didn’t get any help from his defense. The Rays offense managed four singles in the game. 
Pettitte pitched 7 1/3 innings giving up no runs and two hits with two walks and ten strikeouts. Garcia pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up two hits with a strikeout. Pettitte earned his third win of the season, Sheilds took the loss, his fourth of the season. Shields pitched five innings giving up seven hits and seven runs with five of them being earned. He walked four and struck out two, Cesar Ramos pitched three innings giving up one hit, he struck out four batters.

Curtis Granderson had a hit, Alex Rodriguez drew a walk and Robinson Cano had two hits. Raul Ibanez had two RBI, Nick Swisher had two hits and an RBI and Eric Chavez drew a walk. Martin had three hits and four RBI. Cano and Swisher each had a double and Martin had a homerun. The Yankees were 3-12 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.

Desmond Jennings had a hit, B.J. Upton had a hit and Sean Rodriguez drew a walk. Carlos Pena had a hit, Jose Molina had a hit and drew a walk. The Rays were 0-4 with runners in scoring position and they left five men on base. Rodriguez had a stolen base. Elliott Johnson and Ben Zobrist each committed an error.

The Yankees improved their record to 30-24 and the Rays record dropped to 31-24. The two teams will play game two of their three game series on Tuesday night.

Yankees/Angels Pitching Matchups

Here are the pitching matchups for the 3 game home opening series. Tomorrow-Andy Pettitte vs Ervin Santana Wednesday-Javier Vazquez vs Scott Kazmir Thursday-Phil Hughes vs Jered Weaver The first two games are 1:00 afternoon games and then Thursday will be a 7:00PM game. Thursday will mark Phil Hughes 2010 debut as the 5th starter. Tomorrow of course will mark the home opener with all the pomp and circumstance to begin with and then you add the ring ceremony and raising of the championship flag. Bernie Williams will throw out the first pitch. There will be a fly over, huge american flag on the field and all of that. If you are going to the game the gates will open at 11:00AM for the general public so arrive early. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 12:30PM so make sure you get to your seats in plenty of time. It will also be Hideki Matsuis return and he will be part of the ceremony which is nice. I don't think I will have much more tonight but make sure to check tomorrow for the pregame notes and lineup and I will make sure to have full coverage of the day tomorrow night when I return from covering it. Remember World News Vine is where you can find all of my articles on the Yankees and Mets.

News from around Baseball

The Washington Nationals officially introduced Chien-Ming Wang yesterday. He had an interesting quote and here it is. " I would like to do my best to make a contribution to this teams tradition." What tradition would that be, whatever they do have it isn't good. In other former Yankee news, Hideki Matsui talked to the press from Angels camp and said this " To be honest my knees aren't 100 percent." It looks like Brian Cashman and the Yankees made a good move here. Brian Cashman said in an interview with Nomaas that the reason he chose Marcus Thames and Randy Winn over Reed Johnson was that his 4th outfielder should have a history of playing full seasons. CC Sabathia will be throwing a bullpen today for the first time. I will have some news and notes from Yankees and Mets camp later on today.

Nick Johnson conference call

The New York Yankees officially signed Nick Johnson yesterday. Brian Cashman and Nick held a conference call with reporters. Here is some of the quotes from that call. Brian Cashman on the decision to bring back Nick: " There is no doubt that on-base percentage played a big role in the Yankees thinking that Johnson could be a replacement for Hideki Matsui at DH and for Johnny Damon in the two hole. But the big question is, can he stay healthy? It seems like DL has been just as prevalent in Johnson's career as OBP." " It is clear to dream about what he does and what he can provide if he stays healthy," Cashman said. " Certainly at the same time, I recognize and can't ignore the risk that comes with his trying to stay on the field and stay healthy." " This was a decision I was willing to make, recognizing that there's risk that comes with it because of his health history. Is there a rsk in signing him? Sure there is." Nick Johnson on coming back to the Yankees: " I started my career here, and I am just really happy to be back and put those stripes back on and to be with a great organization," Johnson said. " It is all about winning. That's something that I want to get back to doing."

