Spring training Game 8: Yankees at Twins
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Mar 09, 2008 
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YANKEES
Cabrera CF
Cano 2B
Matsui DH
Duncan 1B
Ensberg 3B
Lane LF
Molina C
Woodward SS
Tabata RF
Pitching
Hughes
Igawa
Horne
Marquez
Notes: Francisco Cervelli will be out 8-10 weeks. He may have surgery to insert a pin in the fracture to speed the process. The Yankees are bringing a catcher back from minor league camp, although Joe Girardi wasn’t sure who that would be. … Girardi didn’t back off his thoughts that Tampa Bay needs to control its players better. “It’s just disheartening,” he said. “In a spring training game? I don’t understand it.”
Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez will play long toss today to stretch out their shoulders. Both are expected back in the lineup tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Mark Feinsand of the News and I are making the long drive to Fort Myers. Back later with some updates. As you might have guessed based on my posting, he’s doing the driving.
C’mon, Pete. Ft. Meyers isn’t that far. And I bet Feinsand’s good company.
2right fielders today, Pete? I guess ST is all about trying new things I guess!
Good Luck Pete that drive is not fun!
wow Pete, you are blogging early today. we die-hards appreciate it!
by the way — how did McCutchen look to you this spring? did you get to talk to him much?
I caught that too. One of them is probably the lf’er and Matsui the dh.
Pete you have to fix the time! It is an hour behind.
Must be some adjustment in the batters box to go from Hughes to Igawa…
IM CALLING IT NOW!!!
Igawa with shades on 2.0IP 4H 4R 4ER 2K 3BB
Igawa with no shades on 2.0IP 1H 0R 0ER 3K 1BB
Gauranteed.
“Pete you have to fix the time! It is an hour behind.”
I’m just pretending I’m in Chicago. It’s like a weekend get away without the hassle of packing and airport lines.
pat you got that right, it is still very windy!! My backyard has tons of branches in it!
Tampa to Ft. Myers…not too bad. Straight down I-75, about 2 hrs, 15 min. Blogging all the way. Would love to trade places today.
Me too, I have to go to my cousins sons first b-day party. OH JOY!
is this game going to be on YES?
“is this game going to be on YES?”
No its not. It wont be on radio either.
Thanks, I look forward to Pete’s live blog during the game
Too bad Tampa Bay manager Maddon ducked the NY media. It’s just going to give the Cervelli story more legs. He’ll have to deal with it Weds. and it will be a hot topic again.
The Spring Training “hardball” excuse is flimsy. Makes you wonder if he would say the same thing if it was an Spring Inter-Squad game and the catcher hurt was one of his own.
When your team sucks I guess ST games aren’t meaningless. You can always tell your fan base you won the Grapefruit League championship.
Does the Cervelli injury mean they promote The Jesus?
Next game on Yes is Tuesday vs Blue Jays
Next game on YES is Tuesday
Today’s appearances by Alan Horne and Jeff Marquez are likely to be their last before being assigned to minor league camp.
They’ll be heard from sooner than later.
Who’s that guy the Yankees are starting in LF today?
“Who’s that guy the Yankees are starting in LF today?”
Jason Lane, former Astro. Matsui will DH.
BTW, was everyone else as awed by David Price as I was?
The Rays are going to be a good team this year and for the forseeable future.
Garza and Kazmir, if he remains healthy, could rival Pettitte-Wang and Becket-Dice-K, if not Halliday-Burnett, as a formidable 1-2. (Shields, on the other hand, doesn’t impress me as much as his statistics have others.)
What’s more, if Percival is 70% of the player he once was, the Rays bullpen will have improved as well, especially if they keep Price in the Show and use him out of the pen.
The more I look at how competitive the AL East will be this year (with the exception of the O’s) the more I realize the Yankees are going to have to win it to make the playoffs. I can’t envision the wild-card originating in the East.
Yanks4Life, who’s Matsui? Any relation to Kazuo?
Need to make a small adjustment to my prediction…
IM CALLING IT NOW!!!
Igawa with shades on 2.0IP 4H 4R 4ER 2K 3BB yet cool as the other side of the pillow.
Igawa with no shades on 2.0IP 1H 0R 0ER 3K 1BB yet still ugly as sin.
Gauranteed.
“pat you got that right, it is still very windy!! My backyard has tons of branches in it!”
