Yankees have caught the injury bug

The New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles played to a 6-6 tie this afternoon. The big news of the day though was that Nick Johnson fouled a ball off of his knee in the first inning. He is day to day and stated to the media that he will be playing on Sunday night. It isn't so much that he got hurt but the last couple of days they have had guys coming down with injuries. Alfredo Aceves who has been battling back issues stated today that he will also be ready for Sunday. He pitched one inning today in minor league camp and came out of it in good shape. Damaso Marte has had a sore shoulder. He thinks it is from the strenthening exercises he has been doing on his shoulder. He said this injury is nothing like last year and that he is confident he will be fine. Andy Pettitte started the game today and pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings giving up 7 hits. He walked one and also struck out a batter. Andy was happy with his start saying "I felt like my command could of been a little bit better with my fastball. Other then that I felt really good." He stated that he got tired at the end which he knew would happen. He said even though he threw 100 pitches in his simulated game it isn't the same as the real game, that you can't duplicate the adrenaline. He said the biggest need from this game was to build his stamina up and he was glad to be out there and accomplish that. Mariano Rivera pitched an inning giving up 2 hits and 3 runs but none of them were earned. He also had a walk, strikeout and hit a batter. He hasn't been feeling well the last couple of days but I wouldn't worry about him. Boone Logan pitched a scoreless inning giving up a hit, he also had a strikeout. It looks like he will make the team as the second lefty if they go that way because there is no one else left on the roster. The Yankees sent Royce Ring down. Offensively Randy Winn was 2-5 with a rbi and Mark Teixeira continued his hot spring with a couple of hits. Nick Swisher hit a 2 run homerun and Robinson Cano had a hit and rbi. Alex Rodriguez had a hit and rbi also. The Yankees will take on minor league all stars tomorrow at 1:05PM at George M. Steinbrenner Field. A-rod confirmed a NY Daily News story that he did meet with the Feds on Thursday. He didn't offer any other details then to say read the story. I guess there is nothing else to worry about with that and he will start the season and hopefully have a great drama free season once again.

Yankees Off Day

The Yankees were off today so it was very quiet in Tampa. The Yankees did send 2 more pitchers down to minor league camp today. The pitchers were Hector Noesi and Ivan Nova. The total amount of players in major league camp is now 52. If you are looking for some good minor league stuff then check out the Lohud Yankees Blog. Chad Jennings is the main beat writer and he had spend the last 7 years in Scranton covering the AAA team there. It was the Phillies at first but then became the Yankees. He was at minor league camp today with the Big Club being off. He wrote some good notes on his blog which can be found at http://yankees.lhblogs.com. It will be interesting to see if there is any A-rod news tomorrow. I hope he met with the FEDS today on the off day and then that is put to rest. The Yankees are going to have their full lineup tomorrow and Mariano Rivera is expected to make his first appearance of the spring. If you just want to see him don't turn the game on late, he will be in there early to get his work in.

Grapefruit League Game 14-St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets

Here is the lineup for todays game that is just starting. The lineup is courtesy of Matthew Cerrone and his metsblog.com. Luis Castillo(2B) Ruben Tejada(SS) David Wright(3B) Mike Jacobs(1B) Jason Bay(LF) Fernando Martinez(CF) Jeff Francoeur(RF) Rod Barajas(C) Fernando Nieve is making the start. Jon Niese, Francisco Rodriguez,Pat Misch,Sean Green,Tobi Stoner and Elmer Dessens are all scheduled to pitch also. Francisco Rodriguez is making his spring debut today. The Mets made their first cuts of the spring today. Here is the list of who was reassigned to minor league camp. Josh Thole Shawn Bowman Eric Niesen Jack Egbert Josh Fogg R.A. Dickey Travis Blackley Bobby Livingston Arturo Lopez Eddie Kunz Andy Green Mike Hessman Mike Cervenak Jesus Feliciano Luis Hernandez Clint Everts Kirk Nieuwenhuis I heard a disturbing thing today. John Maine pitched poorly in relief yesterday and afterwards said he just wasn't that into it. I understand your a starter and all of that but you haven't been healthy in a couple of years. I think you need to be into whatever the team asks you to do. This is very discouraging to the Mets and their fans. He claims it was a waste of a day for him, being up, down, up, down.

