Yankees Monday night notes

Here are some notes from Chad Jennings of the Journal News.  It mostly focuses on Phil Hughes who pitched great this spring.  He is more resembling the pitcher of 2010 rather then 2011 which is a good thing for the Yankees.

In the end, there was no decision at all. Michael Pineda was hurt and the Yankees five-man rotation was set by default, but Phil Hughes doesn’t feel like anything was handed to him. He earned his spot as the Yankees No. 3 starter, and tonight’s four scoreless innings were further proof.  No matter what happened he was going to be the third starter, he earned that.

“I just came in and wanted to throw the ball well,” Hughes said. “That was it. I didn’t want to think any more into it or any further ahead. I just wanted to make some tough decisions for these guys. Unfortunately, we had an injury that kind of made up some decisions for everybody, but I feel like I threw the ball well enough to be here. That’s all I really wanted to do.”

Hughes finished spring training with a 1.56 ERA. He’s cut down on his walks, shown an improved changeup, and flashed much better — and much more consistent — fastball velocity than last spring.

“I just feel a lot better overall,” he said. “I felt really good at the end of last year when I was finally back and got some arm strength built up, so I just wanted to make sure I carried a good work ethic into this spring training, that I was strong and ready to go. I feel like I was able to do that.”  I think that was a key, the Yankees clearly not happy with the way he came into camp last year and he knew it.  I think Michael Pineda is going through a similar thing this year. 

In the end, a rotation spot was handed to him. But he’d already done more than enough to deserve it.

After making his final start of the spring, what did Hiroki Kuroda think of the new Marlins stadium? “Any time I have a good outing, that becomes a really good stadium,” Kuroda said. “Today I didn’t really have a good outing, so I don’t think it made a really good impression.”  The one thing that stands out to me about this guy this spring is that he is very hard on himself. 

 Kuroda didn’t think his stuff was nearly as good as his seven-inning, two-run performance last week, but he still held the Marlins to just one run. “I think I’m ready for the season,” he said. “Even though you have a bad outing you try to keep the game as close as possible and that’s what I was able to do today, so I think I’m ready for the season.”

 Dave Robertson finally had the kind of outing he was hoping for. After pitching two innings at the minor league complex to build some arm strength, he came in tonight and struck out two in a quick, scoreless ninth inning. “I felt much better,” he said. “More control. More control in my windup.”

Girardi argued a first-inning call when Robinson Cano was called for batters interference, causing Curtis Granderson to be called out on a stolen base. It was a strikeout-throwout to end the inning, and although Cano did fall toward the plate, it didn’t look like John Buck was in a position to actually make a throw. “I guess you could say it’s the right call, but I still don’t like it because he went to his knees,” Girardi said.

Nick Swisher came through tonight’s game with no problems, and Girardi said it seems that he has no additional injury problems heading into the final two games of the spring. “Everyone came out good today,” he said.  It looks like everyone will be ready to go for the opener on Friday. 

Playing at home in Miami, Alex Rodriguez had three of the Yankees RBIs in a 5-2 win. He has 14 RBIs this spring and is batting .292. Even now that he’s playing longer games, and playing more days in a row, Rodriguez said his body still feels strong and durable. “I think overall I just feel like i have a better plan,” he said. “A better plan of attack this season.”

The Yankees had only five hits today, one each for Rodriguez, Grandreson, Swisher, Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira.

Most of the Yankees are catching a flight back to Tampa tonight. The ones who have to play in Port St. Lucie tomorrow — Gardner, Swisher, Jones and Nova are the biggest names making the trip — have to stick around and take a 9 a.m. bus. That game starts at 2 p.m. tomorrow, not 1 p.m. like most spring games.

Mets lose in more then one way

The New York Mets were defeated by the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon by the score of 9-4. Oliver Perez got the start and was dreadful again. He pitched 2 1/3 innings giving up 6 hits and 7 runs with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. He allowed 3 homeruns in the game. Elmer Dessens pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings giving up 2 hits. Sean Green pitched 2 scoreless innings giving up a hit and he had a strikeout. Kiko Calero pitched 1 inning giving up 2 hits and a run, he did have 2 strikeouts. Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless inning giving up a hit and he had a strikeout. Daniel Murphy was 2-2 with a walk. He left the game with a knee injury suffered during a rundown. Jason Bay hit his 3rd homerun of the spring although he played bad in the field. Rod Barajas, Omir Santos and Frank Catalanotto each had a hit. Alex Cora left the game after getting hit by a pitch. I don't have any injury updates yet. According to SNY the Mets have told Pat Misch that he will not be on the roster. Mike Jacobs will play in Murphys spot tomorrow against the Marlins. The Mets have claimed Manny Acosta from the Braves this afternoon. He is 5-7 in his career with a 3.55 era. I am guessing they will be looking at him for the 8th inning. Carlos Beltran took indoor batting today in Port St. Lucie. The Mets are still hopeful he will be back by mid may but there hasn't bee a definitive timetable yet.