My living room flooded last night!
All things being equal, I suggest that the Rays show the same aggression on the basepaths against Boston. There’s been bad blood between the 2 teams for several years.
I subscribe to the Daily News (LoHud too, Pete)
Only reading it makes me wish the government would legalize steroids and HGH. In which case, I could encourage Mike Lupica to start montly rounds. The platitude he recycles week after week desperately need performance-enhancement.
The problem is his head is already so big I don’t know how whether he could continue to wear his cone-shaped hat.
Glad to see horne finally getting some in game work
Kill-Schill(ing) – Price was dominating. Too bad the incident with Francisco Cervelli overshadowed Price’s performance. (The poor guy even got hit by one of Price’s fastballs.) Depending on health issues, like Kazmir’s, their rotation could be eye-opening this year. How their bullpen fares will determine a lot, of course. Percival is the biggest question, naturally.
Whozat – sorry to hear about your living room. I hope the damage isn’t too bad.
Kill Schill – Lupica’s head may be big… but at least its not the pre-fab garb regurgitated by Mushnik on a daily basis…
any thoughts on the Yankees going after Freddy Garcia to be a good #3-4 starter to eat up innings and keep Jaba in the pen and keep the innings low on Hughes and Kennedy and not have to depend on Mussina and the whole year??
Keith
I like that idea….maybe something like the REDSUX did with Colon…or something like the Yanks did with Lieber a few yrs ago….nothing too expensive though.
Just to clarify my comment above – I think we all would rather be talking about good performances by the players, and not an injury, especially one sustained on an unfortunate play that shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t mean to minimize the seriousness of Cervelli’s injury.
“Whozat – sorry to hear about your living room. I hope the damage isn’t too bad.”
There’s a company here right now drying out the hardwood floors and walls.
I had a nice young woman over, and we were having such a pleasant evening…and then we wound up literally bailing out the living room (it’s recessed about a foot down from the rest of the house). Scooping the water into a bucket. Unreal. We went in the kitchen for five minutes, came back and boom…about a half inch of standing water. We started bailing, but it got up to about an inch before things started to get better.
So…this Cervelli thing totally stinks. Even when he’s back, it’ll take him time to get his swing back. And that was what we wanted to see! If he could hit well for a whole season!
Accursed Devils. I mean…Rays.
But not necessarily about the Joba idea….more so for insurance if not this yr then next yr.
“any thoughts on the Yankees going after Freddy Garcia to be a good #3-4 starter to eat up innings and keep Jaba in the pen and keep the innings low on Hughes and Kennedy and not have to depend on Mussina and the whole year??”
No. Joba MUST leave the pen at some point this season. Garcia really won’t be ready until July. He’s not even supposed to pitch til June, and he’ll need to get his pitch count and effectiveness up to the point where he’s a legit MLB starter. And that’s about when Joba should be starting anyway.
Why would one think that Freddy Garcia would be an improvement over Mussina, especially with Garcia coming off an injury?
Kill Schill(ing) -
I thought Price was amazing! He pitched like a veteran, and didn’t let the fact that he hit his first batter deter him from continuing to pitch inside. He really fooled Shelley Duncan on strike 3, coming a little outside after going in, in, in. He also seemed to have a lot of poise on the mound. (Too bad he’s not a Yankee!
)
You can tell you’re getting closer to regular season when the list of pitchers scheduled to go in a ST game is down to 4! Yay!
Matsui DH-ing today, not LF.
Yes Price was pretty impressive yesterday. It was only one inning, it’s spring training, and nobody at this level had ever faced him before. Still, he looked pretty serious. But Edwar Ramirez struck out he side in his ML debut too.
Yes, I can see Price and Edwar are not the same kind of pitchers. That’s not the point.
Time will tell with Price. Do the Rays have a good program for properly developing talent like his or will something in that arm give out?
Did I hear wrong or was his minor league strikeout rate really about 1.5K/inning? How does his K/BB look?
KillSchill – Lupica is a weak writer but I think you already know that.
Whozat –
Aside from the “inconvenience” (to say the least) of having your house damaged, it sounds like this could be one of those great stories you have with someone you last with (if I’m reading the situation correctly?)
