Archive for February, 2011

The Yanks dropped their Spring Training opener to the Phils, 5-4, this afternoon…but who cares? BASEBALL IS BACK!!! Granted the starters only played about four innings and it was painful to watch at times, but baseball is baseball. Things I took away from the game:

Although Ken Rosenthal says that the chances of a trade are slim, Chris Carpenter, 36 in April, said he wouldn’t block a move if the Cardinals tried to get rid of him. It’s not up to me. If the Cardinals wanted to trade me, obviously I would go. There’s no question about that. I’m not going to hold back or veto or do anything like that if they’re looking to move me. St. Louis already lost pitcher Adam Wainwright to an elbow injury that will require Tommy John surgery, so the chances of them moving their No. 1 starter are [...]

Today was picture day at Steinbrenner Field, and a lot of them didn’t come out too flattering. One of A-Rod’s came out looking like something out of To Catch a Predator:

The Great Mariano threw his first bullpen session of the spring today, tossing about 30 pitches while focusing on location. It doesn’t have to be hard. Just find the location, and once you do that, start working on adding more speed to the ball. I did that and it was good today. Mo will keep throwing bullpens for a while, then throw a live bullpen session or two prior to appearing in eight to 10 spring training games. You pace yourself. You don’t want to rush anything and then, in the middle of spring training you’re ready and just bored. [...]

After Derek Jeter played it cool and laughed off Hank Steinbrenner’s “too busy building mansions” insult from Monday, Hank tried to backtrack and say it was simply a euphemism. It was a euphemism, that’s all it was. It was a generalization, a euphemism. Bad choice of a euphemism, but it was a euphemism. That’s all it was. The lesser Steinbrenner child didn’t back off his statement that the 2010 Yankees — who were two wins away from a World Series berth — lost their hunger. He did maintain that he wasn’t singling any player out with the “mansions” quote. If [...]

Whoever is responsible for keeping Hank Steinbrenner in his cage really screwed the pooch today. Let’s get right to it. Hank: I think, maybe, they celebrated too much last year. Some of the players, too busy building mansions and doing other things and not concentrating on winning. I have no problem saying that. In case you haven’t heard, Jeter’s mansion was finished a month or so ago so this seems like an obvious shot at him, right? When he was asked if it was a shot at Jeter, Hank said he wasn’t singling any individual out. I call foul on [...]

Kevin Millwood rejected the Yankees’ offer for a non-guarenteed minor league deal today. The 36-year-old Millwood wants a guaranteed major league deal, as opposed to having to earn the fourth or fifth spot in the rotation. However, the Yanks refuse to give him guaranteed money and want him to accept a deal similar to what Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon took this offseason. As the title of this post suggests, that’s pretty ballsy for a guy who has pitched like a bum over the past five seasons after inking a five-year, $60 million deal prior to the ’06 campaign. He [...]

Some Spring Training notes from today:

There was a pretty cool article about Don Mattingly on the New York Times’ website today, and you know I’ll take any chance I get to post about Hitman. In it, Karen Crouse talks about the McCourt’s divorce, the Dodgers’ offseason acquisitions, Mattingly’s ability to manage and his haters, Ronald Belisario’s failure to get a visa, the infamous haircut episode with Stump Merrill and the biography about #23 that comes out in March…which I plan to read the hell out of. Here are some excerpts:

Mariano Rivera arrived in Tampa last night and began his usual Spring Training routine this morning. He’s not sure when he’ll begin throwing off a mound but “it won’t be any time soon.” I can’t say I’m pissed off that He arrived late because He’s the greatest of all time and knows His body better than anyone. Let Him do His thing. Plus, even if Mo did arrive on time He wouldn’t have started throwing until much later in camp anyway. Mo goes by His own agenda; He doesn’t travel to away games during Spring Training and, pretty much, makes [...]