Audio: Girardi, Damon and Giambi
-
- February
- 19
Here are some interviews from Joe Girardi:
Johnny Damon:
and Jason Giambi:
Not much else to report today. Camp will really pick up tomorrow once everybody is on the field. Plus Alex Rodriguez will do a press conference. Wonder if he has talked to Scott Boras yet? Meanwhile, good luck to Ron Villone. He signed a minor-league deal with the Cardinals today.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 3:23 pm by Peter Abraham.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Share and Enjoy: 
| 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
| 
iTunes
Advertisement
Peter Abraham
Why is Alex doing a press conference?
because he can
We need Alex to say something stupid tomorrow.
Takes the heat off Andy! lol
SJ - that’s right. Maybe something about sleepovers at Derek’s.
Why is Alex doing a press conference?
Because you know that everyone is going to ask him about the John Rocker/Jose Canseco comments so its best to just get them out of the way day 1 and it worked well last year why not try it again
Did anyone hear Pete’s ridiculous final question of Andy Pettitte yesterday? Why doesnt Pete stop trying to make a fool of himself and while he’s at it, cut McDonalds out of his daily routine.
No transcripts?
What’s wrong with McDonald’s once in awhile?
Mickey D’s is great…
but not at Pete’s weight
When is the first intra-squad game? When do the Yanks actually face live pitching and hitting in a game?
Can Vegas come out with a plus/minus spread on the ratio of non-baseball (steroids/ped) questions to actual baseball questions between now and Opening Day?
Joe Girardi said something about A-Rod getting ready for the baby at the end of the tape. Depending on when and where Mrs. A-Rod is having the baby(NY vs.FL), A-Rod could be missing a few games this spring.
C-Rod scheduling the birth on an off day would definitely be taking one for the team.
i hope it’s a boy
hopefully C-Rod doesn’t give the baby a name starting w/ the letter F..
I think I remember hearing it’s a girl.
I read they are having a girl ..
Go Yankees 2008 !!!
A-rod has enough money to bring the hospital to him. Immagine her delivering in Yankee Stadium.
I’m sure you’ll say something stupid for A-Rod, SJ44. Like how an after-Mo 2008 Yankees bullpen with three overpaid bums (Hawkins, Farnsworth, and Bruney) and three nobodies with little or no M.L.B. experience is an acceptable bullpen for a team with a $200+M payroll and a perennial expectation to make the postseason when it’s not. I don’t count Joba in the pen cuz he will be there through May only and since when is he guaranteed to be good? Oh wait, you’re one of those “let’s hope the kids are a bargain” idiots.
Your pal A-Rod should keep his mouth shut and just play. It always has to be about him, doesn’t it? He always has to be the center of attention, doesn’t he? I mean, name me the last time Derek Jeter held a press conference, I can’t. Cuz Derek leads by example and has got it done when it counted most unlike A-Rod with his 1-2 RBI in who knows how many at-bats and games.
Word of the day today is MISSION. I like the way these guys are talking.
Damon is on a mission to show everyone that he is one of the best players in the game and that he doesnt get forgotten.
Moose seems to be on a mission according to Girardi to prove that he is not what he was last year.
Giambi is on a mission that he can still play and get a new contract.
I know it is only day one but the mindset coming into camp is all good to me.
Meds Chris. You forgot to take your meds again.
So unhappy and they haven’t even played a game yet.
Joba is only going to be in the bullpen until May?
As with most of your nonsense, you are wrong again.
He will be in the bullpen for a lot longer than May.
Have a nice day and don’t forget those meds again.
A-Rod will announce that third base at Yankee stadium will have an “AROD.com” decal painted on it for every home game.
BTW, Its the Yankees call, not just Arod’s, as to who holds a press conference.
I believe Jeter is also doing one either tomorrow or Thursday.
The Yankees do it because its the best way to get all the questions out of the way and then he can go about the business of getting ready for the season.
It has nothing to do with ego or any of that nonsense.
