The LoHud Yankees Blog

Heres a nice AP shot of A.J. Burnett stretching earlier today.

Here’s the audio of Joe Girardi’s press conference today. I stopped my voice recorder when a question about Joba going into the bullpen was asked as I needed to find a rusty butter knife to cut my throat.

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If you’re a Yankees fan remotely interested in the prospects, you need to be reading Chad Jennings of the Times-Tribune in Scranton. The man is dialed in. He wrote a good story on Mark Melancon and his chances of making the team.

Melancon is one guy I’m hoping to see a lot of this spring now that he is healthy. He, Mike Dunn, Andrew Brackman and Wilkin De La Rosa are high on the list.

Now that the workout is over, here are a few notes and impressions:

· Hideki Matsui took batting practice for the first time since his knee surgery and looked good. At one point he cracked three in a row into the right-field stands.

· Jorge Posada has been taking BP since December and said his swing his back. He is confident that he will be ready for Opening Day. For now, he is focusing on learning as much as he can about CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. So even if he doesn’t catch them in many games, he will catch their bullpens.

· Joe Girardi said as he makes up the rotation, he wants to keep the lefties apart and not use Burnett and Joba Chamberlain back-to-back because of their similarities. Therefore, the rotation will be:

Sabathia
Burnett
Wang
Pettitte
Chamberlain

or

Sabathia
Wang
Burnett
Pettitte
Chamberlain

If you want even more diversity, use Wang between the two power guys. Either way, it’s a strong rotation.

“Oh yeah,” said Sabathia when asked if that is the best rotation he has ever been a part of.

· Jose Molina dropped a few pounds, knowing that the Yankees could need him to catch 50 games or so.

· I have yet to see Andrew Brackman pitch. But he certainly passes the looks test. The kid is ripped. Phil Hughes also put on about 10 pounds of muscle. Jon Albaladejo dropped a few pounds.

· Remember that bet Hideki Matsui made with Derek Jeter and Bobby Abreu last spring over who who would get married first? “Bobby left without paying,” Godzilla said. “Jeter has a month left.”

So that is good news for either Matsui or Minka Kelly.

· CC Sabathia said part of his success in Milwaukee came from developing a two-seam fastball at the behest of pitching coach Mike Maddux. “It’s a good pitch for him,” Posada said. “I thought he had one before because his four-seamer runs so much.”

Sabathia threw only fastballs and changeups in his bullpen today. He’ll throw all his pitches when he takes the mound on Monday.

· A reporter asked Girardi if he was “juiced up” after watching the first workout before realizing his mistake.

“Sorry, poor choice of words,” he said as everybody laughed. No, it wasn’t me.

Nobody asked Girardi about A-Rod. That was pleasant.

Brian Cashman and Dave Eiland.

The pitchers hate this. CC is near the front.

Nice guy Brian Bruney just stopped to sign autographs.

Here are fans watching the bullpen from the stands.

Here are some dreadful iPhone shots of CC and of Joba and A.J.

CC is playing catch with A.J. Burnett.

Here are the Yankees stretching. That’s Ron Guidry in the foreground.