Via Anthony McCarron –

Matchups between the Yankees and Orioles should bear watching this season after another incident in which a player getting hit seemed to briefly ignite tempers.

After Mariano Rivera hit Felix Pie in the leg in the sixth inning Friday, the Yankee closer appeared to take a step toward the Baltimore dugout. Rivera said he was just “walking around,” but Joe Girardi was concerned enough to visit the mound.

“I think something (verbal) came from their dugout and Mo just walked off the mound and got back on the mound,” Girardi said. “(Whatever was said) might’ve been in response to my frustration the other day. It’s OK. Like I said, this is the time of year you don’t want to see that kind of stuff.”

Girardi fumed Monday after Mark Teixeira and Francisco Cervelli were both hit by Orioles starter Jeremy Guthrie. At one point, the manager shouted out loud. Later, he said if Guthrie was having a hard time commanding his fastball, late in spring training is the wrong time to be working on it because of the risk of hitting and hurting opponents.

May 19, 1998 seems like it was a long time ago now, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s not such a bad thing for these two teams to have a little extra passion when they play each other? From a Yankees perspective, it will prevent any letdown when facing the O’s – as compared to having to gear it up for games against Boston and Tampa. Then again, when the thing went down between the Rays and Yankees in 2008, it probably helped Tampa more than it did New York…so, maybe it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie…

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These are about to close soon…so, if you don’t have your vote in yet, here’s your chance:

• Greatest/Favorite Yankees Tournament – Div IV, Round I
• Greatest/Favorite Yankees Tournament – Div I, Round II
• Greatest/Favorite Yankees Tournament – Div II, Round II

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h/t – SIH

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Every time there’s a story like this, I’m going to wonder if THIS is the one that sends Nick Johnson to the DL for the umpteenth time in his career.  Grrr…I really wish Cashman had let this broken-down mule graze on somebody else’s field.

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Via Jack Curry with a h/t to the other CC -

Andy Pettitte can see the end of his gratifying career approaching and can feel the number of games he might have left reduced to a precious few dozen. Pettitte is fine with that scenario, content with trying to help the Yankees fashion another memorable season before probably retiring.

“I can’t just keep on playing,” Pettitte said. “I need to get back home.”

With no prompting, Pettitte veered from discussing how comfortable he has felt as a pitcher this spring to how uncomfortable he feels as an absentee father. When some players lament how much they miss their family because of the draining season, their words seem choreographed. When Pettitte says those same words, he seems sincere.

Andy Pettitte has been a gift…in my eyes…for the Yankees and their fans. It’s been a pleasure to watch him work for the team. And, I will miss him, greatly, when he retires.

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The good folks at BA.com always have something enjoyable on the menu and today it’s a breakdown of all baseball prospects by position^.  Of course, I was most interested to see where the Yanks ranked in each position.

Catcher: (25 players ranked)
1. Jesus Montero
12. Austin Romine
22. Gary Sanchez

Center field: (15 players ranked)
12. Slade Heathcott

Right-handed Starter: (35 players ranked)
34. Zach McAllister*

Left-handed Starter: (25 players ranked)
22. Manny Banuelos

This reinforces what all Yankee fans already know: the organization is loaded with high-end catching talent but is thin at the other positions around the diamond.

^Unfortunately this is premium content which requires a subscription to BA.com’s site.
*Arodys Vizcaino (#22) was traded to Atlanta in the Javier Vazquez deal.  The same report had Kyle Drabek still tied to the Phillies (traded to Toronto in the Halladay deal) so I take it that BA.com filed this report based on 2009 results, previous teams included.  Odd, but whatever…

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Via the Daily News with a h/t to “throwstrikes” –

Agents from Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations questioned Alex Rodriguez in Tampa on Thursday about the Yankee star’s relationship with Tony Galea, the Toronto sports physician at the center of a federal drug probe, two sources told the Daily News on Friday.

One of the sources, who asked not to be identified because of the nature of the investigation, said Rodriguez has not yet met with the federal agents who are leading the investigation into Galea, who already faces four drug-related charges in Canada.

MLB had planned on talking to the Yankee third baseman after A-Rod met with the feds, but the source said Rodriguez’s lawyers and commissioner Bud Selig agreed to the meeting ahead of schedule at Selig’s behest. According to another source, Selig became impatient waiting for the government to act and ordered his investigators to proceed with their sitdown with Rodriguez.

When he was asked on Friday morning at George M. Steinbrenner Field about his interview with government investigators, Rodriguez said he would not comment until after Friday afternoon’s game against the Baltimore Orioles.

