New York Yankees news and notes

The Yankees are expected to name a fifth starter by the weekend.  Adam Warren will be starting on Friday and if he doesn't have a terrible game it looks like he will win the competition.  Esmil Rogers who pitched on Tuesday night was bad again for the second game in a row.  Warren has been good all spring and unless they suprise everyone and go with someone like Scott Baker who has been pitching pretty well it looks like it is Warrens job. 

Alex Rodriguez continues to be a non story, he has shown enough now that he is going to be the opening day DH.  It will now be a question of does he bat sixth or seventh in the lineup and how often does he play the field.  I am guessing he will play third base about once a week and maybe a little first in an emergency but otherwise he will be the DH for the most part.  Garrett Jones will back up Mark Teixeira and he could also play right field with Chris Young when Carlos Beltran needs a break.  Beltran could see some time at DH as well.  Rodriguez has performed well which ended some speculation about him getting through spring training and being able to play etc, he now will have to get through some of the season but he looks pretty good right now. 

The Yankees youngsters have been good all spring and Tuesday night was no different.  It looks like Ramon Flores has impressed.  Joe Girardi said  "If something was to happen to one of our outfielders , I think he'd be a pretty strong candidate." 

Betances was sitting at 93-94 according to the Yes network gun.  He wasn't throwing upper 90's all spring last year and Girardi said he isn't worried although the results haven't been very good.  Betances said he just has to trust whatever stuff he does have and that the velocity will come.  He said he isn't trusting it as much this year compared to last and he is going to have to do that. 

Chris Young has been playing well lately and he has been hitting lefties which the Yankees will be looking for from him this season.  Didi Gregorius has been hitting lefty pitching lately and that is a good sign.  The Yankees want him to be the everyday guy and if he can hit like he has been lately that will be the case.  His glove is gold glove caliber so if he can hit a little they are going to be really happy with him. 

Nathan Eovaldi pitched in a minor league game on Tuesday afternoon.  He said that when he gets in trouble he tends to speed up which he did in the first inning but then slowed it down later in the game and was better.  He said he is working on that as he continues his progression to being a complete pitcher now.  He pitched pretty well again and the Yankees are excited about what he could bring this year.  Girardi said he wouldn't comment on the Opening Day starter but he did acknowledge that Sabathia wouldn't start on short rest so that would eliminate him from Opening day leaving Masahiro Tanaka unless something unforeseen happens.  Tanaka will pitch on Wednesday afternoon and then have five days rest before pitching one more game before Opening Day. 

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.

Weekend Notes from Yankees Camp

Javier Vazquez asked to throw on Sunday and was allowed to do so. I know you may ask why I am saying that well all the Yankees starters have been held back because of their workloads last season. He said though that he was throwing in Puerto Rico and hadn't thrown in about a week and a half and wanted to get back out there. There wasn't much excitement in camp on Sunday, it was expected that Johnny Damon would be a hot topic but there wasn't much said about him signing yesterday for 1 year and 8 million with the Detroit Tigers. The people that did speak about him like Joe Girardi wished him well. I still think that he overplayed his hand and should of come back to the Yankees for 2 years but that is his fault. Almost all of the pitchers have now thrown 2 bullpens and with the exception of Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes are up to 40 pitches. They have only been throwing fastballs and changeups but will now start throwing their breaking pitches. Chad Jennings heard a lot of good things about Andrew Brackman who was one of the Yankees top picks a couple of years ago. Nardi Contreras who is the roving pitching instructor had some good things to say. If you want to check out more on that you can visit http://yankees.lhblogs.com. Brett Gardner was in the clubhouse for a little while today and sat talking with relief pitcher Kevin Whelan. It is not known what they were discussing. The pitchers who threw today were in Group 1 Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Javier Vazquez and Edwar Ramirez. Group 2 was Mark Melancon, Boone Logan, Mosely and Christian Garcia. Group 3 was Kei Igawa, Zach McAllister, Ivan Nova and Kevin Whelan. The last group was Jeremy Bleich, Andrew Brackman, Mitchell and Noesi. The position players are reporting on Tuesday and then Wednesday is the first full squad workout. March 3rd is the first game so things will start heating up after tomorrow and there will be more news coming out of Tampa. It has been very quiet for the Yankees but that should be expected after a World Series Championship and not much else going on.