Mets Split Squad is now one Game

The New York Mets game with the Washington Nationals in Viera has been cancelled due to rain. The game in Port St. Lucie is still on with the Marlins. Jon Niese will get the start. Oliver Perez will start tomorrow instead of today. Here is the lineup for todays game: Mets Lineup: Pagan(CF) Cora(SS) Wright(3B) Murphy(1B) Francoeur(RF) Matthews(LF) Blanco(C) Tejada(2B) Niese(P)

Mets and Marlins Tie

The New York Mets took on the Florida Marlins this afternoon. They tied 8-8, it was called after 11 innings. Nelson Figueroa gave up 8 hits and 7 runs in 2 2/3 innings. Jenrry Mejia faced 6 batters in 1 1/3 innings. He gave up 1 run and 3 hits. Fernando Nieve and Pedro Feliciano each pitched a scoreless inning. David Wright had a big day hitting a solo homerun and a 2 run double. Alex Cora also had a solo homerun, the Mets have really been hitting the longball this spring but I don't think it will carry over at this rate. I do think the Mets will hit more homeruns this year and be fine offensively just by having Reyes and Beltran will be back eventually. Jason Bay will add a bunch of power also. Angel Pagan had 3 hits, a rbi double and a leadoff walk. According to Brian Costa of the Star Leger Jenrry Mejia said he is ok with whatever the Mets decide. He said if they send him to the minor leagues he understands and just has to work hard and get to the majors eventually. The Mets will play the Nationals tomorrow at home tomorrow, the game will be televised on WPIX.

Grapefruit League Game 18-Mets at Cardinals

The New York Mets will take on the St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter today at 1:05PM. John Maine will take on Adam Wainwright. Jenrry Mejia, Kiko Calero, Elmer Dessens, Francisco Rodriguez, Pat Misch and Sean Green are expected to pitch also. Mejia and Misch pitched yesterday so I don't know if they will pitch again today. Here are some of the media notes along with the lineup.

• Today is the 4th of 7 spring matchups these 2 teams will play. The Mets are 3-0 against the Cardinals so far.

• Fernando Martinez leads the grapefruit league with a 500 batting average, 969 slugging percentage and 16 hits. He is tied for second with 31 total bases. He is tied for third with 3 homeruns, tied for 5th with 11 rbi. He is tied for 1st with 2 triples.

• Pat Misch ran his scoreless streak to 9 games and in 4 games he has allowed 4 hits and struck out 5.

• This season marks the 22nd year the Mets have held spring training in Port St. Lucie. There are only 8 major league teams that have trained at their sites longer. The teams are the Cubs, Athletics, Giants, Tigers, Astros, Phillies, Pirates and Blue Jays.

I will have the lineup up as soon as possible, but it isn't available yet.

UPDATE:12:12PM-Here is the Mets lineup for today.

Gary Matthews Jr.(CF)

Luis Castillo(2B)

Fernando Tatis(3B)

Mike Jacobs(1B)

Fernando Martinez(RF)

Alex Cora(SS)

Jason Pridie(LF)

Chris Coste(C)

John Maine(P)

Mets lose their first grapefruit league game

The New York Mets lost to the Atlanta Braves today at Disneys Wide World Of Sports. The final score was 9-5, the Mets spring record is now even at 1-1. Pat Misch got the start for the Mets and was impressive pitching 3 scoreless innings, he did give up a couple of walks. He only allowed one hit. Eric Niesen pitched 2 scoreless innings giving up a hit and a walk. Eddie Kunz didn't fare so well giving up 4 runs and 2 hits in 1/3 of an inning. He also gave up 3 walks, his era stands at a horrible 108.00. Josh Stinson pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up 3 hits and 5 runs with a strikeout. Only one of the runs was earned. Neal Musser pitched 1 inning giving up a hit and a walk but no runs. I don't know any of these guys except for Misch and Kunz. Angel Pagan, Josh Thole and Daniel Murphy all had rbi singles. Fernando Martinez had a rbi triple. He had a good day going 2 for 3. Mike Cervenak had a rbi single. The Mets committed four errors in the seventh inning, I thought they were working on fundamentals, that is pretty hard to do. Matthew Cerrone has some video and pictures from todays action. He also has a good interview with Gary Matthews Jr. It can all be found at http://metsblog.com. The Mets will take on the St. Louis Cardinals at 1:00PM tomorrow in Port St. Lucie at Tradition Field.

