Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Mar 09, 2009 
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Alex Rodriguez will undergo surgery this morning on his right hip and the hope is that he will be back in April.
A.J. Burnett looked good in his spring debut. This notebook also has updates on Hideki Matsui, Mariano Rivera, Phil Hughes and Cody Ransom.
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Today is the first official work out for the minor leaguers. Their training camp is across the street from Steinbrenner Field on Himes Avenue.
The Yankees have a clubhouse and set of offices over there along with four fields, batting cages and a bullpen. The minor leaguers will play games from March 21-April 5 then head off to their respective teams.
The Yankees have four full-season minor league teams. Injured players and those not quite ready will stay in what is called extended spring training. Basically, they remain at Himes, work out and play scrimmage games. Two short-season minor league teams start their season in June.
It may take a few days, but soon enough the Yankees will start to demote players from the major league camp to the minor league camp. By Wednesday, when the starting pitchers are ready to go three or four innings each, there simply won’t be enough innings to go around.
Plus the Yankees will lose some coaches. Guys like AAA manager Dave Miley and AAA pitching coach Scott Alred have been at Steinbrenner Field helping out. They’ll be across the street today.
what to do with hughes.
he might be so good in the minors he comes up as the 4th or 5th starter.
this might very well be the hughes we have been waiting for.
if pettitte and or joba struggle what do we do if hughes is lights out?
if joba struggles bad & hughes is great joba might have to go down.
im expecting a big year from hughes in the majors this season, im predicting 9 wins. however, its march 9th and people are ready to drop joba out of the rotation and promote hughes. there’s still a month of ST and even then, barring any injuries to the starting 5, phil is going down to scranton.
kudos to pedroia and youkilis for leading team USA to a win last night. im finding the WBC to be alot more fun to watch than i expected, much better than ST games. however, im really glad we only have one pitcher in the tournament as it is clear the pitchers are not just getting in thier work. peavy was throwning mid 90′s yesterday, oswalt was giving all he had, and i heard papelbon was hitting 98 when he pitched the other night.
Hughes is going to be pitching in Scranton regardless of what Joba does.
The only way Hughes gets a slot in the rotation is if someone goes down.
Really, some of you have to stop the nonsense.
Joba isn’t fighting for his job. He’s not going to be sent down and he will be the 5th starter in the rotation when the season starts.
We go through this every year. Folks get too caught up in stats and numbers in ST. ST is for players to get ready for the season.
I know some folks believe every game, even spring games, are important and every player is fighting for a job. That just isn’t the case.
Last year, it was “Wang Panic”. He was working on other pitches, getting hammered in games, and fans on here were in a panic. This year, its Joba.
Hughes will probably see his work with the parent club cut down now that the regulars are being slotted for work.
He will go to Scranton and be ready if a starter is injured. Making him a very nice #6 starter when his number gets called.
Pitchers are still working on their breaking pitches, command of the strike zone, and building arms strength. By the week of March 22-28, their innings will be expanded, and for the front of the rotation starters it’s their last start before the season begins.
SJ44,
You are right on the money. Joba is off on his mechanics a little bit, but what better time to fix stuff than march 9, instead of April 6th.
Hughes has potential, he needs to stay healthy, if he does he will jump into the rotation easily this year if someone gets hurt, or next year when AP retires.
Ham Fighters, I thought the WBC was foolish in 2006 and a waste of time, but I am enjoying it this year. Not sure why.