“Let’s talk after the game, with everyone else (the other reporters who regularly cover the team),” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez did not disclose his meeting with the MLB investigators, but he did not seem burdened by his meeting with them, either. He went through pre-game drills this morning, taking batting practice on the diamondand hitting in the batting cage underneath the stands. At one point, he stood in the Yankee dugout joking with bench coach Tony Pena.

Scott Boras, Rodriguez’s agent, declined comment on Friday.

I’ve had the Yankees game against the O’s on, today, low, in the backgorund, while I’m working. And, I didn’t hear the YES guys mention this yet – but, I may have missed it. It will be very interesting to see what A-Rod says later after the game. And, credit to Selig for saying enough is enough with the stall tactics.

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ESPN.com’s Buster Olney asks a handful of scouts and talent evaluators the question “[w]hat position is Jeter going to play in his next contract, and for how long?”  Since this piece is behind ESPN.com’s Insider content wall, I’ve copied the highlights below:

Talent evaluator No. 1:  Most of the time, when you see a good defensive shortstop move, they can go to second base and be pretty good…of all the Yankees who’ve been around there in recent years, my sense was that Robinson Cano…is the one guy the Yankees would at least be willing to talk about in a trade…So maybe what you do is trade Cano for some other piece and move Jeter to second base.

Scout No. 1:  This isn’t as easy as you would think.  He has great baseball instincts, but in his late 30s, learning how to turn the double play from second base won’t be that easy…he’d probably best fit at either third base or first base…Realistically, first base would be the easiest transfer of positions. Give him a month and he could be average at it.

Scout No. 2: I think Jeter will end up in left field.  I doubt he will retain enough speed to play in center field… I suppose if he really slowed down, they could hide him in the small right field.

Talent evaluator No. 2:  Jeter’s athleticism, instincts and strong throwing arm would make him a natural fit in right field…There are two other things to consider.  First, Jeter’s defense at shortstop improved significantly last year…For this reason, I don’t think a position shift will occur for at least another year or two…The other thing…is the Yankees parted ways with DH types like Damon and Matsui..These moves will afford the Yankees much more positional flexibility…

So, a vote each for first base, second base, left field and right field with a mention of DH too.

I wonder who these scouts and talent evaluators are.  I’ve grown skeptical of quotes attributed unnamed sources, especially in the world of sports reporting but, of course, none of what these unidentified individuals said was terribly revolutionary.

My thought: Jeter’s not moving off shortstop anytime soon.  The Yanks don’t have anyone in house that can replace him, the corner infield spots are taken and the DH spot is better served by guys like Jorge Posada and Nick Johnson (or even Jesus Montero) who may not have a defensive future or have injury issues which requires a less strenuous workload which the DH slot affords.  I would be shocked if Jeter isn’t still the Opening Day shortstop in 2012 or 2013.

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Someone recently asked me about making a donation to help support WasWatching.com.

We haven’t accepted donations here since 2007. But, now that this blog is an independent, and not part of a network, etc., there’s no reason not to accept a donation – should someone want to do it. So, if you’re interested in doing this, below is a way that you can, via PayPal:

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Chad Jennings has the story on Damaso Marte and his sore wing.

Boone Logan, come on down…

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Well, Aaron Boone, Alex Rodriguez, Bernie Williams, Chad Curtis, Derek Jeter, Gil McDougald, Jim Leyritz, Joe DiMaggio and Mark Teixeira have done it. But, Boone and Bernie did it in an extra special way.

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Alex Rodriguez has still not met with the FBI to discuss his relationship with Dr. Tony Galea. And, Opening Day is just two days away.

The Opener on Sunday night, against the Red Sox, will be telecast on YES and ESPN2.

I wonder how many times the A-Rod/Galea thing will be mentioned on both networks this Sunday…

Betcha it’s mentioned more on ESPN2, ya think?

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About six weeks ago, I rang in on the whole granular baseball stat craze – and shared that:

…the overzealous study of these nouveau “granular” baseball stats by fans, analysts, bloggers, et al, is akin to reading a book one letter at a time. Granted, without each letter, you would have no book. But, the letters by themselves cannot tell the story – that’s up to the words, sentences and chapters that result from the letters.

Related, I found this Bill James quote in a recent SI feature to be eye-catching -

“We’ve had these cameras pointed at pitchers for several years now and we haven’t really learned a damn thing that is useful,” [Bill] James said. “We have tons of data but in terms of comparing one pitcher to another we’ve learned nothing. I’d suspect the same thing would be true with respect to fielding. We have accurate measures of fielders now. I don’t think they will be significantly more accurate by increasing the cameras, frankly.”

Interesting. Back in that February feature, I wrote:

…if the eventual fate of sabermetrics means being absorbed and blinded by the minutiae, then, to quote the Chez Quis Maitre D’, “I weep for the future.”