New York Yankees Notes

CC Sabathia is fine, the ball hit his glove, he also said this is the best he has felt all spring. He is just going to fine tune some things now to get ready for the season. The Yankees reassigned 9 guys to minor league camp yesterday and 2 more today. Here are the names: Jose Gil,Grant Duff,Kyle Higashioka,Andrew Brackman,D.J. Mitchell,Christian Garcia,Kevin Whelan,Wilkens Arias,Kei Igawa,Wilken De La Rosa and Jeremy Bleich. It does look like Nick Johnson will be the number 2 hitter this year. Joe Girardi said "Nick really fits that bill,being the on-base percentage guy. But we have to look at how the whole lineup works. When you look at what Nick does, he really fits that area." Joe Girardi said this morning that 3 guys are getting a look as a right handed outfielder. They are Jaime Hoffman,David Winfree and Marcus Thames. I like Thames chances with his experience and I would say Hoffman has a better chance then Winfree with him being the Rule 5 guy but we will see what they decide. I don't have any other notes from the game, but I will either have some later or tomorrow depending on when I get my internet service back again. Tomorrow will be a good day to catch up with the Yankees having a off day.

Baseball News

I am back, i took the day off yesterday due to me and my family having some kind of stomach virus. I didn't get to talk about the Yankees inviting 20 non roster players to spring training. I am not going to go through the whole list but basically you know most of them. The Yankees have announced some of the signings in the past few weeks. Reid Gorecki, Royce Ring, Marcus Thames etc got the invites and minor league deals with incentives if they make the roster. The 2 top catchers Austin Romine and Jesus Montero got invites along with Kei Igawa. If you forget who Igawa is he is the Japanese pitcher the signed a fews yrs ago that has become a bust. I am thinking the Yankees will give him the chance to be the 2nd lefty out of the pen but I doubt that will happen. The Yankees currently have Damaso Marte but they have other guys who will try and win that job. Wilkens Arias and Jeremy Bleich are 2 left handers to keep an eye on. Arias is 29 so not much of a prospect but held lefties to a sub 200 batting avg last year in the minors. Bleich spent his first year in pro ball last season and is a starting pitcher that could move quickly. It is always good to see some of the prospects and guys fighting for jobs in spring training. It appears that Chien-Ming Wang will be heading to Washington. He is expected to sign a minor league deal for 2 million with the chance to make the team when healthy. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe reported this morning that he already chose the Nationals. The Atlanta Braves offered Johnny Damon a one year deal today for 4 million with deferred money that could double it. He apparently turned it down still seeking a 2 yr deal. The Tigers and Rays are still said to have interest but may also want to keep it at a one year deal.

Yanks add a couple of Leftfielders

We all knew about Randy Winn but today the signing became official. Jon Heyman of SI.com also reported today that the Yankees signed Marcus Thames to a minor league deal. Chad Jennings of the Journal News and also the Lohud Yankees blog confirmed this on his blog. He had spoken to GM Brian Cashman this afternoon. The deal is a minor league deal that if he makes the 25 man roster out of spring training he will make 900,000. Marcus Thames started his career with the Yankees and only appeared in 7 games with them. He made a name for himself in Detroit where he averaged 23 homeruns and 58 rbi's in 3 season with them. He will compete with Winn and Gardner in spring training for the leftfield job. I think this is a good risk to take especially since they wanted a right handed hitting outfielder.

Yankees Draft Picks

The baseball draft is different then any other sport in that most guys don't make an impact for several years. In Football and Basketball especially guys get drafted and can make an immediate impact in the next season. In baseball it is tough, you see guys get drafted in late rounds and become great and you see first round picks never make it. The Yankees and other teams like the Red Sox and Mets and Dodgers have an advantage in that they can overpay guys to get them to sign because the slotting system is screwed up but they have the disadvantage of never picking high. The Yankees are always one of the last teams to pick so they never have a chance to sign a guy like Stephen Strasburg etc. The Yankees signed 13 of their top 14 picks and tonight announced they have signed a couple of later round picks. I know people like to go nuts over this but it is good to get these guys signed and into your system. The Yankees have guys like Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli who I am sure when they were drafted no one thought much of them but they made an impact on the Yankees this year. I follow the minor league teams and like to see the young guys come up and make an impact but don't go too nuts over the draft picks, just wait and see what happens before you pass judgement.

Minor League game and notes

I forgot to write about yesterdays minor league happenings so please forgive me. Phil Hughes was scratched from pitching yesterday but not because he was injured. He said today he was just as shocked as everyone else. He will be pitching tomorrow instead and is not sure why they shifted it. Ian Kennedy pitched 6 innings giving up 6 hits, 3 runs with 7 strikeouts. Mariano Rivera pitched in this game giving up a solo homerun but then getting 5 outs. He had 2 strikeouts. Kevin Whelan pitched 1 2/3 innings giving up 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk and 2 strikeouts. Ian Kennedy has looked good since being sent down to minor league camp, he has been working on getting his curveball down in the zone and it has worked so far. Austin Jackson was 1-4 with a rbi, Shelly Duncan was also 1-4 with with a solo homerun. Juan Miranda was 1-3, Edwar Gonzalez was 1-1 with a rbi. Todd Linden was 2-4, Eric Duncan 1-4 and Kevin Russo 2-3 with a sac bunt. Chris Stewart was 2-2 with 2 rbi. Shelly Duncan had a nice juggling catch running into the wall in the outfield. Austin Jackson almost had 2 diving/sliding catches in CF. Thanks to Chad Jennings for doing a great job with the minor league information and don't forget to check out his blog at the times tribune.

