The LoHud Yankees Blog

· CC Sabathia went home with what is charitably being described as the flu. Let’s leave it at that.

· Bernie Williams bailed out and won’t be back until Monday.

· I spent my time on Field 2 mostly, watching Joba Chamberlain, Christian Garcia and George Kontos. Joba threw two sets of 20 pitches, resting in between. The idea was simulate two innings. His first inning was a little rocky as his arm was trailing his body and his pitches were all over the place. After talking it over with Jose Molina, the second inning was much sharper.

“For Feb. 21 it was just fine,” Chamberlain said.

Christian Garcia has impressive stuff. If he can stay healthy he could knock on the door this season. But he always seem to run into something.

· Two interesting items in Joe Girardi’s office: An Ohio State football helmet signed by Jim Tressel (“Go Buckeyes! Go Yankees!) and a large paper shredder next to the desk. If state secrets are ever revealed, they won’t come from him.

· There were almost all baseball questions today. It was refreshing. ESPN has had Bob Holtzman in camp since the start. You wonder at what point they’ll give that up. Probably not until he meets with the MLB people.

· A-Rod sort of bantered with reporters in the morning, talking about the economy, traveling to Mexico City and some other topics having nothing to do with baseball or steroids. You’ll be happy to know he hasn’t too much of a hit financially.

· You’ll read more about this in the paper tomorrow. But the reason Jason Johnson was late to camp was because he was receiving radiation treatments on a cancerous growth behind his right eye. Scary stuff. He seems to be doing OK now.

· Girardi talked about the strengths of Brett Gardner (speed, covers ground) and Melky Cabrera (switch hits, great arm) as center field candidates. You would think it comes down to who hits in spring training. The x-factor is that Melky is out of options, so the Yankees would risk losing him if they took him off the 25-man roster. But if he can’t beat out Gardner, what difference does that make?

· Future big leaguer Dante Girardi and some of his buddies were in the clubhouse after the workout and tried to attack Shelley Duncan. It looked like a pack of midgets taking on Andre The Giant. Shelley at one point had a kid on his shoulder, one wrapped around his leg and another in a headlock. “My head hurts,” said one of the little scrappers after running up against Shelley.

Let that be a lesson to you, son.

Joba Chamberlain signs after throwing BP. He threw two sets of 20 pitches, resting in between.

CC Sabathia will not pitch today. Dave Eiland said he wasn’t feeling well. “Stomach thing,” he said.

No other details needed. Thanks anyway.

Mickey Rivers is running a drill in right field. Johnny Damon, Nick Swisher and Todd Linden are trying to catch balls thrown near the top of the wall.

It looks like something we did as kids up against the fence behind Campbell School.

Shelley Duncan is in the next group. I need to stay and watch. Good luck to the wall.

It’s warming up here in Tampa (it was 38 when I left the hotel this morning and is 55 now) and the Yankees are 30 minutes or so from taking the field. They’re seeing some sort of video presentation at the moment in the clubhouse.

More live BP today. The pitchers are:

Field 1: Burnett, Kennedy, Giese, Igawa, Cox and Dunn.

Field 2: Bruney, Veras, Sabathia, Chamberlain, Garcia, Kontos, Albaladejo and Robertson.

Meanwhile it’s a big day for TV stars. Hazel Mae and Peter Gammons are in the house.

Alex Rodriguez confirmed that he will meet with MLB investigators as more questions of his connections arise.

Nick Swisher used to be the new first baseman. Now he’s fighting for playing time.

The Yankees will be on the field around 10 a.m. Back later with some reports.

In previous springs, I’ve posted about the security at Steinbrenner Field. It’s harder to get in there than it would be to bust out of jail. I saw a woman put her feet up on the dugout roof today and I thought they were going to taser her.

Anyway, the head of the security army is this guy. He rides around on a Segway like Robert E. Lee on Traveler during the Battle of Gettysburg. He routinely — and I kid you not — zips around the warning track of the outfield when there is nobody on the field.

Some folks in the organization this year have dubbed him “Paul Blart: Mall Cop.”

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Meanwhile, the son of Felix Lopez is a convicted steroids distributor. Lopez is George Steinbrenner’s son-in-law. That has not been a position with a lot of job security.

Alex Rodriguez talked to reporters again today. He said MLB investigators will meet with him in Tampa during spring training. He claimed not to know when that meeting would be.

Rodriguez also said he still planned to play in the WBC. His teammates, he said, have been, “overwhelmingly supportive.”

Sweeny Murti of WFAN asked him about using baseball to help get past this scandal, particularly if he was able to help the Yankees get back in the World Series.

“I do think that a world championship would help,” he said. “It can’t hurt.”

Some wild speculation back in New York suggested that A-Rod could be suspended. I just don’t see that as being possible unless it can be proven he used PEDs after 2003. Not one player in the Mitchell Report was punished, which set a precedence.

Rodriguez would have to refuse to cooperate with MLB investigators to get punished and there’s no chance of that. At least one of his cast of advisors will point that out to him.

It looks bad that A-Rod hangs around with a person like Nao Presinal. He should know better and the Yankees need to set him straight. But unless there’s a positive drug test out there or other proof that he used after 2003, he will skate.

· I went over to Field 2 today to watch Andrew Brackman and Mark Melancon pitch, so I missed Chien-Ming Wang facing Bernie Williams on Field 1. Here is Wang’s take on how it went:

“I left one sinker up high. He hit it far.”

Home run?

Wang looked at me like I was crazy. So apparently it stayed in the yard.

CMW said his foot feels no discomfort whatsoever and he’s throwing all of his pitches.

· A-Rod did not discuss any of the recent revelations. He did say that he is expects to meet with the MLB investigators in Tampa. He also said it would take “18-24 months” for this to blow over. How he came up with that figure, I have no idea. Maybe one of his consultants figured it out.

· Brackman was fun to watch, especially when he faced Jesus Montero. Now keep in mind that the hitters aren’t really doing much hitting in live BP. They’re tracking the ball and letting the pitchers work on whatever they’re trying to do. But Montero did take a couple of cuts and made solid contact a few times.

Brackman has a lot fewer moving parts in his delivery than I expected. He sort of brings the ball from behind his ear and has a nice downward plane to his delivery. But I can’t see him in the majors before the end of the 2010 season. The Yankees will keep him in Tampa and there’s a chance he sees Trenton this year. He has so little experience and probably knows next to nothing about holding runners, fielding his position and setting hitters up.

· I’m writing a piece on Nick Swisher for the paper tomorrow. He admitted to some disappointment when Mark Teixeira signed as he considers 1B his best position. But after a sour experience with the White Sox, he’s happy starting fresh here even if it’s in the outfield.

I suspect Xavier Nady will be the regular RF. But Swisher gets on base, hits for power and can play four positions. He’s going to get plenty of ABs.

· Ken Rosenthal of Fox reported today that Damon and Nady have their finances frozen because of the Stanford scandal. Here’s the story.

· Damaso Marte’s hamstrings are feeling better and he was out there running around.

Watched him throw BP. For a guy his size he has a remarkably smooth delivery.