Maybe, if more people start listening to what James is saying, I won’t be so sad, after all?

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From 1989 through 2000, I was really into the fantasy baseball thing. I ran a league and played in others. Most seasons, I played in two leagues. Actually, in 1997, I played in three pretty intense leagues. That was a bit of a mistake. But, I gave the “game” up after 2000 – and sans a friend talking me into joining his ESPN league back in 2007, where I lost interest and bagged the season three-quarters through – I’ve never really had the “bug” big enough to do it again.

Nonetheless, all the recent buzz about the Fantasyland movie has brought cause for me to reflect on my roto-days.

Fantasy baseball is a huge deal. As the movie tells us: It’s an $800 million dollar a year industry in which 34.5 million people have played. And, it costs U.S. companies an estimated $435 million per week in lost productivity. Daniel Okrent and his buddies really started something with this thing – and it’s too bad they were never able to cash in on it.

Back to the movie, I especially liked the part about how Jed Latkin called his team the Jedi Knights. I’ve always been interested in the stories behind rotisserie team names – at least in the cool ones.

Last night, an online buddy brought up the topic and it got me thinking back to the teams that I “owned” back in the day…here they are:

Whoopie Wizards
Wolf Hoppers
Wily Lambs
Zebu Gurus
Xanadu Dragons
Mmm…rotisserie

Keep in mind that, when I played, it was before league stats were online in real time. These were the days where you got a hardcopy weekly report with your results, the standings, etc. And, since rotisserie reports always listed team rosters alphabetically, I always tried to come up with names towards the back end letter-wise, so I could find my team page quicker.

The Whoopie Wizards was in honor of the Unknown Comic, who Chuck Barris used to call the Wizard of Whoopie.

The Wolf Hoppers was in honor of DeWolf Hopper – the guy that made Casey famous.

The Zebu Gurus was in honor of Phil Rizzuto (a Zebu Guru is a Holy Cow!) – - I even won a name contest in USA Today Baseball Weekly, when it existed in that format, with that one.

Mmm..rotisserie bucked the alpha thing, but, “Homer” is still da man.

Wily Lambs, well, this is a reach – - – the rotisseire league that I ran from 1989-2000 was called the “Bogus American Baseball Association” or “BABA” for short. When we had meetings, as a joke, we would start of with a round of “Baaaa, Baaaaa.” So, when I joined another league, I wanted to honor the “sheep.”

Lastly, Xanadu Dragons, well, I always liked the concept of the “Dragon” – - and, I figured every team needs to come from a hometown, and the “letter” thing factored in, well, Xanadu just seemed like a natch.

How about you? Do you play fantasy baseball? What’s the name of your team – and the story behind that name?

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Via Joel Sherman –

Success by prime-aged players such as [Phil] Hughes and [Curtis] Granderson are vital to the Yanks navigating effectively away from the Core Four while being more judicious in the free-agent and trade markets. For example, if Hughes honors the Yankees’ scouting projections to evolve into, at least, a No. 3 starter on a championship contender then the organization could be more financially disciplined in wooing a free agent such as Cliff Lee.

If Granderson is not a center fielder and has to move to left, then the Yankees either have to trade him or he would be a block to pursuing Carl Crawford, a player they almost certainly will desire in the offseason.

This is an interesting point. Then again, you could also say that Brett Gardner, if he shines this season, could be key towards influencing the Yankees free agent outfielder wish list after this year. And, that the new contracts for Jeter and Rivera,if they happen, could influence the Yankees “budget” and their chase for Cliff Lee.

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Via Joel Sherman -

Unlike with the fifth starter’s job, the Yankees are comfortable going into the season without delineating a primary set-up man for Mariano Rivera.

It had been believed that if Joba Chamberlain failed to win the last rotation spot, he simply would become the main eighth-inning reliever. But manager Joe Girardi has said publicly that Chamberlain must earn that position, and several Yankees officials insisted to The Post that is not just said for effect or as a motivational ploy toward Chamberlain, a player the organization does worry about when he gets too comfortable.

Instead, early in the season, Girardi is leaning toward looking at multiple options and letting the results dictate how he proceeds. Is it best that Joba earn that role for now and for the future? Yes.

The Yankees believe they have much more appetizing alternatives this year, with as many as four relievers they think can hand the ball to Rivera: Chamberlain, Chan Ho Park, David Robertson and Damaso Marte. Girardi very well could mix and match early. For example, if the Yankees face an eighth inning filled with lefties, Marte could be used for some or all of the inning. Also, Girardi strongly tries to avoid using any of his setup men more than two straight days, so he will want multiple options for the eighth.

“Guys will step up and let us know who should pitch in the eighth,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said.

