Yankees baseball blog

$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

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

Phil Hughes allows first three homers of spring on windy night

For a couple of minutes Wednesday night, Phil Hughes wasn't sure where he was. With the Bradenton winds gusting at 25 mph, the young Yankee watched three balls sail over the fence for home runs, the first three long balls he had given up this spring. "I thought we were in Chicago out there," joked Hughes.

Fortunately for Hughes, he was in Florida, pitching in a game that didn't count. The stat line - seven runs (six earned) on seven hits and two walks in four-plus innings - was ugly but he managed to find some positives on an otherwise forgettable evening. Continue

Andy Pettitte impressive vs. Red Sox

The Yankees didn't seemed overly concerned about Andy Pettitte's elbow injury when he was scratched from his start two Saturdays ago.

Still, there had to be some comfort for the entire team Monday as the lefty tossed 65 pitches against the Red Sox. He had no trouble with his arm during the outing, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks in 3-1/3 innings, facing the majority of Boston's regular lineup."It was good to see those guys, to see big league hitters, especially after having a little bit of a layoff," Pettitte said. "They have a great lineup, so you have to make good pitches." Continue

Damon feeling fine in leftfield for Yankees

At this time last year, the Yankees were planning on playing Johnny Damon in centerfield on a regular basis. Then Damon battled a right calf strain in April and Melky Cabrera kept making positive strides, eventually emerging as the regular centerfielder. Damon, who played in 131 games in centerfield in his first year as a Yankee in 2006, wound up playing only 48 games in center last season. By the offseason, conventional wisdom was that even if Cabrera were traded to the Twins in a package for Johan Santana, Damon likely would not be the starting centerfielder. Continue

Yankees' Mussina perfect for 5 innings

It would be hard for Mike Mussina to do more to calm uneasy fans about his prospects for this season than he did yesterday. Mussina pitched five perfect innings in the Yankees' 5-3 loss to the Pirates at Legends Field. Still, he wasn't getting carried away. "Some days the results are so good," he said, "you can't figure out how that happened with the stuff you had out there." Continue

Yankees' Wang rebounds, looks sharp against Jays

Chien-Ming Wang didn't make it through the first inning his last time out. He gave up six earned runs to the Reds in two-thirds of an inning, the shortest start he could remember making since he was in the minor leagues in 2003. For pitching coach Dave Eiland, that made yesterday an important start for Wang. "Absolutely," Eiland said. "He made the adjustments that he needed to make." "Every time I go to the mound for me is important," Wang said.

Wang pitched 3 2/3 scoreless innings in the Yankees' 6-1 win over the Blue Jays yesterday, with nine of the 11 outs he recorded coming on ground balls. That was even more significant in the Yankees' minds, because the Blue Jays have given Wang fits of late. He was 0-2 with a 6.35 ERA in three starts against them last season. Continue

Phil Hughes throws 4 hitless innings for Yankees in 6-4 win over Twins

Phil Hughes could have been pitching his home games this spring at Hammond Stadium, preparing for his first season as a member of the Minnesota Twins. Instead, the 21-year-old went out Sunday and showed the Twins and the rest of the American League what to expect from him.

Hughes - whose named was mentioned all winter as a possible trading chip as the Twins shopped Johan Santana - threw four no-hit innings against Minnesota, retiring the first nine Twins he faced before issuing a four-pitch walk to open the fourth. Hughes walked two in that inning, but he made it through without allowing a run, continuing his impressive spring. Continue

As Kei Igawa bounces back, Yankees enjoy a perfectly rainy day

A day that was almost washed away by rain turned out to be a positive one for the Yankees. Kei Igawa threw a pair of 1-2-3 innings while Billy Traber struck out the side as four Yankees hurlers combined on a rain-shortened, five-inning perfect game in a 2-0 victory over the Blue Jays.

"That's my third," joked Joe Girardi, who caught David Cone's 1999 perfecto and was in the dugout for David Wells' 1998 gem. "This was a great day. It looked like we weren't going to get much in and we got to see a lot from our lefties." "It wasn't in the World Series," quipped Yogi Berra, who caught Don Larsen's 1956 classic. Igawa, who was hit hard on Friday in his outing against the University of South Florida, retired all six batters he faced, striking out two. Of his 18 pitches, 13 were strikes, an encouraging sign for the lefthander. Continue

Yankees' Mike Mussina shelled vs. Astros in first spring appearance

Giving up five runs over two-plus innings is generally a cause for concern for a pitcher. Unless that outing takes place in the first week of March, of course.

To say that Mike Mussina was pleased with his performance against the Astros Monday would be inaccurate, but it's not as though the veteran starter was broken up, either. For Mussina, this is simply the first of six spring starts designed to have him ready for the first week of April.

"I'm not in pitching shape yet," Mussina said, a bag of ice on his 39-year-old arm. "You don't just jump back out there and have it right back the way it was. It's frustrating, because I felt good enough to throw better than that. I just didn't pitch very well." Continue