Workout getting underway in Tampa
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Feb 18, 2008 
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The Andy Pettitte press conference will be in a tent. That sounds about right.
The Yankees are stretching now and will be working out shortly. Kyle Farnsworth, Phil Hughes, Mariano Rivera and Kei Igawa will be first up in the bullpen. Chris Britton, Brian Bruney, Jose Veras, Chase Wright, Alan Horne and Scott Stickland will be among those following.
Hal Steinbrenner was in the clubhouse this morning for a brief meeting with Brian Cashman and Joe Girardi.
Let the circus begin. The sooner they get it over with, the sooner we can get back to focusing on, you know, baseball.
“The Andy Pettitte press conference will be in a tent.”
Circus or Revival?
There seems to be a strange irony in Farnsworth and Igawa working out with Rivera and Hughes…but a funny irony. Hope some Hughes and Rivera baseball-talent washes off on the other two!
Pete are you bringing the coliape or are you going to make Sam carry it?
Where’s Emmit Kelly when you need him?
Rebecca, I hope it doesn’t work the other way round.
Pete I know you have to report the Pettitte circus but hopefully it’s quick and painless. Some people will want to dwell on it for a long time. Hopefully you can address it as thoroughly as you see appropriate for today or the next few days, then we can all go forward with baseball.
If there is ever a truly thorough investigation, I’m certain it would show in the end that there were several players using PEDs on every single MLB team (including Sen Mitchell’s beloved Red Sox) with varying degrees of secrecy or illegality. Everyone pretty much knows that already.
That being said, the extent to which everyone in the game, the fans, the media, and the government is dwelling on what a small number of guys may say (or not say) or hide (or disclose) is getting ridiculous.
Bill: I won’t even allow myself to think of that as a possibility!
LOL, Kei Igawa will have a breakout year, then the Yanks trade him to the Padres for Chase Headley.
Hopefully, Chris Britton gets a fair shake this year.
Well, there’ll be lots of guys with red noses, I’m sure. Clown shoes, too.
Bret Boone comes back from exile to sign a non guaranteed deal with the Nationals, so he can join Aaron (younger bro) and Bob(Pops) Boone.
I’m calling it now. Brian Bruney will be the surprise of the camp and will secure his role with the team.
I wonder if Hal talked to Cash and GI Joe on how they were going to handle the Pettitte situation!
Ranting Guy, when someone steps forward from every team and volunteers the truth (you know, “ratting” the others out) about what they know about PEDs during their tenure with that team, it’ll be impossible to investigate past PED use in MLB.
It very nearly was for George Mitchell, except for two trainers.
If you look at this list — http://thesteroidera.blogspot......cated.html — of 47 newly implicated players (not linked to PEDs until the Mitchell Report), there are players from the Marlins, the Reds, the D-Backs, the Orioles, the Giants, the Expos, the Rockies, the Dodgers, the Mariners — by no means a complete list, either.
I don’t see that Roger Clemens was singled out, nor do I see that the Mets and the Yankees were singled out. The team I mainly follow was thoroughly embarrassed even before the Mitchell Report came out.
But I guess the press in our home town isn’t as aggressive as they are in NYC…
Roger Clemens wasn’t singled out? Please. Jack Cust and David Justice also denied the claims made in the Mitchell report about them using HGH. Do you see them trotted out in front of the freaking Congress Oversight Committee having to testify in front of the entire nation on natioal T.V.? If that’s not singling someone out, I don’t know what is….
Sorry Karen, not buying all your thoery. The NY media may be relentless but this has taken a national media tone too.
Henry Waxman said on live TV that a DOJ investigation was being started on Miguel Tejada. Is ESPN going to be pre-empting program when Tejada returns to camp to air his press conference? Yankees weren’t the only ones named in the report but they are being singled out.
Do you guys believe that after this press conference, the media will start to move off the steroid issue with Andy and Roger or will it continue or get worse?
Marc,
They’ll wait until Andy has a bad outing. Then they’ll print their stories about all of this affecting Andy mentally. I mean the stories that they’ve already written.
Isn’t Rebecca live blogging Andy’s press conference?? That’s a reason to skip class If I ever heard one.
Marc, the baseball media will hump this as long as there’s a column to fill with it. Unless it involves hard work, such as actually reading and correlating the depositions, which apparently is banned by the BBWAA.
i think the key thing, if you’re sick of it, is to just tune out the media. you can predict what they’re going to write on this topic, so why read that drivel.
Thats the thing Karen … it’ll never be that thorough because all the guys involved will never come forward. To me, dwelling on the few who have/will is therefore pointless.
If HOF induction comes into question or if MLB goes so far as to have any records erased, a partially correct list of rules violators will be just as unfair as if nothing is done. (if not worse)
Also, where do you draw the line? How about an otherwise good guy who as a minor leaguer had a cold and took some left over Sudafed back when ephedra was being questioned even as common cold remedy. There were probably some guys like that who served a 50-game suspension and got lumped in with Bonds & Canseco? How many huge Starbucks can a guy have before he’s got too much caffeine in his system?
