Baseball is back!!!!

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:

The good:

• The pitching. Bartolo Colon was solid in his first start, much better than I expected. The Yanks’ gun had his fastball at 92-93. Joba was on point as well, he hit 94-95 on the gun. His off-speed pitches were great too. In my opinion, he didn’t look any heavier than he did last year.
• Jorge “Don’t Call Me Javy” Vazquez. He crushed a homer over the batter’s eye in center field. He absolutely murdered that pitch.
• Cervelli had an RBI double down the left field line…don’t get too used to it though, he’s notorious for fizzling after hot starts.

The bad:

• Tex’ right foot. He got hit on the foot by a pitch from Cole Hamels during his first at-bat and now has a bruise on the big toe. Tex, who tripled today, broke the little toe on the foot last year. #notgood
• Andruw Jones, who walked twice, was picked off at second base.
• Colin Curtis. He had a bad game all around.

Other news:

• Russell Martin will not catch tomorrow but could see some time at DH on Monday. He should catch a game on Wednesday or Thursday.
• The Yanks are keeping tabs on Francisco Liriano, likewise the Twins and Yankee prospects.

Quotes:

Colon, via an interpreter, when asked how close he is to regaining his Cy Young form:

"I’m just trying to get it on the inside of the plate…I feel that I’m real close. In the Dominican (winter ball) I felt I was right there."

Joba, when told of his velocity:

"It felt like I was throwing bowling balls, to be honest with you."

SuperNova will be on the hill tomorrow as the Yanks and Phils play again at 1 p.m. Meattray, Boone Logan and Dellin Betances will come on in relief.