I don’t think I will get used to calling that Tampa team the “Rays.” It does not trip easily off the tongue, you know? D-Rays always sounded good the ear. And I really dont know what was wrong with trying to be a mean team, as in Devil Rays, as opposed to a “fun” team named after rays of sunshine! I guess it got too expensive maintaining there tank of rays at their stadium.
If you miss the intoxicating roar of the crowd. If you harbor a soft spot for manipulative, sentimental drama. If you the French National Anthem, La Marseillaise warms your heart against your better instincts. Watch this montage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lVCBLfwA5A
I only wish someone could provide an edit like that of all the great dramatic Yankee hits of the last 10 years: from Boone’s 10th inning homerun in the 03 ALCS, to Tino and Brosius’ homeruns in the ’01 WS, to Chad Curtis’ in the ’99 WS, to Tino and BlockHead’s in ’98 WS, to Girardi’s 3B in the ’96 WS.
Kill Schill –
Correction: 3 1/2 pitchers (igawa with shades)
or 4 1/2 pitchers (igawa without shades)
I want more Brett Gardner action… we need some Homer Bushness on this squad
“it sounds like this could be one of those great stories you have with someone you last with (if I’m reading the situation correctly?)”
I wish
We’ve had a good thing going for several weeks now, but she’s leaving Thursday to spend three months in Paris and Senegal, and then right around when she gets back, I’m moving to California (from VT).
whozat –
That’s too bad. Good luck with the cross-country move, though!
Whozat – Life has a funny sense of humor sometimes. Good luck, on both your living room and your move to CA. Hope you still follow the blog and the Yanks.
“Hope you still follow the blog and the Yanks.”
How could I stop?
Kill Schill you got me workin today…
Boone’s homer was in the 12th, and cant forget Jimmy Leyritz’ *CA-CHUNK* homer in ’96 and the BK Kim debacle of ’01 with Jete’s Mr. November Fist Pump rounding second.. and Tinos grand salami in game 1 of 2000…
Damn I’m all sorts of nostalgic now.. thanks.
Speaking of Youtube montages… I looked all night for good clips of those moments about a week ago and no one has any in game footage, just stills set to various music. Tho the cellphone vids of Boone’s homer and the pandemonium ensuing thereafter is great.
Oh, and if ANYONE knows where to find a good version of the Win ROCKY Win montage they use at the stadium in late inning rallys Id LOVE to know where to go. Theres a few choppy cellphone versions on youtube, but BOY does that get the blood pumping…
Sorry, i promise ill be done for a while..
Speak of the Devil, and I dont mean the Rays, Aaron Boone’s birthday is today, A-Rod is set to send 275 million thank yous and a Spaulding Basketball.
re: Lupica
It seems only fitting that the Whiney One himself would have today’s column begin with Rep. Anthony Weiner.
If Lupica had his way, the ‘roids issues would never go away so he could wrap up the rest of his checkered career ranting about anything steroids.
Maybe it is possible for the Yankees to take a back seat with Lupica’s Bronx bashing. At least in some form.
Can someone tell me what time is it?
Is the game on radio?
Dan P – Daylight savings was last night. If you didn’t know that, it’s an hour later than you think. Hopefully you didn’t have to go to work this morning.
Apparently the blog program doesn’t asjust for DST automatically, so our posts are showing up as an hour sooner than they were actually posted.
aDjust (typo – sorry)
Good Morning, Everyone.
Dan P. It’s almost 1:00 pm EST.
Also, the game appears to be on video & audio via mlb.com. Looks like FSN with Minnesota crew.
Pete’s lineup is correct except Godzilla’s the DH.
Hoping Phil gets out of his outing what he needs to. 2-3 shutout innings would be nice, too.
hello Mel, yes they have been featuring a show on small mouth bass fishing on FSN north…but it looks like the game is coming on now.
i have a feeling that phil will be putting on a show for us today
Melky flies to right. One away.
Is there a link available to hear the game? Or do you have to be an mlb.com subscriber?
Cano BB. Matsui up for the 1st time this spring.
Matsui hit into a double play.
Godzilla hit a shot to 1st resulting in a 3-6-3 DP.
Here comes Phil.
Whatever, thanks for the play-by-play. I’m stuck here in the office with no other source.
Hello, Mike
Well, I didn’t see the bang, bang play yesterday. Seems like the only reason why it’s an issue is the injury. Zimmer’s now weighing in that he can’t believe Girardi’s reaction to the play. My feeling is that Girardi’s anger was two-fold. The injury and the game score. He might of overreacted in his comments. But it’s good that he put Tampa Bay on notice.
