News On #13 And… #14?
Via Brian Costa -
At a news conference at Yankee Stadium, Granderson tried on his new pinstriped jersey with several Yankees executives and players at his side. Manager Joe Girardi, GM Brian Cashman and new teammates Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia were among those seated next to Granderson.
Granderson will wear No. 14 instead of his old number, 28, because Girardi will likely take that number this year. Girardi wore No. 27 as the Yankees sought and eventually won their 27th title.
“I know how tradition is and superstition is from an outside standpoint, so I don’t want to mess with that,” Granderson said. “Hopefully he’ll continue to wear it and we’ll move forward and keep on knocking people’s numbers out of the way.”
As expected, [Alex] Rodriguez said he will not need a second surgery on his right hip. After being re-examined by his hip specialist, Dr. Marc Philippon, Rodriguez learned Monday that no further surgery would be needed. “You can never say never, but I think he is saying for the immediate future, the next two or three years,” Rodriguez said. A-Rod said he will not need to see Philippon again this offseason and has been cleared to begin his usual offseason workouts.
#14? Other Yankees to wear that number:
Rugger Ardizoia
Angel Berroa
Wilson Betemit
Bill Bevens
Mike Blowers
Harry Bright
Miguel Cairo
Robinson Cano
Bobby Cox
Wilson Delgado
Matt DeSalvo
Monk Dubiel
Lonny Frey
Bump Hadley
Eric Hinske
Hideki Irabu
Russ Johnson
Pat Kelly
Jerry Kenney
Cuddles Marshall
Joe Oliver
Andy Phillips
Lou Piniella
George Pipgras
Jerry Priddy
Pedro Ramos
Ted Sepkowski
Bill Skowron
Luis Sojo
Ron Swoboda
Kevin Thompson
Russ Van
Ed Wells
Butch Wensloff
Enrique Wilson
Gene Woodling
Wow. So, A-Rod is now free of Dr. Philippon and Kate Hudson? I’m tellin’ ya…any day now he’s going to show up wearing Lenny Kosnowski’s “Lone Wolf” jacket…
God, this pisses me off:
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You can never say never, but I think he is saying for the immediate future, the next two or three years,” Rodriguez said.
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Would it not make more sense to get the second surgery, fix it completely, NOW? Why wait 2 or 3 years when his body might not be able to bounce back as fast (or maybe at all)? ARGH.
@ Corey:
sometimes going in and fixing something that doesnt need to be fixed can cause more harm then good. it could become even weaker. surgeries arent full proof. dont fix whats not broken but i understand what your saying.
BOHAN wrote:
While I agree with what your saying, if the general consensus is that he’s going to end up needing another surgery at some point during this ridiculous contract, why wait? It’s only going to get harder and harder to come back, ya know?
Just dont have a good overall feeling abt Granderson… something is just not right.. dont feel too excited, i still feel we gave a little too much… is Granderson really worth IPK, AJax, Coke… forget Coke, IPK if he bounces back could have had a better trade value… i atleast wanted to see AJax suit up for us once…. followed him too long to not get a chance.. but Granderson’s splits are scary bad… i hope the faithful dont expect the world out of him… it wud be better for him if the Yanks get a bigger name this offseason… i see a lot of D-Train in Granderson, sizzling starts but fizzling ends.. i hope not… when i see Granderson i somehow scream “hammy”.. what have u done to me Steve..
srivinodh wrote:
You can still see him when the Yankees beat the tigers.
@ Corey:
Yeah… hope he does well for them… but we win the big ones
srivinodh wrote:
love the comparison knew there was someone to compare him to couldnt think of it. hope he proves me wrong and IF im wrong ill admit.
Yanks about to sign Nick Johnson at $5.5 million. I sort of get it, but I don’t. He’s a good puzzle piece, but I don’t see how he fits the puzzle, other than the price.
(via George King, Ken Davidoff, and others).
Boy, 5.5 for Nick and Matsui went for ~6.5. I’d have taken Godzilla any day given that comparison.
Evan3457 wrote:
OBP, Johnson fits very well in the 2 spot, which could signal that the Yankees are moving on without Damon. That’s the main positive I see with Johnson. Johnson had the 3rd highest OBP last season behind Pujols and Mauer. The hope for Johnson seems to be the same for Matsui this past season: off the field, just DHing, reduce injury risk.
That’s all I got.
Brent wrote:
Nick Johnson is a waste of time. He’s never healthy enough to play a full season. Although I loved Matsui and I’ll miss him, anyone that would choose Matsui over Nick Johnson does so only for sentimental reasons since, truthfully, Matsui had become quite injury-prone over the course of his second contract in New York.
Replacing Matsui with Johnson improves the team on paper only…since the Yanks will still need a DH to replace Johnson for at least 30-50% of the season while he mends on the DL.
Apart from the Granderson trade, Cashman’s had a very “meh” winter. Not impressed.
MJ wrote:
Well, not being able to DH full time might actually be a better fit, in terms of wanting to DH Posada more. I dunno. More playing time for Cervelli. If that’s a good thing. He’s also a better backup for Tex, just in case. Other than that I don’t see how he fits, other than salary as I mentioned above.
He’s got the OBP to hit 2nd, that’s for sure. The speed thing is an issue, because he will set up an awful lot of GIDP ground balls for Tex and A-Rod. He’ll be on base a ton, though, and they will be able to pile up the RBI.
But I still don’t see who’s hitting 5th…the choice would appear to be Cano, who’s awful with RISP, and flopped when they tried him there last year…or Granderson, who you can’t possibly hit in that spot vs. lefties, or an aging Posada, whose BB rate dropped and K rate went up last year.
Johnson can hit. He’s not awful. But I don’t see how the pieces fit better with him here.
[...] Last Spring, Alex Rodriguez (herein “A-Rod”) had major surgery to repair a tear in the labrum of his right hip. He returned on schedule from that procedure and performed outstanding this season. In fact, he healed so well that a follow-up surgery, scheduled for the end of last year, was called off by his doctor. [...]