Yankees baseball blog

Confident Wang will start opener for Yankees

A hamstring injury prevented Chien-Ming Wang from traveling with the team to New York for Opening Day last year. Today he'll have the honor of taking the mound against the Blue Jays on a historic day for the Yankees. It will be the last opener at 85-year-old Yankee Stadium and the beginning of the post-Joe Torre Era with Joe Girardi. If the day's events didn't already hold enough significance for Wang, it also happens to be his 28th birthday.

"To be the Opening Day starter is the best birthday gift I could have," Wang said through an interpreter yesterday. Wang won 19 games for the second straight season in 2007, compiling a 3.70 ERA in 30 starts. He has the most victories of any major-league pitcher in the past two years. Continue

Scouts say Yankees should have traded for Johan Santana

So the wheel officially begins to spin now on Brian Cashman's grand gamble to ride the Yankees' young pitching in 2008 and beyond. And premature as it may be, there is no avoiding the question that will be asked countless times this season: Was the GM right or wrong in convincing Hank Steinbrenner to pass on Johan Santana?

Over the last week I posed that question to six major league scouts and executives who saw the Yankees multiple times this spring, and for what it's worth, here is the consensus opinion: The Yankees could well win multiple championships over the next 10 or so years, thanks largely to a pitching staff built around young guns Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, and Ian Kennedy. But this year? Forget it. It's more likely their streak of 13 straight playoff seasons will come to a crashing halt. Continue

Cheer factor

This is Alex Rodriguez's baseball "Cheers." That is the sound he hears when he comes to the plate, where everyone knows his name. They don't scream "Norm!" when he enters, but the norm is an open-arm policy. On Friday night, Rodriguez played his first baseball game in Miami since high school, since starring at Westminster Christian and becoming the first pick of the 1993 draft. Rodriguez needed to leave about 150 passes at Dolphin Stadium, a total Yankees trainer Gene Monahan joked was "a world record."

Playing against the Marlins, Rodriguez appeared a fish in water: a jubilant juggernaut. He hit a laser double and a homer somehow ever harder. He walked in the seventh, was removed to yet another hometown-boy-makes-good ovation and entered the Yankees dugout with these spring numbers: a .452 average, .521 on-base percentage and .857 slugging average. He arguably has been the AL MVP of spring. Continue

Yankees healthy heading into season

When the Yankees reported to camp nearly seven weeks ago, Joe Girardi said the first and foremost goal of the spring was to stay healthy and get in game shape. With the season set to start Monday, the Bombers managed to accomplish that goal for the most part, as they wrapped up their spring last night at Dolphin Stadium.

Andy Pettitte, whose back spasms forced him to miss the final two weeks, and Jeff Karstens, who suffered a strained groin on the final day in Tampa, were the only two injured players of note. Pettitte's stint on the disabled list will be a short one, as he is penciled in to start Saturday against the Rays, while Karstens will miss at least a month Continue

$46 million pan

When Joe Girardi replaced Joe Torre as Yankees manager, he said every player he inherited had a clean slate. Last night, Girardi stood behind those words when right-hander Brian Bruney was named part of the team's bullpen.

It was a mild surprise when the Yankees tendered the hard-throwing right-hander, who was left off last year's playoff roster. Some believed the Yankees thought they could get something for Bruney's power arm, because he didn't seem to fit into the their 2008 plans. But Bruney arrived in Tampa in great shape and pitching hard. Continue

Joe’s reunion

Dumped by the ugly duckling less than two years ago, Joe Girardi returns to Dolphin Stadium tonight with the prom queen on his arm. Despite keeping the young Marlins in the wild-card chase into the final month in 2006 and eventually being named NL Manager of the Year, Girardi was fired by Jeffrey Loria, the team owner who couldn't wait to hire Girardi a year earlier. Continue

Former Yankees staffer: 'No way’ Alex was on juice

By title, Mike Borzello was the Yankees' bullpen catcher. But those around the team understood that for the past four years, he was mostly known as Alex Rodriguez's confidant, counselor and confessor.

"Nobody in the last four years, including his wife because she wasn't on the road, spent more time with Alex than I did,'' Borzello said by phone yesterday. Thus, Borzello had a front-row seat to Rodriguez's life - in the gym, in the clubhouse, at home, in social settings, to and from games in his car. "Then he called me in the morning and we did it all over again." Continue

Young guns confident they'll make Yankees' offseason gamble pay off

Mike Mussina has found the fountain of youth, and it resides in the picturesque lake that can be seen on the wall next to his locker.

"Lake Mussina," as it has come to be known, is the centerpiece of a corner of the Yankees' home clubhouse at Legends Field. Mussina's locker has been in this spot since he became a Yankee seven years ago, but it wasn't until he was flanked by Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes this spring that the plain, gray wall took on some character. Continue

Jose Canseco's new book links A-Rod to known steroid supplier

No one is safe from Jose Canseco, not even baseball's Most Valuable Player and one of television's most respected reporters.

According to online columnist Joe Lavin, who says he picked up a copy of Canseco's "Vindicated" at a small Cambridge, Mass., bookstore on Monday - a week before its official release - Canseco links three more big-name players to steroid use: Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens and Magglio Ordonez. Canseco also throws in 89-year-old "60 Minutes" reporter Mike Wallace as being curious about the benefits of steroids and human growth hormone. Continue

Hughes Phil-ing fantastic

When talking about Generation Trey there are several voices who believe Phil Hughes is better than Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy. Last night Hughes delivered a performance to fuel that debate when he went five innings against the Phillies at Legends Field, gave up three runs and fanned six.

"I felt really good, the fastball was 100 times better and I threw all my pitches for strikes," Hughes said after a 13-4 win. "I am ready to go. The home run (to Pedro Feliz) was on the only bad pitch I made." If Andy Pettitte is healthy, Hughes will fall into the No. 4 spot in the rotation. However, with his stuff and makeup it's not likely that he stays that low. Continue