A few news and notes from Yankees camp today:
-- Starting pitchers threw batting practice again, and Carl Pavano (surprise!) was drilled in the instep of his left foot. He continued pitching and joked about it afterward, but he admitted he will probably miss pitchers fielding practice tomorrow. He is next scheduled to throw in the simulated game Tuesday.
-- Johnny Damon has been excused from spring training to attend to "personal things." He asked for permission yesterday and the Yankees are tight-lipped about what he is dealing with. They don't expect him back for at least a few days.
-- Humberto Sanchez did not throw because of tightness in his right forearm and Brian Bruney has been slowed by discomfort in his lower back around his left ribcage.
Comments (23)
hope damon is alright...
Anytime an outfielders availability comes into question, my immediate thoughts jump to Bernie. With Torre in his corner, and the injury history of Giambi, he is probably making a huge mistake by not going to Yankee camp. I don't believe Torre would encourage him to report to camp, and then cut the guy. No matter how insulted he may currently feel, Bernie is going to find out he has "cut his nose to spite his face".
Let the worrying begin fellas! Carla...HAHAHA!!! omg..wata joke...but as to Bruney and Sanchez...it's early, but ur always concerned with pitchers if it's a lingering affect. Damon...man as soon as I read it, I thought of his child. Hope everything goes well with him.
Roy
My thoughts jump to Bernie too whenever something happens with an OF or Giambi. Only I say BC, not Bernie, is the one that has "cut his nose to spite his face".
It's just a matter of time until he will NEED Bernie. It will be a sweet day when he comes begging for old Bernie to bail him out. I can't wait!
i worry about a day when we NEED bernie back to bail us out! when that day comes then we are in big trouble.
as far as carl goes,he will be fine.lets support him to do well and have another arod situation where anything this man does he is wrong and is being booed.i support any player that wears the pinstripes!
Mike,
you're absolutely right about the Bernie matter. We shall be in deep sh*t the day we are "begging" him to come and play because we "need" him. That will happen when all we have as outfielders are cabrera, and some other minor league players, and we're 3 games behind the orioles for 3rd place! haha, not a likely scenario, but hey, anthing can happen. Just hope that doesn't. The day we see Bernie back, I'm hoping it's because they let myers go, or they finally realize that they do not need 4 first baseman...
mike fl
Yeah, having a Bernie Williams batting 8th or 9th in a lineup with 7 AL Allstars would be "BIG TROUBLE". I can see what you mean. We'd be doomed for the season if that ever happened. Come on and get real man!
MikeFl: I agree we are in big trouble if we need Bernie ! That's like putting the cart in front of the Ox, bloggers expect him to get 400 ABs and bat .280 forever ,it ain't going to happen !
Just a wild hunch or guess on the Damon thing....could possibly be a post partem depression thing with his wife since she recently delivered their first child and he has left for ST? Just a guess since we don't have any other info and this is not like him to leave ST.
ruse
Not forever, just this season. I don't find it such a stretch to see that as a possibility with Bernie if he were given those 400 AB's. And, you can't tell me with a straight face that he is incapable of batting .280 for this year if given the AB's.
My thoughts are with Damon. The recent birth of his child and the wife. Hopefully, its just a scare. Everything else is minor stuff. The bodies are going through aches and pains. As far as Pavano goes one must be suspect with his ability to bounce back.
Johnny Damon's selfish like Manny "Dog" Ramirez. He's leaving because of Personal reason? He's probably going to wrestling matches rather than working hard in spring training. Did Damon's and His wife got pregnant earlier? Where's do you think he's going? Johnny came to camp out of shape and overweight
Doesn't Damon's Dad have a chronic illness?
Rick : If an OF goes down Melky would get all the playing time,if Giambi went down Melky would still get the majority of playing time w/ some of the ABs at DH going to a combo of OFs and Subs...You need to pray harder !
Kevin Thompson will be the 4th OF while Damon is away. Forget about Bernie.
What I don't understand is why we need a platoon at first base. Andy Phillips is a .195 career hitter against lefties (.186 last year). He isn't even that good with the glove to make up for his lack of offense. If we ditch the platoon, that opens up the roster spot for Bernie to act as the 5th OF/DH. Cairo has first base time on his resume, and we can always call up Phillips or Phelps if Mientkiewica is hurt.
First off, there is no room to give Bernie those 300 AB that you guys have been mentioning. He would be the 5th outfielder so Melky would get ab ahead of him should something happen to Matsui, Abreu, or Damon. Whats last in all of this is that Bernie doesnt fit into the Yankees long term plans. Unless disaster strikes and we lose half the team to injury, major abs wont be available for Bernie or if they are the team would be done for anyways. The yankees long term plans is a youth movement. Thus old timers who while may be half decent are not useful if they impede the development of youngsters who eventually would be called upon to step into full time roles. Giving Bernie 300 at bats over Tabata or whoever else the Yankees would call upon would be a complete waste.
Arms race
Rival staffs vie for World domination
Ny DailyNews compares Yankees rotation vs Redsox. Which rotation is better?
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball...9p-422001c.html
[QUOTE]So which team's rotation is better? The Daily News tries to offer some answers with a breakdown of the matchups.
Here's what one major league scout says: "They've both got plenty of issues. I'd give the edge to the Yankees because of the consistency of their first three" - Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina.
But David Ortiz says "We're in a better situation. We've got Curt (Schilling), we've got (Josh) Beckett and we've got Daisuke (Matsuzaka). I guess we'll see. There are a lot of expectations. "For both of us." [/QUOTE]
Pro-Redsox The Ny Dailynews gives an edge to Redsox rotation versus the Yankees rotation. Big Poopi says Redsox rotation are superior than the Yankees .Ny dailynews gives an edge to Redsox rotation versus the Yankees rotation.Big Papi says Redsox rotation are superior and better than the Yankees . At this moment the Redsox rotation are ahead of the Yankees, I say Yankees must sign and bring back Rocket or gives a chance to Phil "Franchise".
Well, what is David Ortiz expected to say? That the Yankees have greater potential than the Sox? What a joke to even ask him!!!
How many sports reporters are actually Yankees fans? Not very many. How many are rooting for another team -- any other team? Practically all of them. The Yankees strike fear in the hearts of their competitors, with good reason. It's no wonder newspapers and sports sites (e.g. Fox) play up any minor Yankee setback they can conjure up, while over-exaggerating the "achievements" of their competitors, especially the Red Sox. It's no longer about reporting sports "news" these days; newspapers and sports sites are becoming a device used by the media to cultivate their own personal likes, prejudices, and fears onto a somewhat captive audience.
YANKEES FANS: I found a new website where you can get a NY Yankees email address, for example, yourname@ny-yankees.net. I think this is so cool. They have a Yankees portal which is filled with great, positive information about the Yankees. If anyone is interested, the site is http://www.ny-yankees.net.
Lucy : cogent insight ! Terrific!
The game is played between the white lines. All this speculation of rotations is just speculation. How individuals play and react to the twists and turns of a season cannot be qualified with this rotation is better than that rotation. So far no matter what has been said in the past decade about the Boston so called dominance of any facet of the game has only been true once in 2004. And you might say, it was more of what the Yankees didn't do than what Boston did do.
It all starts with "Play Ball." Two words more powerful than all the pitching stats you can present.