Hot Stove Burns up

Today started out as a routine Monday and then this afternoon the Hot Stove really started burning up. Monday's are usually a big football day with all of the analysis of the Sunday games and looking ahead to the Monday night game but baseball took center stage on this Monday. The Boston Red Sox were especially busy signing pitcher John Lackey to a 5 yr 85 million dollar deal and now pending a physical signing Mike Cameron for 2 yrs and 15.5 million. Hideki Matsui became the first World Series MVP to leave since John Wetteland in 1996. Matsui signed a 1 yr 6 million dollar deal with the Anaheim Angels. The biggest news of the day was that Roy Halladay was traded from the Blue Jays to the Phillies and the Phillies traded Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners and the Blue Jays are getting back prospects which we don't know yet because Halladay is still working out the extension and the deal won't be official to maybe tomorrow. I think the Seattle Mariners have had a good offseason and may have surpassed the Angels by getting Chone Figgons and now Cliff Lee. The New York Mets and their fans have had a very bad day. The Mets biggest need was pitching and now they don't have anywhere to turn as their are no other big pitchers left. They may land Jason Bay now that everyone else is out on that but that isn't going to solve the problem of having Johan Santana and then a bunch of questions. Roy Halladay going to the hated Phillies is just a stab in the heart but the truth is they aren't that much better since they did trade Cliff Lee away. The Yankees side of things isn't really all that bad, they don't have to face Halladay anymore who owned them and John Lackey doesn't have very good numbers against the Yankees and he has really bad career numbers in Fenway. John Lackey is also a injury risk as he has been injury prone over the last couple of years. I don't think it was terrible for the Red Sox because you can never have enough pitching and he is a gritty guy who usually pitches well in big games. I do find their offense curious though with Bay gone and being replaced by Cameron and maybe Hermidia in a platoon. It doesn't look like the Lowell trade will go through now since he has a thumb injury and may need surgery. I wonder if the Red Sox may try and trade for Adrian Gonzalez and move Youkilis to third base?? If they did this I think they would be pretty even with the Yankees but right now as a Yankee fan I don't think you have to be that worried because I don't think their offense is so great. I wonder what tomorrow will bring with the Hot Stove after this busy day.

Yanks open up roadtrip with a bang

The New York Yankees defeated the Seattle Mariners 11-1 last night at Safeco Field. CC Sabathia got the start and was pretty dominant going 8 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits with 10 strikeouts. Brian Bruney finished it off with a perfect inning. This is CC time of the year and in his last 2 starts he has just been great. The offense was led by Hideki Matsui who went 4-5 with 2 homeruns. Derek Jeter had a couple of hits as did Johnny Damon, Big Tex, Robinson Cano and Jerry Hairston Jr. who has done nothing but hit since coming over in a trade. Joe Girardi said after the game that A-rod is a question for tonight but it really might not matter the way Hairston is playing. The Yankees will try and make it two in a row tonight with Andy Pettitte on the mound.

Yanks win on Matsui walkoff homerun

The New York Yankees won their 3rd straight game 2-1 tonight. Andy Pettitte got the start and went 7 1/3 innings giving up 1 run on 6 hits, 2 walks and 8 strikeouts. Phil Coke came on and got 3 outs and Alfredo Aceves got the final 2 outs. Their were 2 sparkling defensive plays first by Big Tex to nail the guy at the plate with a good tag by Molina and then one play later on a wild pitch with Molina throwing to Phil Coke and nailing another guy at the plate. Offensively there really is nothing to say, Eric Hinske hit a homerun and Matsui hit a walkoff homerun, no one in the lineup had more then 1 hit. The Yankees offense has to get going here but the most important thing is pitching and defense and ultimately if they keep doing those things well, they are going to be in great shape. The Yankees play tomorrow night with Sergio Mitre making his first start for the Yankees.

