A Year Later and A Different A-rod

Alex Rodriguez was under a tent last year in Tampa admitting his steroid use. He went through a very difficult press conference and then had to go to Colorado to have surgery and rehab his hip. He came back to the Yankees on May 8th and was a different person buying into the team concept. He went on to become a World Series Champion and playoff hero and now he was under the tent again this year in a very different press conference. Today was all about how last year was, how he has changed. He said he will continue to do the things he did last year and just focus on baseball. He said the taste of being a champion only leaves him hunger for more. Here are some of the quotes from his press conference today " I kind of divorced myself from the idea of numbers." This is what he said on Johnny Damon "I was just crossing my fingers, hoping he would come back." This is what he said about Derek Jeter " He was born to be a Yankee." The full audio of the press conference can be found at http://yankees.lhblogs.com/ It can also be heard at http://mlb.com/ and http://yankees.com/ The springs first live batting practices were today and basically the pitchers called out the pitches and location and for the most part the hitters just stood there. Here are the pitchers who threw batting practice and the 2 groups they were in. Field 1: Chad Guadin, Sergio Mitre,Jon Albaladejo, Royce Ring, Grant Duff and Arias Field 2: Alfredo Aceves,Jason Hirsch,Dave Robertson,Segovia,Sanchez and Sanit. They tried to mix up the outfield assignments for instance both Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson were in LF. Ramiro Pena was at second. CC Sabathia will start the second spring training game. One of the 5th starter candidates will start the opener and it won't be Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes according to Joe Girardi. He made that announcement today so it will be Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre or Alfredo Aceves.

Some Mets News

Carlos Beltran arrived in Port St. Lucie today and spoke about being upset with the situation with the injury for about a week. He said it took him that long to get over it but he knows he has to get back with the team and help them win and everything will be ok. He is going to rehab with the team which is a good thing, he can help some of the younger guys. He said there is now no pain in the knee and he is positive and happy with how the surgery went. Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated is saying that Jerry Manuel isn't kidding and until Carlos Beltran comes back Jose Reyes will be batting third. Jenrry Menjia who is a 20 year old kid is drawing buzz today. He threw yesterday and they said he has an electric arm. Jerry Manuel wouldn't rule him out to be the 8th inning guy. I think it is wrong to rush him, he hasn't pitched above double A and he did struggle there some, he is also a starter and could be a top of the rotation guy. Jerry Manuel felt that K-rod threw well today in his bullpen, he said he had a life on his pitches. He said that Kelvim Escobar hasn't been cleared to do anything other then pitchers fielding practice and light workouts which he has been doing. He said that if Beltran wasn't injured Reyes batting third wouldn't be an issue. He also said he spoke with Beltran but only about how he was doing as a person, he will later discuss how he is doing physically.

Alex Rodriguez a World Champion

Alex Rodriguez started off last season n0t so great. He was revealed to be a steroid cheat and then had to go through that interview on ESPN with Peter Gammons that he admitted to doing it. He then went through the press conference in Tampa where all of his teammates came out to support him and I think that is where it all started with the new and improved A-rod. He got through that and then got the hip injury that I believe was a blessing in disguise. He went away all alone to Colorado to recover and contemplate where his life was headed. He admitted in a interview on the YES network last Thursday that he thought his career could be over, all he could think of was Bo Jackson and it was a scary thought. He got to work on his rehab and credits his recovery to his doctor who did a great job. We all know that Alex Rodriguez came back on May 8th and in his first swing launched a homerun. He went through the season with some ups and downs but amazingly finished with 30 homeruns and 100 rbi's. He finished the season with 2 homeruns and 7 rbi's in the last game knowing he needed that to finish with those round numbers. He of course then went on to have an amazing postseason where he would be the postseason MVP, that award was just presented to him last weekend. He now is not only further away from that surgery and didn't need any further surgery but he is a confident man. Alex Rodriguez is now a World Series Champion and a postseason hero. These are things that can never be taken away from him. He said last week in that interview on YES with Kim Jones that he was tired of that label of being a choker and just frustrated with losing in the playoffs so much. He went out and did something about it this past season along with the rest of that great Yankees team. Alex will now go into this season with something he really hasn't had and that is a ton of confidence. It is hard to predict what someone will do but being healthy and confident the skys the limit for A-rod and that is a scary thought for the opposing pitchers. The Yankees I am sure can't get wait to get started defending their title and knowing that they have one of the greatest players of all time on their side and feeling good about himself.

New York Mets suffer another blow

It was a very quiet day and I was planning on writing a little bit about basketball and hockey. Then tonight rumors started spreading around Twitter that Carlos Beltran was hurt and what do you know now it is being confirmed. I will thank twitter for this as many have confirmed now that Carlos Beltran did have some kind of procedure on his knee today. It looks like he did it on his own without the Mets permission and they are going to hold a conference call or press conference tomorrow. He was not happy with the Mets last season, thinking they handled his injury wrong and he kept playing when he shouldn't have. His knee was not getting any better this offseason and the pain came back so he went to get it taken care of on his own. It looks like it was just a clean out but some are saying it was micro fracture surgery. The Mets just can't get out of their own way, it is like there is a big black cloud over them. He is not going to be able to do any baseball activity for 12 weeks. This is 3 months which brings us to the start of the season meaning he will miss spring training. I wouldn't expect him back anytime before May at the earliest and if the Mets are saying 12 weeks that probably means about 5 or 6 months so this could be really bad. What should the Mets do?? I would love to hear from the Mets fans as to if this is a crippling blow?? Can the Mets handle this? Is this the worst of the core players or the best in terms of having to lose someone?? I want to hear your thoughts on this topic and whatever else Mets you want to discuss.

