The Yankees rode a strong offensive start, battering Jeremy Guthrie for three runs in the first on their way to a 5-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in a split-squad game. The top of the Yankees’ starting order was as hot as a pistol, with Brett Gardner, Nick Johnson, Jorge Posada, and Robinson Cano going a combined 8-12 with 5 runs and 4 RBI. After Gardner led off the bottom of the first with a walk, Johnson doubled him in, followed by three consecutive singles by Jorge, RC, and Curtis Granderson to make it 2-0. After Randy Winn popped out, Juan Miranda hit a long sac fly for the third run.

Johnson himself had a stolen base, apparently rediscovering his Spring ..read more

In February we ran a series highlighting the Yankees expected roster with expectations and predictions of what players will do in 2010. There were about 28 player previews in total, but all baseball fans know that it would practically take a miracle to make it through a season with that many players.

So we’re running another series, 2010 Potential Call-Ups. It is a similar series, but instead of profiling the expected major leaguers it runs down the players that could spend time in the Bronx down the road. In it we discuss their expected road to the majors and what we should expect from them once they arrive.

We’ve already run a few profiles so ..read more

The 5th starter battle this spring between Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain (and in theory, Alfredo Aceves, Sergio Mitre, and Chad Gaudin) is receiving a lot of attention and one thing I think the situation does highlight is how challenging it can be to develop young starters in New York.

Now, let me first state that this is a great problem to have.  But the reality is, because the Yankees are expected to compete for the World Series every single year, it is difficult for them to give young starters the experience they need.  In a perfect world, at least for Joba and Hughes, both pitchers would be allowed to make however many starts ..read more

Now a 33-year-old journeyman catcher, Mike Rivera was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Detroit Tigers in 1997. He made his major league debut with those Tigers on September 18, 2001 getting into four games. In 2002 he spent the bulk of his playing time in triple-A, but also played 39 days in Detroit.

After the 2002 season, Rivera was traded to the San Diego Padres for Gene Kingsale. He only played in 19 games for the Padres that season before getting picked up on waivers by the Chicago White Sox on June 9, 2003. He never played in the majors for the White Sox and spent the 2004 season in ..read more

Check out these photos. This is actually a year old, but a couple of blogs have been posting these pictures this week so I thought I’d do the same. The guy who built this is a lego artist Sean Kenney. It is really impressive especially if you are a big kid like me.

Check it out:

A hard-throwing righty, Kevin Whelan began his professional career in the Detroit Tigers organization. Drafted in the fourth round of the 2005 draft, the Texas A & M product and college catcher was sent to the Yankees with pitchers Anthony Claggett and Humberto Sanchez in exchange for outfielder Gary Sheffield. Whelan spent much of 2007 in AA Trenton, compiling a respectable 2.98 ERA in 31 games (30 relief appearances), as well as a strong K/IP ratio of 68 in just 54 1/3 innings because of his sharp low to mid-90s fastball and a nasty splitter. Yet control problems resulted in the 6’, 200 lb. righty being sent down to high-A Tampa to improve command over his fastball, having ..read more

According to the AP, a pair of Yankee minor leaguers, pitcher Israel Tolentino and catcher Josue Rodriguez,  who were set to play in the Dominican Summer League  have been suspended for 50 games after testing positive for PEDs.

Tolentino tested positive for boldenone metabolite and Rodriguez for metabolites of stanozolol.

Thoughts: I don’t know much about the players or the drugs so there isn’t much to say. This isn’t a big hit to the  Yankees as there are literally hundreds of players over the years that have been in the Yankees system that never made it past the DSL. This isn’t necessarily the end of their career either, but it’ll probably be a ..read more

Last year baseball fans saw third baseman David Wright of the Mets don a giant helmet after he was hit in the head with a pitch during an at bat. Wright ultimately gave up the big helmet after being ridiculed by teammates.

Now we will see the first Yankee to wear the S100 over sized helmet, Francisco Cervelli.

Here is more from Bryan Hoch of MLB.com:

With the Yankees recommending that Cervelli try wearing the bigger Rawlings S100 batting helmet this season, Jorge Posada has taken to calling his understudy “Gazoo” — as in, the floating spaceman from “The Flintstones.”

Cervelli knew the reference came from a cartoon, ..read more

We’ve seen plenty of pictures of demolition of the old Yankee Stadium, but as far as I know this is the very first video. Try not to cry.

(Click on the headline to watch the video).

Now, you may be thinking it’s more than a stretch to see the Yankees trading for any big name players this season, especially Joe Mauer. However, the possibility of seeing Mauer in pinstripes isn’t as unlikely as you might think.

Reality: Mauer is coming off his MVP season and with the Twins entering brand new Target Field and Joe Nathan going down with an elbow injury (likely for the season), the Minnesota front office is in desperate need for Mauer to ‘wow’ the crowd early in the season. Mauer batted .365 with 28 HR and 96 RBI last season as he won MVP, his second Gold Glove, and his third Silver Slugger Award. The 26-year-old catcher is entering the final year ..read more

Moving Up:

Alfredo Aceves. The right-hander is making a strong case for a spot in the rotation after tossing six hitless innings this spring. If he continues to pitch this well, he could force the Yankees to send either Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain to the Electric City.

Jon Weber. The journeyman outfielder is a long shot to make the roster, but he’s shown some promise at the plate and is currently tied for the team lead in hits, doubles and runs batted in. Marcus Thames and Greg Golson probably have a better shot at a bench role, but a strong spring could help Weber get a promotion in the event of an injury.

Nick Johnson. After ..read more

When it comes to spring training and statistics I am a non-believer. I am obsessed with watching the games, but it is more to get a feel for the players involved and it hardly ever matters to me who won, who lost, or if the players do really well or really poorly. Sure, part of me cringes a little bit if someone has a horrible day, but in the end I realize it is spring and this doesn’t really count.

For example, Phil Hughes has a 0-1 record and a 3.86 ERA. Good right? Well he’s only thrown 4.2 innings which is nothing. Then there is this bit from Ben Shpigel ..read more