Minor league games and notes

The Scranton Yankees played to a 6-6 tie today. I am going to start with some notes courtesy of Chad Jennings the beat writer for the Scranton Yankees, you can check out his blog at http://community.thetimes-tribune.com/blogs/yankees. Jorge Posada threw out a guy trying to run on him. Wang gave up 2 homeruns but the wind was terrible and on a normal day would of been fly outs. Chieng-Ming Wang pitched 5 innings giving up 9 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. He didn't have his best game but that is ok, the wind was bad and it was a minor league game where the focus isn't always the same. Zach Kroenke pitched 2 innings giving up 3 hits, 2 runs with 3 strikeouts. Jose Valdez pitched 2 innings giving up 1 hit, 0 runs, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. The offense Eric Duncan going 2-3 with a homerun, triple and 4 rbi's. Edwar Gonzalez was 3-4 with a homerun, rbi and stolen base. Austin Jackson was 1-3 with a triple, Jorge Posada had a double in 4 plate appearances. Nick Swisher had a solo homerun. The Yankees traded Jason Jones to Minnesota for minor league reliever Charles Nolte. Jones was a rule 5 pick for Minnesota and when they decided to not put him on the team this year they made this trade. The guy they got in the trade is a 23 year old righty who was a 24th round pick in 2007. He had a 2.05 era in Low A ball last year. He has struck out 97 batters in 94.2 innings with 46 walks and holding opponents to a 230 batting average. He has a huge groundball tendency. Brian Bruney pitched in AA going 2 perfect innings wiht 4 strikeouts so he now has had solid back to back outings. Hideki Matsui was 2-3 with a double, hr and walk in the AA game.

Yankees/Twins Recap and other Yankee Notes

The New York Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins this afternoon at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. This was a nice quick game with Andy Pettitte getting the start and Jorge Posada behind the plate. Pettitte pitched 3 innings giving up 0 runs, 2 hits and 1k. Phil Coke also pitched 3 innings giving up 3 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 2ks. Jose Veras, Anthony Claggett and Steven Jackson all pitched scoreless innings. The important thing was Jorge Posada did catch 4 innings, he didn't have a chance to try and throw a runner out but was throwing in between innings and Pettitte said he looked the same. He also had 2 more hits so he continues to be right on schedule to start the season. The offense had Damon and Swisher going 1-3. Big Tex was 0-2 but had a sac fly, Shelly Duncan went 1-1 and Melky Cabrera went 1-2. Angel Berroa continued his hot hitting going 1-2 with 2 rbi and Pena went 2-3 with a rbi. News and Notes: There were some guys cut today and reassigned to minor league camp and they are Jesus Montero, Mark Melancon, Christian Garcia, Kevin Russo, Ian Kennedy and Kyle Anson. The only suprise if you want to call it that is Mark Melancon who many thought might make it out of spring training including me, but I am sure he will be up with the Yankees at some point this season. Jesus Montero defintely showed off to the Yankees in the time he had in big league camp. Ian Kennedy is hoping to have a bounce back year but I am sure Phil Hughes is ahead of him so we may not see him at the big league level this year. Wang was working with pitching coach Dave Eiland on his arm slot in the bullpen today. Cashman had a lot of quotes today on some of the guys. This is what he had to say about Marte and Cano " There's a yellow flag, Hopefully it's just rest and recovery. Until we see the MRIS we just don't know, i hope there is no bad news. Ian Kennedy- " I just know that he went home and processed what took place last year. It was the first time in his career that he failed. He went to winter ball, made some adjustments and came out with the confidence. He came to camp in a great frame of mind and he heads to Scranton the same way. " Because he had so much success early, he didn't finish off some things he needed to work on and now he's back on track. I think he's going to have a big year, I really do. It will be a different Ian Kennedy for this franchise in 2009 then there was in 2008." Phil Hughes- " You're seeing that curveball and change more and more and to me that's a very good sign. He's becoming more complete." Mark Melancon- "He's somebody we're excited about. He's got ability, he works hard and he wants it. That's a good recipe right there." Jorge Posada-" It's good that we got to this day. Not this specific day, but we thought we wouldn't be ready to catch until Mid-March to catch in games and here we are. So we go from this point, that's an important first step of many more. These next few weeks, we'll really see it. " I guarantee and this is just me thinking, knowing how injuries are that in the back of his mind he doesn't trust it yet. Until he gets to the point where it's instinct and it just happens and he says, Wow, I didn't think about that. That's where he will work through the final phase of this thing. " I need Matsuis knees to be fine and I need Posada to be a catcher. That gives our lineup length and depth, with guys with plate discipline, guys with the ability to give professional at bats. Those guys know what they are doing. If these guys aren't available it changes the lineup radically, especially 6-9. I don't want to be in that position, honestly. " Jorge Posada is feisty, hungry and he wants to win. He doesn't get enough credit for the leadership he brings to that clubhouse. He is intense and sometimes that intensity can carry into some emotional outbursts that aren't always a bad thing. We missed him both on that field and in that clubhouse last year. Losing Wang and the way our pitching went last year was devastating. But our biggest loss was Jorge Posada."