Chris,
you must be one of the new Yankee fans from 1996 and on who still think that Jeter is better than Arod because he is clutch Derek and Arod always chokes.
Get a grip, how many MVP’s does this guy have to get before people like you get it?!
Chris -
You never said what grade you’re in … you sound like NYPD’s offspring.
“you sound like NYPD’s offspring.”
lolololololol!!!
Bronx Liaison
If he has another year like last year, I’ll personally paint it on the base for him.
Best wishes to Ron Villone, Bergen County represent! Can’t wait to hear from Alex tomorrow.
oh god Chris forgot his meds again
Chris - shaddup already, please.
Sorry if I missed it, crazy day at work. When is C-Rod due?
Man, if Giambi puts together a decent year the Yanks are really going to be tough. I wouldnt count the Giambino out just yet. But I would assume he’ll be pulled for a defensive replacement lare in the game. It will be a tough decision for Girardi to see who exactly is the defensive first baseman. Good luck to Shelley…we’re pulling for him!
Man sj quit pissing in Chris’s cereal. What the hell was that about? Sj, i guess your like your buddy A-rod. Your either loved or hated,nothing in between.
The offspring comment was classic.
pithing will suffer us again this year. There is no denying that.
The kids will be great, but they can’t get of us a full season.
Once the kids tire, that leaves us .. Wang, Pet, Moose, and who else? Gee we sure look like contenders now..
Sorry folks.. I love the youngsters but I still cannot shake the Santana debacle.
Where or where is Johan Santana when we need him? Uhm, about 25 minutes away from the Bronx wearing a different uniform ..
Drive 4-5,
I think Giambi will have a decent year as long as he doesnt play the field much. The reason being is he always gets hurt fielding. Plus im not to thrilled to see him display his defensive skills. I just wonder who will get more at bats at d.h. Matsui or Giambi. Will Matsui get traded to the Giants or another team sometime this year? It seems that Girardi is already showing no favoritism towards the veterans. Saying that Damon will play left. I like the idea of a speedy outfield and the bangged up guys d.hing.
It’s great to hear just about everyone’s come to ST in shape. Playing into shape during the season has proven to be the wrong approach. Maybe there’ll be less of the early injuries this year, the team won’t fall behind early, guys can play better ball for longer, and the bullpen won’t be exhausted by the all-star break.
I like the sound of Wang, Pettitte, Moose, Huges and Kennedy starting out of spring training, with Joba in the bullpen before easing him into the rotation later on as other young guys like maybe Melancon or someone comes up in the bullpen or as Hughes reaches his innings limit, unless Moose doesn’t have it or someone gets hurt first.
Now there’s a run-on sentence for ya.
All this talk about the kids not being able to finish is nonsense.
Ian Kennedy will be able to pitch close to 190 innings this year.
Hughes will hit 150 innings. Basically, that’s about what #4 and #5 starters hit, innings-wise in a season.
Wang and Pettitte will be their usual strong selves.
The key will be Moose. If he can get back to his norm, figuring a few starts will be taken up by emergency starters (injuries, miss a turn, etc) and they should be fine.
If the bullpen can find a few solid arms to go with Joba and Mo and Moose can get back to 2006 form, they have enough pitching to win.
If they traded Wang and Kennedy for Santana, they would still be short an arm in the rotation and/or bullpen.
Something folks conveinently forget when discussing the Santana deal.
fleas,
We have more depth at pitching this year than last year. We started people like de salvo,clippard, wright last year for spot starts. Where this year we could have Karstens,Rasner,Horne or hopefully an improved Igawa if all the others are hurt. Best second half record last year with less pitching than in 08.
While we are discussing pitching, let’s the discuss the Red Sox rotation for a minute.
Beckett is outstanding but, you always have to worry about his shoulder. Their own team doctor said (after he took his Red Sox physical post-Marlins trade), he felt he only had 4 years before he would need shoulder surgery.
As great as he is, he has spent a lot of time on the DL in his career.