This is interesting for me. I love Robertson’s stuff and guts. But, I fear his durability. He just seems like a D.L. stay in the making. Marte? Let’s not allow the post-season of 2010 to hide his regular season performance. That leaves Joba and Park.

I know that Park was good against righties, recently, in the National League. But, let’s not forget that one-fifth of the Yankees schedule is against the Rays and Red Sox and they have some lefties who can mash. For that matter, so do the Jays and O’s. So, how well will Park do in the A.L. East this year?

Lastly, Joba…ah…Joba. So much can go right for him this year…and so much can go wrong.

Sure, I know…last year the Yankees pen was garbage in April and May and then it changed over and turned around come June. That was part of the magic of 2009. Can it happen again in 2010?

Well, maybe it won’t need to happen…but, if it’s needed, will it happen? Maybe…or maybe not.

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Remember Matt Taibbi?

Well, now, he’s following up on what he wrote last year -

Another baseball season is upon us, and God help me. I’ve been dreading this for a while now, knowing that sooner or later I was going to have to grab a big wooden spoon out of my kitchen and start eating up that giant bucket of shit that’s been owed me ever since I wrote that “Brian Cashman is a fool to think he can buy a World Series” column around this time last year.

Yes, that was me, cranking out 2,000 words of dead-certain smug-itude about how adding C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira to an 89-win Yankee team couldn’t possibly work, about how Cashman’s plan of building around aging multimillionaire mercenaries with injury histories and no chemistry would end in ignominious failure and, in all likelihood, another Red Sox championship.

I wrote that, and not only did I believe it, I actually thought it was totally logical and that wishful thinking was barely a factor in my reasoning. Then I watched in horror as the Yankees first steamrolled the younger Rays and Red Sox down the stretch, then rode to World Series victory on the backs of its supposedly aging stars, with good-luck charm Kate Hudson cheering from the stands. (I had to mainline Neurontin just to keep my fingers from seizing up as I typed that.)

So, Yankee fans, I stand before you today, your bitch. In fact, at the conclusion of this article I’m going to enclose an e-mail address so that you all can send me 50GB JPEGs of Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone, plus whatever other abuse you left out in the past five months of gloating hate mail (that one note I got calling me the “biggest douchebag since Liberace’s boyfriend” was pretty funny). If I receive more than 1,000 letters, I promise to post a video of myself on YouTube listening to an endless loop of John Sterling’s The-e-e-e-e-e Yankees win! while sitting stripped to my underwear in a cardboard box full of dead shrimp for a full hour. I figure that should just about make things even.

Well, for the record, the Yankees only “steamrolled” over their last 92 regular season games and then through their 15 post-season games. And, during that time, a lot of “magical” things happened.

And, if not for that second half out-of-this world push and the post-season “miracles,” Taibbi may have been right.

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Please consider taking the following poll:

Thanks in advance. And, please feel free to add comments on your opinion in the comments section below.

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Via Chad Jennings -

Jorge Posada woke up with a stiff neck and can’t play today. P.J. Pilittere will get the start.

Mitch Abeita is here from the minor league complex, but the Yankees might have an extra catcher drive over just in case.

Doesn’t sound like a serious issue for Posada. Sounds like he just slept on it wrong.

What is it with Jorgie and his neck? Remember this from last September? -

For the third time in four games, Jorge Posada sat out last night because of a sore neck.

Posada missed games Saturday and Sunday, but ended his two-game absence Monday night when he was the DH against the Royals. But Posada sat out last night’s game entirely.

“I don’t really think the neck is completely gone,” Joe Girardi said.

Girardi said he hoped Posada would be fully recovered today and that he’d be able to catch tonight’s series finale.

Frankie Cervelli currently has a mild hamstring strain‎. And, Mike Rivera hasn’t played since March 20th – also because of a hamstring injury.

Could it be possible that P.J. Pilittere might be catching CC Sabathia on Opening Night? Yeah, I know, that’s a reach…but, what’s going on with the Yankees catchers these days?

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Yeah, April Fool’s…

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Six years and four months ago, I did a roundtable Discussion regarding Baseball On The Internet.

David Pinto, Dan Szymborski, Kevin Goldstein, Sean Lahman, Lee Sinins, Will Carroll, Sean Forman, the late Doug Pappas and others were part of the roundtable. It’s very interesting to look back at what was said, then, now. Click here to check it out.

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Did you enjoy this?

Well, if you did…here’s part two to check out.

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Click here for more on what this is about.

And, click here to make your picks.

Have fun – pick your favorites or pick who you thought was a better Yankee. It’s your choice. And, feel free to use the comments section here to discuss and debate the match-ups and your picks.

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