Recap of the day in Mets Camp

Jenrry Mejia threw live batting practice today. He was wild but Jerry Manuel was impressed with the natural cut on his fastball. Jon Niese and R.A. Dickey also threw batting practice and according to SNY producer Matt Dunn, Niese was happy to just be throwing again. The team had a media training this morning and Darryl Strawberry, John Franco and Mookie Wilson all spoke during the meeting. The Mets announced their will be a interleague game on Monday and Nelson Figueroa will open the grapefruit league on Tuesday. Arturo Lopez has cleared waivers and will return to camp as a non roster invitee. Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News is reporting the Mets have made an offer to lefty reliever Joe Beimel. Top prospect Ike Davis is drawing a lot of buzz around camp. Jerry Manuel said today he envisions a opening day lineup of Angel Pagan, Luis Castillo,Jose Reyes,Jason Bay, David Wright, Daniel Murphy, Jeff Francouer and Rod Barajas. He said he could flip flop Bay and Wright. He said he thinks Ike Davis would best be served down in the minors. I agree with this you don't want to rush the kid, he is the first baseman of the future, you have to be patient with him and let him develop. He also said he thought Luis Castillo had a good year last year despite the dropped pop up agains the Yankees and expects him to be good this year. To see some video and photos of todays action in Port St. Lucie visit here

New York Mets News from Port St. Lucie

Here is some of what Jerry Manuel the Mets manager had to say today down in Port St. Lucie. He said that reliever Pedro Feliciano is working on a cutter and feels it can be a good weapon for him. He hopes that Sean Greens prounounced submarine delievery doesn't make him a specialist. He said he doesn't know Rod Barajas well but does not about his ability to handle pitching staffs. He will wait and see how the catching competion pans out before he decides how many games Baraja will start. The Mets are looking at Hisanori Takahashi as a Darren Oliver type pitcher. That means a guy who can come in for multiple innings or they also may use him as a situational lefty. He said lastly that Fernando Nieve will be in competion for the long man out of the bullpen but he feels he is versatile enough to be a 8th inning guy or starter. There are a bunch of photos and some video diaries on http://metsblog.com Matthew Cerrone does a great job and you should check it out. Rod Baraja arrived in camp this morning and is in pretty good shape even though he just signed and pitchers and catchers have been there for a week already. He will wear number 21. Arturo Lopez was designated for assignment to make room on the 40 man roster for Barajas. Both of the new Japanese pitchers threw live batting practice today. Mets catchers today were involved in extensive drills. The drills included blocking balls in the dirt, throwing to first and second base and working on popups. The Mets full squad will officially report tomorrow although a lot of them have been down there and popping in and out.

New York Mets First Day Of Camp

Jerry Manuel met with reporters this afternoon for the first time this season. He mentioned that he would like to bat Jose Reyes third. I don't know about anyone else but I don't think this is a good idea. He is a good leadoff hitter that sparks the lineup. I think if you hit him third he may change his approach and it wouldn't be for the better, he would try to hit more homeruns in my opinion plus you take away his stealing game. I think you have to keep him as the leadoff hitter. To Reyes credit he said it doesn't matter to him, he just wants to be playing and helping his team win games. He said that Jerry Manuel just mentioned it yesterday and even if he does it, it will only be until Carlos Beltran returns. He said he is the boss so whatever he decides he will go along with it. Jerry said that Jon Niese can be the fifth starter if he pitches the way he did last summer. He said Daniel Murphy is the starting first baseman, I assumed that but now it is confirmed. He wants a power bat off the bench like the Phillies had with Matt Stairs even if the player isn't able to play multiple positions like Mike Jacobs. Henry Blanco is the backup catcher and Alex Cora is the backup shortstop. You can see a video of Jerry Manuels press conference at http://metsblog.com/category/video Adam Rubin of the New York Daily News spoke with Kelvim Escobar who expressed little concern about being ready for opening day and the rigors of pitching everyday out of the bullpen.

New York Mets Pre Spring Training Workout

The New York Mets got to work today ahead of the Thursday report day for pitchers and catchers. David Wright, Daniel Murphy, Mike Jacobs, John Maine, Jon Niese, Ryota Igarashi and Hisanori Takahashi. Sandy Koufax was a guest of new minor league field coordinator Terry Collins and Guy Conti. They both once worked for the Dodgers. Here are a couple of pictures from Port St. Lucie, these pictures are courtesy of the NY Daily News and Adam Rubins blog Surfing the Mets. There wasn't much news coming out of today down there but Omar Minaya did say there is competition between Mike Jacobs and Daniel Murphy for first base. I don't know how the Mets could not have Murphy win that job though since there isn't any other spot for him and they really have high hopes for him and have continued to support him.