In the end I think to let sleeping dogs of the past lie, but to clamp down on performance related substances going forward is really the only way to go.
Good morning my friends,
I did it. I am not an addict anymore. Last week i stayed out of posting to prove to myself that i can walk away from it. O.K. Im lying. I was too busy.
Anyways glad to be back.
mel, I agree with your statement that they will wait till he struggles to pour it on. Ill go one step further. They will accuse him of succeeding this year due to enhancements. Hes damned if he does good or not.
e-roc
Iv been waiting for the igawa to the Padres all off season. I thought that we had a better chance on getting Kouzmanoff for him though. His defense cant be worse than Giambi’s.
mel,
Kobe better get the surgery or this year is done. He had to ice his finger 3 minutes into the game. Not good. I would roll the dice and have the surgery and hope the team can hang on. I cant stand the all-stars. They might as well go to the side line and watch to see if they make the jumper or dunk. No defense. Its and extention of the slam dunk championship. Baseball is the only all-star worth watching these days.
I would rather listen to Andy talk about his pitching health and form comming into camp rather than this steroid garbage talk.
Can anyone remember how long the steroid talk kept on going when Giambi admitted to taking it?
Hopefully it will all go away when the preseason games start.
KarenJ:
When someone doesn’t do a thorough job the results are skewed. I’m not saying that Roger is 100% clean, but I am saying that the very plainly less-than-thorough Mitchell Report presents a distorted picture of Steroids and PEDs in MLB through the eyes of Radmoski and McNamee who had mostly NY connections. There are 28 other teams. That makes Roger stand out; he wouldn’t if he were merely one among many big names. And if a clearer picture of the widespread nature of PED use was presented, the MLB owners and TV magnates who made the most money off the steroids era wouldn’t be enjoying a free ride.
You seem to overlook the game Mitchell played here. He went after the players making believe it was just a little ol’ civil, corporate investigation, all the while knowing he was partnered with Federal Law Enforcement. Then he and his federal partners refused to offer immunity from criminal prosecution to the players. That’s a fair opportunity to come in and talk about evidence of PED use? Hardly. Mitchell knew that no lawyer in his or her right mind would let a client come forward under those circumstances. Drug dealers Radomski and McNamee got immunity, but the players didn’t? It’s just unfair to criticize a player for not coming forward under those circumstances.
As for Mitchell facing impossible odds but for the two trainers, he was paid millions, and he had a staff of investigators and lawyers working for him. If Microsoft had been the client and Bill Gates wanted to know something, DLA Piper would have been dumpster-diving, pretext calling and everything else. Since when do people who are the targets of allegations voluntarily come forward and spill the beans? Why do you have a double standard for ballplayers?
Mitchell knew what he was taking on when this started, he and his team were lazy and ineffectual and I have no sympathy for him after he turned in this garbage report.
SoS,
Welcome back. Thank you for your “concern” lol. The Kobe decision is like the Schilling decision, except that Kobe would be able to take the court. If he has the surgery, they can win it all. If they even make it there. The west is too tight for him to miss 6 weeks.
The wrap was to calm down the restless natives. If he didn’t have the wrap on, the fans would be calling for him to go back in the game.
Little Me was shipped out, huh? Some nice players are coming back your way.
Its funny I sat at a function with my friend is a Yankee fan and he started talking about the possible outcomes for Clemens and how much he follows the steroid situation. So I said that I care more about the outcomne of centerfield in 2009; Tabata versus Jackson. So he turns to me and asked, who are they?!
I tend to believe David Justice’s denials about HGH or steroid use.
“Little Me was shipped out, huh? Some nice players are coming back your way.”
Artest is a Spur? Please eloborate.
I hope a reporter asks Andy if his decision to take the Yanks’ $16 million for 2008 — a decision which he made just days prior to the release of the Mitchell Report — was purely a coincidence.
Oops. I thought the Kings were your team. I was referring to Mike Bibby.
Andy’s going to be dealing with these questions all season long.
Whenever he goes to another city, their media are going to want their questions answered. Not to mention the opposing teams’ fans are going to let him hear it at every turn.
It’s going to be interesting how he deals with it. IMO, Andy is the type of person who will be able to deal with this season-long circus and still succeed on the field.
mel,
You should know by know my teams win championships(yankees,colts,spurs).lol
Ill let you slide this time. By the way Kidd going to Dallas helps us out alot. We could never guard their speedy guard and he seemed to guard Parker really well. Diop wasnt too shabby himself. I think this trade hurts their depth and defense. New Jersey got the better end of it. Can the Spurs win without making a trade? Im hoping they have some reserves in the tank for the playoffs.
I hope that Andy comes clean at this press conference. Then maybe we can move on. Because if after this it comes to light that he used HGH other than the times he’s admitted to, nobody will believe him anymore. Then the press will really be all over him. Remember at first he said it was only twice and then this 2004 usage with his dad came up.