Yankees Minor League Titles

The New York Yankees minor league system once again has been outstanding this season. The A-Tampa Yankees won the Florida State League title last night and the short season Staten Island Yankees won the NY/Penn League title. The Staten Island Yankees were represented by a lot of the recent draft picks. You can check out the stories about the games on www.milb.com the official minor league baseball site. The AAA Scranton Yankees are down 0-2 in their championship series but they have lost a lot of players to the big club such as Shelly Duncan, Ramiro Pena and Francisco Cervelli and a few relievers. They still have a shot though with 3 straight home games, of course they have to win every one of them. The big news out of AAA though is that Ian Kennedy you remember him pitched 3 hitless innings last night with 6 strikeouts. This is great news, he is a good kid who was thrust onto the scene maybe too quickly in NY and didn't do too well and then had surgery this year for a aneurysm in his arm. He now has pitched 5 scoreless innings in the minor league playoffs and will head to the instructional league and Arizona Fall league to build up his innings. Ian should be in AAA next year ready to go but he doesn't have much more to prove there as he has dominated the level. If Andy Pettitte comes back and Phil Hughes does become the 5th starter then there doesn't seem to be a spot for him but maybe he becomes a long reliever/spot starter or stays in AAA as a extra guy. Another scenario is the Yankees leaving Hughes where he is and Ian Kennedy being the 5th starter. This is all a ways off but interesting to think about, hopefully first the Yankees secure their 27th title then they can worry about this kind of stuff.

Some Yankee notes

A-rod just had a normal day off, remember he is still dealing with the hip and they do need to get him so days off. The Yankees announced today that ticket prices for the postseason would be less then last year and in fact for the first round tickets for the season ticket holders will remain the same. Check out the link at http://yankees.com. Ian Kennedy who said he felt great the other day will throw live batting practice on Wednesday for the first time since his surgery. He will throw 30 pitches then throw again on Saturday and the following Tuesday. Brett Gardner hit off a tee again today and felt good, he is expecting to head to Scranton for rehab games by Thursday. Peter Abraham's Lohud Yankees Blog has all this information and more so thanks to him for having all of this great stuff. Tomorrow is Sept 1st so rosters do expand, I expect to see Cervelli and Pena and I would guess Albaladejo and Melancon but we shall see. I think Shelly Duncan and Austin Jackson will come up after the AAA season is over.

Yankees injury news

Derek Jeter is playing and looks fine as he hit a solo homerun to start the 3rd inning. A-rod is out today, he would of been anyway and we will see how he feels tomorrow. Jorge Posada is all banged up but I would expect him to be in there tomorrow and we don't know about MO. I hate to write this because it is painful to think about but Adrian Beltre the Mariners 3B is probably done for the season after he took a hard grounder off of his groin last night. He doesn't wear a cup and it tore his testical and he has internal bleeding and probably needs surgery to repair it, ouch let that be a lesson to always wear a cup if you are a player at any level. The Yankees by the way are out to a 5-0 lead, CC Sabathia looks sharp and after Jeters solo homerun in the 3rd Hideki Matsui hit a 2 run homerun. I don't think I will have a postgame but may be back later with a update and then in the morning with the recap.

Xavier Nady

It looks like Xavier Nady will need surgery although the Yankees haven't released a official statement yet. If he has surgery that will pretty much end his season and the Yankees will have to call someone up to take his place, Shelly Duncan, John Rodriguez, who knows but it won't be Austin Jackson. I will be back later with more as it develops and the lineups for todays game. One more quick note, Evan Longoria is out of the lineup for Tampa today due to a family matter. Thanks to Peter Abraham for having the breaking news on his blog, remember 4:08 start today for those driving home from work make sure to tune in to John and Suzyn but be careful about getting too excited, John tends to do that to you and then takes it back. The game will be on YES.

CC looks sharp

The New York Yankees defeated the Cincinatti Reds tonight by a score of 4-1. CC Sabathia pitched 7 2/3 innings giving up 1 run on 4 hits with 7 strikeouts. He basically retired the last 18 batters he faced. He had retired 16 in a row through the 7th and came back out for the 8th, he struck out the first guy who got to first when Shelly Duncan dropped the throw from Jose Molina but then got the next guy to ground into a double play. Damaso Marte pitched to one batter and got him out and Mariano Rivera closed it out with a perfect ninth inning getting one strikeout. The offense was led by Mark Teixera was 2-3 with a rbi, Derek Jeter was 1-4 with a rbi. Johnny Damon was 0-4, Xaver Nady was 1-3 and Cody Ransom had a rbi. CC Sabathia said tonight that other then getting his slider sharper he is ready to go. He threw 68 strikes out of 93 pitches and dominated the Reds. He said he felt great, he got 14 out of 23 outs on the ground and also had 7 strikeouts. That means that only 2 outs were in the air, Jorge Posada said " he is fun to catch." Tomorrow at 1 Chieng-Ming Wang will pitch for the AAA Yankees to Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher and Hideki Matsui are scheduled to play also to get some more at bats. Jeremie Guthrie was told tonight after having a rough outing that he will be facing CC Sabathia and the Yankees on opening day a week from Monday. Guthrie has an almost 8 era in 3 spring starts. The one other thing about tonight, is MO really human?? He only threw 5 pitches tonight and had a 1-2-3 9th inning. He has thrown 45 pitches this spring with 35 of them being strikes. Did he really have shoulder surgery, it doesn't appear that way, maybe this guy will pitch forever.

Aaron Boone to have surgery

I should of mentioned this earlier but my thoughts and prayers go out to Aaron Boone and his family. He is going to be undergoing open heart surgery and his season is over and maybe his career. He is most remembered for his walk-off hr in the 2003 ALCS against Tim Wakefield and the Red Sox to send the New York Yankees to the World Series. I wish him well in whatever he does with what is hopefully a long life.