Dice-K? Despite the hype, he was a run of the mill starter last year. Will he be better this year or is this what he is?
Schilling? Out. Probably for the season.
Wakefield? 41, with back and shoulder problems and he isn’t nearly as effective (especially against the Yankees) as he used to be.
Lester and Buchholz are kids with innings limits. Buchholz had shoulder problems last year.
As you can see, they have as many (maybe even more) question marks as the Yankees.
EVERY team has to sort out their pitching issues. The Yankees aren’t alone in that situation.
SJ44,
You beat me to it. But i wonder who the Sox spot starters would be? As i can recall their farm has no pitching whatsoever. Again the grass isnt greener elsewhere.
SJ44,
You basically echoed my earlier post. Toronto’s pitching cam’t be discounted though, especially if BJ Ryan is healthy. One of these years AJ Burnett HAS to win more than 12 games.
Tavares would probably be the Sox likely choice.
Agreed on Santana and Moose, SJ. I really like Moose and I hope he can be relied on for anything close to 200 decent innings. But he was definitely looking like he’d lost something last summer. I’m not worried that he will give it his best effort no matter how he does in the end.
However the kids pan out innings-wise is fine as long as they’re not getting hurt, they help the team, and they improve as they go. They will get knocked around a little because this is the majors and that’s what happens in the majors. For them to pitch well most of the time and come even close to expectations would be great.
Oh yes, and to win the WS in spite of all those flogging the roster moves & non-moves would be great too.
Mission as the word? I like it.
Mission 2708 has a great ring to it.
The Yankees have more internal pitching options than the Red Sox right now.
That’s why I believe they will deal Coco Crisp this spring for a serviceable veteran starter.
Can’t see them going into the season as is with their rotation. Its too shaky.
The only reason they won the division last year was because the Yankees were awful the first two and half months of the season.
If the Yankees pitching is healthy to start the season, I suspect their start will be much better.
That will further expose the Sox lack of depth on their pitching staff.
Didnt we go through a whole month without having a starter get past the sixth inning the beginning last year? We still made the playoffs.
God I hope we don’t have to wait until the year 2708 for another ring, Rebecca!
I can’t get enough of Girardi as the manager. I’ve said it several times, but it’s nice to really feel like this is a clean slate.
I see our rotation as more stable than Boston’s now that Schilling’s shoulder’s confirmed a wreck and also considering what SJ said about Beckett’s shoulder.
Boston does have guys who can pitch, that’s for sure, but they’re not a lock by any stretch. We have more of an upside than they do in terms of the young guns and other talent coming up.
Never mind that NYY doesn’t have Santana (at great expense) because now Boston doesn’t have him and they can’t rely on Schilling. Given that, it’s hard to believe how many people dismiss NYs playoff chances or even wild card chances.
If the Papelboner goes down it would be like if NY had lost Rivera during the dynasty years. I’m not trying to compare Papelbon to Mo other than by saying that while they have other guys who can pitch out of the bullpen (like NY) w/o the closer they’re definitely not the same for last inning. And he had trouble at the end of ‘06 while Rivera’s always been relatively healthy. With Joba and Mo in the pen it’s looking pretty good late in the game.
Rick Peterson is having the Mets throw BP sessions w/ their eyes closed. I’ve heard it all, next is wax on wax off for catchers.
I think it’s safe to say that the starting pitching this year will be better than 2007. No AA guys forced to start because 3/5ths of the rotation in on the DL. If healthy, we are the class of the AL East. Big Papi is not yet healthy and Manny is not Manny anymore. As SJ put it, our pitching options are more impressive, and I’d take our offense over theirs any day of the week.
It’s nice to know that, here in February, the perennially pessimistic are out and about again.
Everybody, including the Red Sox, have questions and problems. We are in better shape than a lot of teams. How about we let the players start the season, and play some games.
I, personally, am excited about what we have, the young pitching in particular, and am very excited about going to Tampa in two weeks.