My feeling, too, is that Tampa’s reaction would not have been so blase if a Yankee NRI ran over their young catching prospect resulting in surgery and 8-10 weeks recovery time.
It’ll be interesting. Tampa’s played us tough the last two years and Cervelli’s injury may serve as a catalyst to the Yankees fighting back. What a martyr.
Nice to see Matsui back.
Groundout. One away.
Span ground to Shelley at 1st. 1 away.
Thanks for the play-by-play guys. I have no access to the game today.
Nice, Shelley.
Hey which thread’s everyone on?
Gomez bunts and it hits him. 2 away.
Ball hit the runner in play — two out.
Thanks Mel. Thats channel 641 on direct tv.
Okay, I’ll leave the play-by-play to Whatever — no need for two people doing it. lol. Anyway, anyone who wants to listen to it can do so by heading over to the web site of WNAX, 570 AM. http://www.wnax.com
Former Tampa player Delmon Young up, who btw had a terrible rep in Tampa. Young grounds to 3rd. 1-2-3 for Phil.
lol. Molina was MAD that he couldn’t hold on to that foul tip.
Looking forward to seeing Tabata play today.
Shelley leads off with a wicked one-hopper that eats up the 3rd baseman. Shelley at 1st.
Ensberg hacking at a 3-0 pitch. Fouls it back.
For those of you not watching, that was a very nice 1st inning by Phil. 3 groundouts, and a lot of strikes. It’s nice to see that the early work over the winter is paying off. Let’s just say that Phil has his legs back after his injury-ridden season last year. Nice to see Phil return to his groundball pitching form.
Shelley rips one into left field. No dead arm for D. Young as he holds Shelley to a single.
Ensberg BB. 2 on no outs.
Ensberg BB.
Mel – thanks for that. Keep those updates coming.
Pete put up a new thread – live blogging the game now
MY LORD!!
If the Twins crew wasn’t talking about Bonser I wouldn’t have known who that was on the mound. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he lost at least 50 lbs. His face really changed.
Lane, former Astro walks. Sacks juiced for Molina. No outs.
Zim may be right about being surprised at Girardi being mad not so much that because Cervelli got hurt but because it was a spring training game.
I don’t know, maybe JG was a little more mad because our guy got hurt on the play, where otherwise he might have just said something about being a little more careful in spring training then let it go.
Normally it would have been a clean hit but still it was pretty a hard one to expect for a spring training game.
Yes, right or wrong there will probably be a Tampa player sporting a good sized bruise on Thursday morning. Hopefully nobody does something stupid.
In the past several years it did seem a few teams (one un-named rival team in particular) took for granted there would be no retaliation for certain dangerous actions when playing the Yanks. With New Joe’s tone on this one I wonder if that might change.
Again, hopefully nobody does something stupid.
New York Confidential
Those of you who don’t live in NY don’t really appreciate the depths of Loopy Lupica’s depravity. Today Loopy attacks Anthony Weiner, mentioned in this blog only a few days ago, because, the Little Guy maintains, Weiner’s views on Steroids and Clemens aren’t in the best interests of kids.
What’s the real connection between this story and Clemens? Richard Emery, who is Brian McNamee’s lawyer, is a player in Democratic politics in NYC and Albany, sitting on a special advisory commission to Spitzer. Also of note is that one of Emery’s law partners used to work for Spitzer and still maintains a government position Spitzer gave him. Mikey really attacked Weiner because Weiner failed to support NY Governor Eliot Spitzer on his ill-fated illegal immigrant driver license initiative, which died with a resounding thud. Weiner, a fellow Democrat, gave aid and comfort to Eliot’s political enemies by not strongly supporting Eliot’s agenda.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/10.....identi.htm
So that makes Mikey the very worst kind of hypocrite there is, someone who would use his column to swing at the enemies of his political cronies, like Emery and all the folks on Spitzer’s team, and have us believe that it’s about baseball and steroids. Mikey, you’ve sunk to a new low. Even for you.
Hi all,
Getting my first chance to watch a game this spring on tv. Hughes looked good his first inning. The Twins announcers keep talking about how slim Boof Bonser is this spring, too bad he still can’t pitch.