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.

Andy Pettitte and other notes

I don't have all the stats for the minor league games today but I can tell you that Andy Pettitte pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up 7 hits, 5 runs only one was earned though, 1 walk and 3k. He threw 83 pitches,63 for strikes. He gave up a broken bat double and two infield singles. Andy feels good and has looked very good this spring, remember he is the #4 starter which really shows the depth of the Yankees rotation. He will pitch against the Blue Jays on Monday and would like to throw 100 pitches. He will also pitch April 4 at the new stadium. I will be back with some stats about the minor league games. There was some Arod news, he talked to Yankees GM Brian Cashman on Tuesday and is doing well. He should be back by April 1 in Tampa to start doing baseball activities and the target date for him to be back is May 16th although many feel he will be back by then, me included. He said he watched the game last night and thought AJ looked great. Jon Heyman of si.com is reporting the yankees had lengthy discussions with Arod about his antics off the field. You can check out his story on si.com.

Tigers at Yankee

Here is the lineup and pitchers via Peter Abraham of the lohud yankees blog and Journal News. 1. Cabrera(cf) 2. Damon(lf) 3. Teixera(1b) 4. Matsui(dh) 5. Nady(rf) 6. Cano(2b) 7. Ransom(3b) 8. Molina(c) 9. Berroa(ss) Starting for the Yankees is Joba Chamberlain followed by Mariano Rivera, Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras. Rick Porcello is starting for the Tigers, he is the former Seton Hall Prep Star who was a top 3 talent in the 2007 draft but fell to 27 because of signability issues. The game is on WCBS 880 radio in NY but not on TV. The Yankees also sent some people out to minor league camp: Guys headed to AAA Scranton- Phil Hughes, Steven Jackson and Anthony Claggett. Guys headed to AA Trenton-Humberto Sanchez Reassigned to minor league camp-Sergio Mitre and Jason Johnson. The roster now stands at 43.

Split Squad recap

The New York Yankees defeated the Houston Astros at home in Tampa today 3-1 behind 4 perfect innings from AJ Burnett. He threw 40 pitches 32 of them for strikes, he was so good he had to go to the bullpen and throw 10 more pitches out of the stretch. His stuff is just electric and hopefully for the Yankees he is just coming into his own after last year. Dan Giese came in relief for him and gave up a solo hr and 2 hits in 2 innings with 3 strikeouts. Edwar Ramirez made his first appearance of the spring after having some shoulder discomfort and pitched a scoreless inning with 1 hit and 1k. Brian Bruney looked really impressive pitching a perfect inning with 2k's. Jason Johnson finished it off with a couple of hits but got out of it. It was also his first appearance of the spring and he is a good story after having retinal cancer and also being the first guy to wear a diabetic device on his hip. The offense did just enough with Johnny Damon hitting a solo hr, Cody Ransom continued his impressive spring with 2 hits, Berroa had a hit and Matsui also had a hit and looks good working the pitcher. Brett Gardner also had a hit but struck out twice. The story of the day was definitely AJ Burnett who was just filthy, it was good to see him on TV and look that good dreaming about a super summer. In the other game at Bradenton against Pittsburgh Phil Hughes got the start and in the first inning gave up 2 solo hrs and then settled down. He finished with just those 2 hits in 3 innings but 3 walks and 2k's. Albaladejo pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout, Ian Kennedy pitched better today going 3 innings with 3 hits 1 run, 1 walk and 5 k's. Mark Melancon had his first bad game pitching 2/3 of an inning giving up 6 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk and 1k. He gave up 2hr. On the offensive side the top prospects had a good day with Jesus Montero hitting a grandslam and also drawing a walk and Austin Jackson going 2-4 with 2rbi. Melky Cabrera went 1-4 with a rbi. Nick Swisher went 0-2 with a walk, Big Tex had a bad day striking out 3 times. Shelly Duncan went 1-2 with a rbi. If you check out Peter Abrahams site at http://yankees.lhblogs.com he has audio of AJ Burnett after the game, definitely worth listening too. Mo is ready to go for Tuesday and Jorge for tomorrow behind the plate. Wang went home today with a cold. Phil Hughes said he feels strong and good he was just a little off trying to work on some of his other pitches, the cutter and changeup. Joe Girardi talked to Arod today and he is off crutches feeling good and about to move his rehab into the pool. Colin Curtis and Austin Romine were reassigned to minor league camp and Mike Dunn was optioned out. The closer it gets to opening day the more and more guys we will see going back down or over to minor league camp.