Balboni,
Asked and answered. Or rather, just answered.
http://www.nydailynews.com/spo.....tml?page=0
Don’t you think if they REALLY wanted to know, they would’ve asked? They’ve heard the same whispers. George Steinbrenner begged Clemens to come back. To think otherwise is to be naive.
Whitey…
re: the “plenty of guys with red noses and clown shoes”
Nah, the Congressional hearing was last week.
From Pete’s previous post, the press conference won’t be until 3PM (if not later). It will be a long two hours for all concerned. And a mad rush for the TV guys to get things ready for their 6 PM newscasts.
Andy needs to handle this like Jeter and ARod handled ARod’s revelations last spring – just refuse to talk about it after that one day (if I’m remembering correctly – or not “misremembering”).
anyone have a pic of the new and improved bruney?
Hopefully along with Joe G, the cap will be there to show support of Andy. It won’t end after today. The media will try and start something between Andy and Jorge, since Jorge said he believes Roger. Jorge never said he thought Andy was lying. But Jorge should have known better than to say anything. Shame on him. Now the media will run with it.
Jorge et. al. are getting tired of answering these questions. I know Pete won’t like this, but if they say if you continue to ask these questions we won’t talk to you. They should only talk to the Yesnetwork. That would end the questions.
And when they get to other cities, the response should be we’ve already addressed these questions and have moved past it.
Can we ever have a Yankee camp without controversy!?
giambi, there was one picture, it was of Cano (?) picking grass off his neck. I’ll try to find it.
Anyone who says this whole scandal is not a witch hunt is lying. Normally when the government or law enforcement is doing an investigation into illegal drug use they go up the ladder. They find the users, Pettitte and allegedly Clemens, offer them immunity, and then would go after McNamee of Radomski. I understand they started with McNamee and Radomski but shouldn’t they be more concerned with how they got these drugs. I know the Mitchell report was about drug use in baseball so Clemens and Pettitte are relevant but I would think Congress should be more worried about people at the top of the ladder than at the bottom. If they concentrated more on who was supplying these PED’s to the players they would solve the problem instead of just passing blame.
giambi,
It was in one of the slideshows on one of the papers or one of the blogs. If that narrows it down for you.
Did a search and this is what I came up with. No Bruney, but looks whose mugshot popped up.
http://images.google.com/image.....g+training
http://www.newsday.com/sports/
go to photos it is #36
Where’s Giambi and what does he look like?
Gee, I must have missed the Paul Byrd, Brendon Donelly, Eric Gagne , Gary Mathews and Jose Guillen press conferences.
I feel so incomplete.
Thanks… yeah looks like he lost some weight. Let’s hope he can regain or surpass his 2006 form
Giambi,
Here’s all the details…
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02.....htm?page=0
jennifer,
thanks for the photos. A little odd that the first picture is of Mr. d.l. himself. I read that he was given a something from the trash to put his belogings in. Maybe they should have found a trash bag for him to wear over his head. It turned my stomach when i got to that page. Oh well we’ll sure miss punchline Pavs when hes gone.
I see Edwar went to jenny craig in the offseason. Man can someone tell him its o.k. to weigh more than a little over a buck.
Talking about weight. Does anyone think that Joba might have some weight issues in the future? Hes a big boy and can only fill out even more at his age. Hope he doesnt look like C.C. in a few years. I know hes working out. Lets hope he sticks to it. Maybe he can take Edwar under his wing and get him to pack a few pounds.
I don’t like that this being made as a Yankee problem. No one talks about the other players on the report. I know McNamee wasn’t their trainers but it just seems this is being only centered around cheating Yankees. Where did Brett Boone,Tajada,Gange,Donelly,Greg Zaun get there PED from? It’s coming off as if only the Yankees cheated.
I think I missed everyone else’s press conferences as well.
Jennifer–the grass-picking picture was Joba and Wang
By the sound of Joe Girardi’s workouts, the Yanks will be one of the best conditioned teams in baseball. With a mostly veteran roster, it can only help.
It was disappointing to hear Mike Mussina say that they Yanks weren’t in condition till June last year. Part of that was the conditioning coach’s fault,but player like Damon & Abreu came to camp not in the best of shape. They best show up in shape this year. Good for Girardi!
here’s a pretty good pic of the slimmed down Bruney. He’s right behind Igawa..
http://mlb.mlb.com/images/2008/02/16/yhWibXO4.jpg
Hideki Balboni – I hope a reporter asks Andy if his decision to take the Yanks’ $16 million for 2008 — a decision which he made just days prior to the release of the Mitchell Report — was purely a coincidence.
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Congratulations on your BRILLIANT comment.
I know dub thee: McMoron II
I thought Chris Britton was pitching in the bigs for Balt. before we traded for him? How come he is exiled to the minors since putting on the pinstripes?