Yankees News and Notes

The New York Yankees named A.J. Burnett their number two starter on Saturday and it looks like they are about to wrap up the competition for the fourth and fifth starters. Bartolo Colon was brilliant on Monday night and may have locked up the fifth spot, it has been widely assumed that Ivan Nova is the fourth starter and Sergio Mitre may remain the long reliever unless he is released and Freddy Garcia takes that job. If Colon isn't the fifth starter then I don't know what he would of needed to do in order to win that job. Garcia if pitching well would of probably won the job but has been bad in his last two outings and most likely lost the job. The Yankees say that Jesus Montero and Austin Romine are still running neck and neck in the battle for the backup catchers job but I would be suprised if the job isn't going to Montero. I think they want Romine to learn more down in the minors and they feel that Montero can learn up in the big leagues since he has already torn up the minors and won't be able to learn that much down there compared to up in the big leagues at this point. Ramiro Pena has shoulder soreness but said he is fine. Joba Chamberlain will throw in a game tomorrow for the first time since March 11th. He said he has felt fine the whole time but the Yankees were being careful with him. Eric Chavez has a calf injury, he is being shutdown until Friday at the earliest. It doesn't appear to be major but the Yankees aren't going to risk anything with him. The Yankees will have Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter batting one, two in the order they are listed for the next couple of games that they play together. It appears they may want that to be the new combo at the top of the order although no decision has been made yet. Joe Girardi has imposed a March 28th date for roster decisions and maybe that will include the lineup. Manny Banuelos suffered his first rough outing of the spring. He had pitched eight scoreless innings and then allowed two runs in two innings tonight. He still showed good poise though not letting it spiral out of control even though he didn't have it tonight. Freddy Garcia will pitch in a minor league game on Thursday because the team is off. The Yankees say they aren't going to learn any more from him during that game. They already know what he is and what he can bring to the table. It sounds like their mind is already made up but they are not tipping their hand. Mariano Rivera pitched in a minor league game and Joe Girardi said he had no idea how he did, saying he doesn't worry about him. If something happened bad Girardi would know about it. He was fine, he pitched two innings giving up three hits and struck out two batters. The Yankees will play at Sarasota against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday with Sergio Mitre making the start and Joba Chamberlain pitching in that game also.