Also remember that last year was the of Beckett’s career that he didn’t go on the DL.
Didn’t Carmona have a HUGE jump in IP this past season?
Did anyone catch Schilling’s pity party comments about he doesn’t know if he’ll ever pitch again? Bad news, though, that just opens the door for the Boston Stud, 27 Laptops.
Good luck to Villone. Feinsand was on the radio today talking about a prank that a Yankee pitcher had arm problems and was retiring. Gave a beat writer a “scoop”. Feinsand revealed it was Villone, but I wish it was Pavano and that it was no joke.
Who does paint the fense?
It cant be worse than Pena trying to take out Posada with a line drive yesterday.
Actually, KD, if Manny’s out Boston’s defense improves.
Re: the rotation.
Think about it - Carl freakin’ Pavano was the opening day starter for NY because nobody else was more ready or more healthy than him. And how many AA or AAA guys pitched after HE went down?
Seriously … NY still made the playoffs last year. This year if Boston doesn’t have Schilling and we has what we have have in terms of talent ready to pitch going into spring training, I like our chances more this year than last.
More so if Boston pitches Tavarez and Wakefield a lot.
Ranting Guy - I was beginning to think I was missing something.
Beckett had the best year of his career (and some people think that Alex can’t possibly have another great year, even though it was his second MVP award). DiceK - who knows? And Schilling’s likely out for at least half the year. Who does that leave - two “kid” pitchers, with their own IP issues. Wakefield, who despite being a knuckeballer, is still over 40 and shown to being hit by our guys. And the great Julian Taveras.
SJ44 is right, look for Boston to make a deal for another pitcher. It’s too bad for them, Kris Benson was signed recently (I forget by whom), because I think he’s a solid back-end of the rotation guy.
Games started by Yankees during the 2007 regular season:
Wang 21
Pettitte 21
Moose 13
Clemens 8
Hughes 8
Igawa 6
Clippard 5
Rasner 3
Pavano 2
Kennedy 2
DeSalvo 2
Henn 1
Wright 1
Karstens 1
Jeff,
Is that right? Wang only had 21 starts? And won 19 of them?
Jeff, i think you’re off a little with those numbers…wang at least started around 30, i think. your numbers only add up to ~95 games
Those numbers aren’t right. They add up to 95.
The Sox rotation is weaker than most people realize (except for Yankee fans, of course).
The problem is, however, when they’re on, they’re on. I don’t think they’ll be as good as last year; I think last year they more or less rode the coattails of Beckett and Okajima and, of course, the Yanks’ start helped them as well.
With Schilling hurt, Wakefield having a bad back and Dice K not having lived up to the hype, I’d be a little nervous as a Sox fan going into spring. Lester’s story is wonderful, to be sure and I commend him for being able to come back, but he’s not a brilliant pitcher. Buchholz obviously has the stuff…but of course he pitched his no hitter against the Orioles who were so bad at the end they made the Devil Rays look like championship caliber, and there’s no telling how Buchholz will hold up over the course of a full year.
This is not to say the Yankees don’t have significant risks, obviously. Sox fans will be quick to point out that Mussina’s over the hill, Joba, Phil and Ian, for all their vaunting, are still rookies or not-quite-sophomores and there is no idea if they will fully live up to the hype (though we all expect them to). Wang is great and a workhorse to boot but the Yankees have a habit of scoring runs when he pitches and even if Pettitte does as we all expect and puts Mitchell behind him, the truth is he has battled elbow problems throughout his career and it might be considered akin to a miracle that he wasn’t hurt last year.
And that’s without getting to the bullpen.
The Sox got rid of Gagne, and they do still have Okajima and Papelbon.
The Yanks have Rivera. And Rivera. And some more Rivera.
I hope, pray that Farnsworth will find it, that Bruney’s coming to camp in shape will have positive benefits, and Albaladejo turns into the miracle signing, but realistically, it’s my hugest concern.
