Amore With Joe Girardi (And It’s Not Even Valentine’s Day Yet!)

Dom Amore did a great Q&A with the Yankees General Joe. Here’s some a big snip:

Q: What is your take on the new players who have joined the Yankees and what their impact is going to be?

A: “We’ve brought in guys who are going to be great teammates and fit right in — that part of it I’m not concerned about. We’ve brought in very talented players as well. Javier Vazquez, I think he has matured as a pitcher. He’s a guy who can win games for us and also go deep into games and that’s very important. Last year, we had CC [Sabathia] and A.J. [Burnett] and Andy [Pettitte] for most of their starts, but we lost Chien-Ming Wang, and when we lost him it put us in a very difficult position. We were coming up with innings we had to fill. By adding that fourth starter that you know can give you a lot of innings, you feel pretty good about our rotation.

“Curtis Granderson is a young man who’s very athletic and he had great power. He hit 30 home runs last year, and I think only 10 of them were at [home]. He brings a lot the table. Randy Winn — I think it’s important to have four outfielders who can play every day. You saw last year, we were wondering how we were going to get all the guys playing time, and we lost [Xavier Nady] right away and [Nick Swisher] had to become an everyday player. You need that depth. Nick Johnson is going to be a very steady DH, and he can play first base once in a while and we can DH [Mark Teixeira]. [Johnson] is an on-base guy, he hits righthanders and lefthanders.”

Q: Is it difficult to see players like Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui and Melky Cabrera leave after they were part a winning combination?

A: “It is. There’s a bond that lasts forever on a championship team. The 1996 team I played on, the ’98 team or ’99 team, there’s a special bond. … Not only did we win [in 2009], but these were great guys on the field, in the clubhouse, off the field. You’re going to miss their personalities. I’m going to miss them. That’s the hard part about this game.”

Q: How do you see the bullpen and fifth starter shaking out?

A: “You really don’t know how the bullpen shakes out until the fifth starter shakes itself out. You’re looking at the arms that are in that spot, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre, Alfredo Aceves. … Right now, that’s who I have in mind for [the fifth starter]. Whoever doesn’t make the rotation is going to have a good chance to pitch in our bullpen. The guys you know are going to be on our bullpen are [Mariano] Rivera, [Damaso] Marte, David Robertson. ”

Q: Is left field up for grabs?

A: “I think so. You look at it as a spot we need to fill. … It may end up being a platoon situation. That third outfielder is not etched in stone.”

Reading between the lines…Girardi was not thrilled to have to ride just three good starting pitchers all year and into the post-season, Javy Vazquez was not mature the last time he was in New York, Matsui was a good D.H. last year but he was streaky, Yankee Stadium inflated Damon’s stats and should do the same for Granderson, and, they’re not handing Gardner, Hughes or Chamberlain anything out of the chute this year. Did I miss anything?

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