Mo throws his first bullpen

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."

*     *     *     *     *

Girardi said today that Russell Martin will not catch in Saturday’s ST opener. He says Martin’s hip is fine but the knee is a little stiff and they don’t want to risk a setback. The team said Martin will be 100 percent at some point this spring, they’re just taking it slow.

In other catcher news, when asked if he will put Jorge behind the dish this spring, Girardi said, “I don’t know if I will this spring. We’ll just see how that goes, how the competitions are going.”

Posada is expected to catch a bullpen session on Thursday for the first time this spring.

*     *     *     *     *

2 days, 20 hours and 55 minutes until the spring opener!!!!

LET’S GO YANKS!!!!