To top it off, this is just the Sox and the Yankees. We’re giving no thought to Toronto, whose rotation, if healthy, includes Burnett, Halladay, Marcum and McGowan, and Tampa (yes, THAT Tampa) who has a bonafide ace in Scott Kazmir, not to mention Shields and Garza who are certainly not minor-leaguers.
So what I’m saying is, count your blessings, but no rotation is without its problems. And be dang glad that we’ve got the best line up in the majors, when it’s on.
Blog pool on what A-rod’s going to say.
I predict he’ll say:
1. He’s glad to be a Yankee
2. He plans to be a Yankee for life
3. He’s sorry for the drama of the offseason
4. His relationship with Scott Boras has changed, but he’s not bitter about anything
5. He’s ready to help win a World Championship
6. He loves Andy and Jeter like brothers. lol.
Pitching isnt even Bostons only problem. Ortiz just had knee surgury in the offseason. Who knows how it will hold up. Manny seems to have lost some of his pop. Some say his swing has slowed down over night. Veritek is a 250 hitter and lost his b-12 and power. Lowell had a carreer year. What are the chances he duplicates that again. Prince(lugo) is the weekest shortstop they have had for years. Cry baby in right cant get his head on straight for a complete season. Did i miss anyone?
whoops I gave you team wins, here are total starts:
Pettitte 34
Wang 30
Moose 27
Clemens 17
Hughes 13
Igawa 12
Clippard 6
Rasner 6
DeSalvo 6
Karstens 3
Kennedy 3
Pavano 2
Wright 2
Henn 1
Here is the right #s
1. A Pettitte
34
2. C Wang
30
3. M Mussina
27
4. R Clemens
17
5. P Hughes
13 6. K Igawa
12
7. T Clippard
6
8. M DeSalvo
6
9. D Rasner
6
10. J Karstens
3 11. I Kennedy
3 12. C Pavano
2
13. C Wright
2
14. S Henn
1
Tito’s a lame duck manager.
Schilling’s just lame.
Laptops will have to watch his shoulder issues and IP.
Getting beaned by Wakefield’s like getting bit by a mosquitoe (don’t know which broadcaster I lifted that from, but I love that line. Joe Morgan maybe?)
Who’s the crybaby? I thought Yuck played 1B?
Arod will say
His wife will not wear anymore Fcuk shirts to a game again.
With Jeter being in the best shape of his life. He will let Jeter take all popups that are hit to him.
He will never opt. out again from his contract.
He will chew more gum and when he is up to bat in pressure situations. He will blow bubbles rathere than huffing and puffing.
He will stay home in away games vs.Toronto.
He wants to be a Yankee for the rest of his baseball carreer.
Arod will say
His wife will no longer wear f shirts to games.
Will let Jeter take all pop flies hit to him now that jetes in the best shape of his life.
Will never opt. out again.
Wants to be a Yankee for the rest professional carreer.
Will blow bubbles rather than huff and puff in pressure situations.
Will stay home in road games at Toronto.
mel,
Sorry. Correction, Cry baby is at first and Pavano II is in right.
lol, SoS. How sad is it that it took me a long time to figure out you were talking about Nancy Drew? Well, he did show up when it counted. In the postseason.
A-Rod will say:
He supports all his teamates but the whole steroid controversy is sad for the game.
He loves that they kept the kids because they add energy to the team.
He took a course from Manny Ramirez this off season in Media Relations and will only speak with the media after games and will only discuss baseball related matters. All non-baseball related questions should be FedExed in triplicate to his new business/image manager.
pat,
You forgot to add that A-rod is going to officially adopt Melky and Robbie.
Mel
Didn’t you hear, the adoption is on hold. With the new baby coming, there’s no room until they buy a bigger house. $28 million a year just doesn’t buy what it used to in NY.
Chris - Hawkins and Bruney are overpaid? ARod’s TWO MVPs in four years isn’t leading by example?
Look Dude, maybe you should fully recover from your lobotomy first before posting here? Or at least run your moronic comments past your therapists first?