A Biased Look at the New York Yankees, the Greatest Franchise in the History of Sports
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Randy Johnson threw five innings in a game against the Yankees Single A affiliate, Clearwater. Johnson gave up three runs, two of which came on a two run shot by J.J. Johnson. He gave up two more singles, walked two and he struck out six. Johnson will open up the season for the Yankees when they travel to Oakland on Monday.
In other news, Jorge Posada, who’s recovering from a broken nose, is going to catch Randy Johnson to start the season. A lot was made of Johnson’s tough start last year and a lot of the blame fell on Posada’s shoulders. And even though Posada only caught Johnson for seven innings this spring, he’ll be behind the plate on Monday.
We play the Devil Rays 20+ times, so hopefully you’ll hear this often. The Yankees blew them out yesterday. Alex Rodriguez hit his second homerun of the spring and Matt Childers had a decent start. He threw three shutout innings and gave up four hits.
More importantly, Johnny Damon was back in centerfield. As a DH, he’s not worth nearly as much as he is playing centerfield. It’s the first time he’s been out there since he’s come back from the WBC and he scored two runs to boot.
Also encouraging was Randy Johnson’s start on Friday. We lost a tight one to the Twins, but Johnson went 6 1/3 and struck out six batters without walking any. It’s nice to see our ace is pretty much ready for his opening day start.
The Yankees and Tigers square off this afternoon. Chien-Ming Wang gets the start for the Yankees, and hopefully he’ll help us improve on our 12-13 spring record.
The Yankees took a well needed day off yesterday after getting pummelled by the Tigers. Mike Mussina gave up four bombs and ten runs in four innings of work. Needless to say, that’s not good. And to make things worse on the rotation front, Jaret Wright was shut down indefinitely because of back spasms. Carl Pavano’s still expected to start the season the DL as is Aaron Small. So that leaves Chien-Ming Wang, Shawn Chacon, Mike Mussina (read above), and Randy Johnson to keep things in the early parts of April.
Johnny Damon has gotten off to a solid start this spring after playing in the WBC. He’s five for eight so far. Robinson Cano has hit the ball well (.358/.404/.566 in 53 at bats) as has Andy Phillips, who leads the team with four homeruns. Also encouraging has been Jorge Posada. He’s eleven for 24 with two doubles and two homeruns. Gary Sheffield, on the other hand, is a pathetic two for 24 while he whines about his contract situation, although I expect Shef to be there when the season starts.
Shawn Chacon has been the best Yankees’ starter this spring. He’s given up only one earned run over 11 2/3 innings. Less impressive has been his 8/7 strikeout to walk ratio. Randy Johnson has been good but not great (3.50 ERA in 18 innings) and Wang has pitched well enough to warrant a spot in that rotation.
The Yankees are 9-12 this spring. Not too bad considering most of their regulars have been playing across the northern hemisphere.
The Yankees are 7-9 this spring. Wake me up on Opening Day.
One thing about being a Yankees fan is, you can pretty much ignore anything that happens in March. Doesn’t matter if the Yankees win all of their spring games or lose them all, you know they’ll be in the mix in October. This year highlights that even more because most of the real Yankees are off playing in the WBC.
Regardless, it gives me something to write about. The Yankees improved to 6-5 on the spring with a beatdown of the Braves. Jorge Posada went yard and drove in three runs and Chien-Ming Wang threw three very good innings. He gave up only a single hit and he struck out four without giving up a run. Shawn Chacon throws for the Yanks today against the Indians.
Carl Pavano continues his rehab. Based on what Torre’s said, I see Pavano starting the season on the DL, but if he’s back by late April or early May, it will give the rotation a boost.
The Yankees shut out the Twins this afternoon in their third spring game of the season. Shawn Chacon had another nice outing with three shutout innings and Jorge Posada hit his first homerun of the exhibition season. Mariano Rivera threw a perfect ninth as he made his spring debut. He needed only six pitches to get the Twins out 1-2-3.
Jaret Wright makes his second start of the season tomorrow evening. Of course the Yankees are playing without a bunch of their regulars. The USA team won their WBC opener this afternoon. They topped Mexico 2-0.
The Phillies topped the Yankees 6-3 in the Bronx Bombers’ spring opener. It wasn’t all bad though. Johnny Damon doubled and singled. Robinson Cano had an RBI single and Andy Phillips hit a solo homerun. On the pitching side, Shawn Chacon looked sharp. He got the first five Phillies out and ended the game with two scoreless innings. Aaron Small also threw two shutout innings but Mike Myers was hit hard and gave up three runs. Highlights are at MLB.com. This will be Damon’s only game in pinstripes before he heads off to play in the WBC.
These two teams play each other again this afternoon. Looks like a lot of home and homes this week.
The Cardinal’s page on MLB.com has a short bit on the seating arrangements for the new stadium.
The Cardinal’s spring opener is tomorrow against the Mets. I hate making predictiong this early in the season, but this could be a preview of this year’s NLCS. The Mets really made some nice additions, and we’ll see if they pay off.
This is a solid article by MLB.com’s Tom Singer. There’s no doubt that the Yankees have a spotty rotation. And there’s also no doubt that the Yankees have the best lineup in all of baseball. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a ton of 7-5 games this season and the Yankees should be on the winning end of most of those.
Randy Johnson should be there this year and the wild card will be Mike Mussina. He’s had two rough years and if this is his third, there could be trouble. If he has one more great season left in the tank, then that’s a solid one-two punch. The lineup could compete with an All Star team. Robinson Cano, who’s hardly a poor hitter, will most likely be hitting ninth.
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