Yankees Split Squad Today

The New York Yankees will take on the Houston Astros at home today and the other half of the team will travel to Bradenton to face the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game at home will be on YES and also on WCBS 880AM radio. Here are the lineups and pitchers for both games. There is no word yet on Damaso Marte and Robinson Cano, it doesn't seem to be serious though and they should both be back in games next week. Yankees vs Astros 1.Gardner cf 2. Damon lf 3. Nady rf 4. Matsui dh 5. Ransom 2b 6. Molina c 7. Miranda 1b 8. Berroa ss 9. Leone 3b AJ Burnett gets the start followed by Dan Giese, Brian Bruney, Edwar Ramirez and Christian Garcia Yankees at Pirates 1. Cabrera cf 2. Swisher rf 3. Teixera 1b 4. Posada dh 5. Jackson lf 6. Cash c 7. Bernier 2b 8.Russo 3b 9. Pena ss Phil Hughes gets the start followed by Ian Kennedy, Jason Johnson, Jon Albaladejo and Mark Melancon. Former Yankee Ross Ohlendorf will get the start for the Pirates. This will be Jason Johnson first appearance after battling retina cancer. It is good that both Posada and Matsui will play, if Matsui feels good after playing today and tomorrow he will also play Monday making it 3 starts in a row, as for Posada he will catch tomorrow and then twice more next week if everything goes well. This is going to be an important couple of days for the Yankees, if these guys are healthy and can play everyday or pretty much everyday they will be fine. Mariano Rivera threw a bullpen today and felt so good he threw an extra 10 pitches for a total of 40, he will throw his first game on Tuesday. If anyone is interested you can see on yankees.com and yankees.lhblogs.com that single season ticket sales will be going on next week, presales for existing season ticketholders and also a lottery for people that want to just sign up for a chance to get them early and then whatever is left will be a few days after the presales.

New York Yankees Recap

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Atlanta Braves by a score of 3-1 today in Tampa. Chien-Ming Wang got the start his second of the spring and pitched well, he pitched 3 innings giving up 1 run on a solo hr, 3 hits, 0 walks and 2 strikeouts. He threw 33 pitches 27 of them were for strikes. Brett Tomko pitched behind him going 3 innings giving up 3 hits and 1 run with 0 walks and 3 strikeouts. Phil Coke pitched an inning giving up 1 run on 2 hits. On the offensive side of things Hideki Matsui had 1 hit but was hitting the ball hard. Big Tex had a hit and Cody Ransom also had a hit. The Yankees will travel to Lakeland to face the Tigers tomorrow with AJ Burnett making his first start. Hideki Matsui will make the trip and play in back to back games for the first time this year. Jorge Posada threw today before the game and came out of it fine, he may throw to the bases Monday and could catch in a game by next weekend. Damaso Marte threw a scoreless inning today for the Dominicans in the WBC who by the way were upset by the Netherlands, yeah I can't believe it either and Sidney Ponson pitched well for the Netherlands. Robbie Cano dont ya know was 1 for 5. Derek Jeter of course was 2 for 3 for Team USA who defeated Canada 6-5 in a nailbiter.