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.

Yanks Rule 5 Pick from Nats

The New York Yankees completed their trade with the Washington Nationals this morning by obtaining their Rule 5 pick that the Yankees had them choose. The pick was from the Dodgers Jamie Hoffman a outfielder. He has some pop and is a good defender, what the Yankees really liked about him is that he hits lefthanders well and he will have a chance to stick as a bench player out of spring training. I find this kind of curious because he seems like a Shelly Duncan type and why didn't the Yankees just keep Shelly. I think Shelly never got a fair shot after him coming up in 2007 and becoming a fan favorite and belting all of those homeruns. We will see how this works out. I have one other thought which is thinking outside of the box. I have no knowledge of this at all but could the Yankees include Brett Gardner or Melky Cabrera in a trade with the Blue Jays for Roy Halladay and have him as the extra outfielder. If Johnny Damon does come back I can see him more of a DH now, I guess we will wait and see what happens.

Yankees Draft Picks

The Yankees first round selection was Zachary Heathcott a high school outfielder. They consider him a 5 tool prospect. He is only 18 and comitted to LSU but the Yankees should get him signed. They have stocked the system with pitching so it will be nice to get some good position players in the mix also. The Yankees selected a prep catcher with the second pick. His name is John Murphy. I will have more on these guys tomorrow but it is good to see some position players. I do think they are pretty stacked at catcher though with Cervelli, Montero and Romine but hey you never know.