Yankees notes as they prepare for the first spring game this Saturday

Joe Girardi named David Phelps as his starter for Saturday and Adam Warren on Sunday. The Sunday game will be the first one televised on the YES network. Phil Hughes had back spasms today in his upper back which Girardi considers good. He said he will be shut down for a couple of days and then they will see from there. Girardi said he isn’t too worried because he was a little ahead of schedule. 
Eduardo Nunez is going to get a chance to play a lot right now. It is another chance for him to make a name for himself. Nunez is a very good offensive player, he is dynamic with speed and some power. It is his defense that gets him in trouble. Nunez will play a lot of shortstop though with Jeter not being ready to play games yet and definitely not in the field for a little while. Jeter may even be the regular DH against lefties during the season which would give Nunez that opportunity to be the regular shortstop against lefty starters. Girardi said he has to earn it and that they have to toy with some different options but they liked what they saw out of him at the end of last year. They said they plan on keeping him at short for the most part, I don’t see him anywhere else right now other then DH.

Girardi said it is possible they keep both Nunez and Jayson Nix but then they wouldn’t have a lefty pinch hitter and they would like to have that.

Austin Romine said he is more or less stopped thinking about his back. He doesn’t really notice it anymore. He is very optimistic that he has gotten past that problem and a week into spring training and he has had no problems at all.

According to Chad Jennings of the Journal News and Lohud Yankees blog there was some buzz today about Ichiro. He made a behind the back catch during outfield drills, Brett Gardner said it was his fault because he asked him for it. He apparently does this every so often, he seems like a really fun guy to be around and he loves being a Yankee. I really like this guy and hope he continues to succeed because he is a crowd favorite.

Mark Teixeira will have his last day in Yankees camp before heading to the WBC on March 2^nd and Cano on March 3^rd.