New York Yankees news and notes

Michael Pineda was suspended ten games on Thursday afternoon.  He was suspended for using pine tar which is a violation of rule 8.02(b).  If you want to read about it you can google it and the entire rule will be there to see.  I am not going to type the rule out but it is very plain and there is no argument.  The bottom line is it is an unwritten rule that he broke and because he was stupid about it he should be punished. 

I thought some of the comments that the general manager Brian Cashman made were interesting.  He genuinely seemed bothered and upset by this.  He took blame for the whole organization not just Pineda.  He said there was a breakdown in communication somewhere and it should of never happened and now he will remedy that.  I don't really know though how you can control someone if you told him everything and that this could happen and he still on his own chose to do it. 

A lot of people think this will be something to watch moving forward now.  Will the Yankees retaliate against the Red Sox and watch their pitchers more closely.  I think it is possible but not right away.  The Yankees best bet is to keep betting them and that will be good enough.  They won't play each other again until the end of June and a lot of other stuff can happen by then so I think it will go away. 

Joe Girardi got some heat for twisting an ESPN camera that was pointed down towards the tunnel going to the clubhouse.  He won't be disciplined for that though and he was right.  There are some areas that should still be sacred and people don't need to see everything and hear everything. 

It looks like David Phelps will just slot into Pineda spot in the rotation, it will only be one start because of the off day.  It will give all the other pitchers one less day of rest though and the Yankees will have to play with a 24 man team for the ten days. 

Derek Jeter had a nice streak of 11 games hitting and 21 reaching base end on Wednesday night.  He had a good game on Thursday night though with a couple of hits, RBI and a walk.  Ivan Nova elected to have surgery and will do so in Alabama on Tuesday ending his season.  Dean Anna and Preston Claiborne were optioned to AAA and Shane Greene was called up.  Bruce Billings contract was purchased from AAA and he was placed on the 25 man roster. 

CC has pitched well and capped the road trip with a big win in Boston.  The Yankees won two out of three in Boston and are 5-2 against them this season.  The two teams won't see each other now until the end of June. 

The Yankees scoring 14 runs on Thursday night was their most since August of last season.  Solarte broke out of an 0-14 slump with two hits and four RBI.  He was the first Yankee to drive in that many runs since Alex Rodriguez on September 20th of last year.  Mark Teixeira hit his first homerun of the season.  Sabathia passed Al Downing for 10th place on the Yankees all-time strikeouts list.  Ellsbury had his season high in hits and set a career high for RBI as a Yankee.