Don’t fret, Yankee fans. These are not serious injuries at all. Sure, during the season this may mean a missed game or two, but luckily we aren’t there yet. Mark Teixeira was hit in the elbow by a fastball from “I-have-never-met-my-potential” Jeremy Guthrie. With due respect to Guthrie, it looked like he got him pretty good, good enough to force Tex to leave the game. However, despite Guthrie’s best efforts to injure Teixeira, he plans on being back and ready to go on Thursday. The odds on Teixeira homering in his first at bat against Guthrie this season?...

Patrick Venditte, minor league pitcher for the New York Yankees, has an unbelievable gift. No, he is not a switch-hitter… no, he does not hit balls over buildings… and no, he doesn’t throw a 100+ MPH fastball. Patrick Venditte has such a rare gift, that only 3 players in the 19th century had this particular gift and used it in a professional game, and 1 other player since then in the modern era. This rare gift that Patrick Venditte has is that he is a switch-pitcher. As defined on Wikipedia, a switch-pitcher is an ambidextrous pitcher who is able to pitch with both the right...

The New York Yankees issued a press release this morning to notify fans that Time Warner Cable subscribers who receive the YES Network in the Yankees’ home broadcasting territory will be able to purchase a package of YES’ New York Yankees game telecasts for live in-market online viewing. Signup for our weekly newsletter The press release goes on to explain that: The Yankees on YES Live Game Streaming in-market package will launch in conjunction with YES’ Sunday, April 4, season-opening Yankees-Red Sox telecast (8 pm ET). YES Network will offer the package to eligible Time...

MLB.com has reported that the MLB Network has announced today the live games scheduled for April 2010. Bob Costas and John Smoltz will call the first game on April 6th at 7pm as  the Red Sox host the Yankees for the 2nd game of the 3 game series. This will be future Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz first game on the MLB Network. That game on April 6th will be immediately followed by the Twins/Angels game in Anaheim. To view the entire schedule, please follow the link at the bottom of the post. President and CEO of MLB Network Tony Petitti released a written statement saying: “This game...

Andy Pettitte looks to get on pace after a rainy March has limited his innings pitched this spring. With a lack of ‘live game’ work during this spring training, questions are starting to arise as to whether or not Andy Pettitte will be ready for the start of the season. The Yankees #3 starter has made just one Grapefruit League appearance this spring, a St. Patrick’s Day start against the Phillies in which he threw four innings of two-run ball. Outside of that one start, rain put a halt on any other Grapefruit League action Pettite should have seen. Granted he won’t...

Yesterday afternoon the Yankees took on the Detroit Tigers in Lakeland, FL and came out victorious by a score of 2-1. A.J. Burnett started the game for the Yankees and pitched magnificently. He allowed one run in the 3rd inning while throwing a total of 6 2/3 quality innings. He gave up a total of 3 hits in those frames, including 3 walks and 2 strikeouts. Dave Robertson followed Burnett to close out the 7th inning with 1 walk and no hits. Chan Ho Park pitched the 8th inning surrendering 1 hit, and Joba Chamberlain closed the game by allowing 2 hits, with 1 strikeout. In total, Yankees...

Well, I waited until the Yankees announced who the fifth starter would be and I paid for it. When I was writing up all of my predictions many moons ago, I figured Hughes would take the 5th spot. Obviously nothing was settled. So I would like the record to note that I did in fact make a prediction that Hughes would be the fifth starter quite a while ago! However, there is no proof. Oh well, I’ll live. The kid has potential. He may be held on a count, but I’m still expecting big things. He was great in the setup role last year, and has shown that he can be an effective starter....

After reading Brian’s post recommending Joba for the bullpen and Hughes for the rotation I got a bit frustrated. He says “the numbers aren’t a secret” and then doesn’t write about any numbers. Over and over again I hear people making this claim, that Joba is built to be a reliever, but they don’t supply any legitimate data. They have anecdotes about how Joba was “lights out” in his first season as a reliever. Well guess what, Hughes was lights out too. Lets take a look at the numbers: Joba in relief: 60 IP, 10 ER, 1.50 ERA, .983 WHIP, 79 K, 20...

I am not sure I truly understand why, but Yankees.com is reporting that Yankees manager Joe Girardi has a *tough* decision ahead of him deciding on the 5th spot in the rotation. As I have already said before, and I will continue to say, there is absolutely no reason why this should be a *tough* decision for Girardi. The numbers aren’t a secret. I don’t care if Joba throw 5 innings of no-hit baseball in his last outing of the spring… he does not belong in the starting rotation. Despite Hughes slight struggles of late, they are struggles that can be easily worked around,...

The terrible news came down just a short while ago. Joe Mauer and the Minnesota Twins agreed to an 8 year, $184 million contract extension. Talk about money. As a Yankee fan, I dreamed and hoped that Mauer would make it to the end of the season as a free agent, just thinking of the possibility of the Yankees signing him. Just think of the lineup that would be out there. It would have been unstoppable. Realistically I knew it would never happen, as Mauer is well on his way to becoming the greatest Twin ever, but it was still fun to think about it for at least a little bit. At least he’s...

When it comes to the bullpen, the 2010 Yankees have plenty of options. With Joba seeming to have a firm hold on the 5th spot in the rotation, guys like Hughes, Park and Mitre will have very loosely defined roles in the pen. While Hughes may start the season as setup, he will be the first to enter the rotation if anyone gets injured. Although we’ve seen mediocre starters dominate out of the pen in the past, I’m not comfortable seeing Park or Mitre enter the game in a high leverage situation. Instead, I think that David Robertson will be a valuable piece of the 2010 bridge to Mo...

With all the drama surrounding Jorge Posada and A.J. Burnett last season, Joe Girardi has entered the spring with another goal in mind: getting the Yankees #2 starter on the same page as their starting catcher. In the 16 games Jorge caught A.J. last season, Burnett was 5-5 with 6 no-decisions and opposing hitters batting .270. In the 11 game with Jose Molina, the numbers were completely different. Burnett was 5-2 with 4 no-decisions and held hitters to a .221 average. The difference is very noticeable. However, Molina is now long gone after signing a 1-year deal with Toronto Blue Jays, and...

Tom Van Riper of Forbes.com recently wrote an article listing out the most expensive Spring Training stadiums in both Florida and Arizona. The compiled list only includes 10 spring training facilities. It should be noted that 7 of the top 10 are in Arizona. Despite the fact that the games played at these stadiums throughout March are somewhat meaningless, these stadiums are bringing in a substantial amount of revenue to the teams, as well as the surrounding community. According to the article, more than 3 million fans have been attending spring training annually in recent years, up from just...

As we just passed the halfway point in spring training, I thought it would be time for us to take a look at how the fight for the 5th spot in the rotation is shaping up. At the start of the spring, the talk surrounding the Yankees was that Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes were the key contenders to win the spot to pitch behind Javy Vasquez. As spring training has progressed, a few other pitchers improved. Alfredo Aceves and Sergio Mitre are having a great spring training, as seen in the table below. I would love to sit here and say that the Yankees should base their decision on numbers like...

Joe Girardi has told the media that Robinson Cano will bat 5th in today’s spring training game in a lineup that is “pretty close” to what he expects the Opening Day lineup to look like.  Yesterday, Brian Capozzi gave his take on Cano batting in the 5 hole for the 2010 Yankees. To sum up Brian’s thoughts; Cano can be effective in the 5th spot despite his struggles with runners in scoring position in 2009.  As I read Brian’s post, I thought of Cano’s much-chronicled struggles with RISP and a question came to mind; was he really THAT bad? Some statistics...