The LoHud Yankees Blog

CC Sabathia wasn’t good today. That much was obvious and, equally obviously, he’ll work on his mechanical issues during his side sessions so he can be better the next time out. Such is life in spring training.

While Sabathia was discussing poor mechanics on one side of the room, however, Nick Johnson was on the other wall talking about his improved mechanics at the plate. Johnson has been working with hitting coach Kevin Long on turning his back foot through (as opposed to sliding), and he said that adjustment has allowed him to start pulling the ball more. Witness what he did this afternoon, when he crushed two home runs, both of which went to the right-center part of the park.

Someone mentioned Johnson, who has a career-high of 23 home runs, possibly surpassing that this year if he’s able to pull the ball at Yankee Stadium. “I don’t like to put any numbers on guys,” Joe Girardi said. “(But) we know he’s a really, really good hitter.”

Curtis Granderson was also pleased with his fifth-inning triple, particularly since it allowed him to get out and run a little. “Nice to stretch the legs,” he said. Granderson has been in touch with several of his former teammates in Detroit – he recently had dinner with Dontrellle Willis – and he’s looking forward to facing them tomorrow in Lakeland. “That’s one of the days on the calendar that’s marked,” he said.

Here’s Girardi’s postgame audio. You might notice a long pause early on – that was when he got up to turn off the TV so that it would be a little quieter.

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In his second start of last year’s spring training, CC Sabathia got knocked around by the Tigers over in Lakeland. The line was ugly: 1 2/3 innings, six hits, five runs, one day that Sabathia would have liked to forget.

This afternoon – in his second start of this year’s spring training – Sabathia had a similar experience. This time it was the Pirates roughing him up, torching him for five runs and seven hits in 2 1/3 innings. Afterward, Sabathia was realistic – this is spring training after all – but also not particularly happy.

“Everything was up – belt-high and above. It’s pretty easy to hit when it’s like that,” Sabathia said. “I always say results don’t matter until I give up eight runs in two innings to the Pirates.”

But wait, one writer said, you only gave up five runs. “It should have been eight,” Sabathia replied.

The problem, Dave Eiland told Sabathia, is that he was collapsing on his back leg during his delivery, which flattens out his pitches and really affects his off-speed and breaking balls. Considering how Sabathia reacted to last year’s Lakeland disaster – his regular-season was pretty good, no? – Joe Girardi isn’t particularly concerned.

“Every once in a while, you’re going to have a bad day,” Girardi said.

Sabathia’s audio is pretty interesting. Take a listen below.

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YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Johnson DH
Jorge Posada C
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher RF
Randy Winn LF
Juan Miranda 1B
Kevin Russo 2B

Pitching: CC Sabathia (19-8, 3.37 ERA in 2009)

PIRATES
Andrew McCutchen CF
Ronnie Cedeno SS
Lastings Milledge LF
Garrett Jones RF
Andy LaRoche 3B
Jeff Clement 1B
Bobby Crosby DH
Delwyn Young 2B
Jason Jaramillo C

Pitching: Charlie Morton (5-9, 4.55 in 2009)

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m., YES

WEATHER: Cloudy and a little bit of a chill in the air (for Florida). Temps are in the 60s with light wind.

UMPIRES: HP Damien Beal, 1B Eric Cooper, 3B Andy Fletcher (three-man crew today)

IN THE PEN: Following Sabathia to the mound today will be (among others who are available) Boone Logan, Dustin Moseley, Hector Noesi, Royce Ring and Romulo Sanchez. Tomorrow will see Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain in action.

BOWLING FOR DOLLARS: The Yankees announced this morning that the college bowl game at the Stadium this winter will be called the Pinstripe Bowl. I think Big Apple Bowl would have been better, but so it goes. The game will be between teams from the Big East and Big 12, and will be played on Dec. 30.

FAMILIAR FOES: This is the third the time the Yankees will play the Pirates this spring. They’ve won both previous games, including a 6-0 one-hitter yesterday in Bradenton.

CONGRATS: Yankees VP and assistant GM Jean Afterman has been honored by Women in Sports and Events as one of its Women of the Year. Kudos to Jean, who does a great job.

Back with more throughout the afternoon.

UPDATE, 1:14 p.m.: Whoa. Went downstairs to get a post-workout interview with Francisco Cervelli – he’s feeling better, hoping to play Friday – and when I come back up it’s 4-0. Not exactly the start CC was looking for, I’d imagine. Garrett Jones absolutely crushed one over the right-field fence.

UPDATE, 1:17 p.m.: Another hard-hit ball, but this one is a comebacker that CC spears and, after stepping calmly out of the way of a flying bat shard, throws to first.

UPDATE, 1:25 p.m.: Guess Nick Johnson is finding a routine he likes. That was a rocket over the right-center field fence for his first homer of the spring. 4-1 Pirates.

UPDATE, 1:33 p.m.: Another rocket, another RBI for Nick Swisher. That’s a team-high four RBI in five games for Swisher this spring.

UPDATE, 1:35 p.m.: For all you Edwar Ramirez fans out there: The Yankees just announced they’ve traded him to the Rangers for the immortal “cash considerations.” Ramirez was designated when Chan Ho Park was put on the roster.

UPDATE, 1:42 p.m.: That was better for CC. He’s slated to go three innings. Still 4-2 Pirates.

UPDATE, 1:55 p.m.: Garrett Jones, apparently, likes facing CC. Double for him, single for LaRoche and it’s 5-2.

UPDATE, 1:57 p.m.: A walk to Jeff Clement and that’s it for Sabathia. He’s out and Dustin Moseley is coming on with two on, one out in the third. Sabathia threw 55 pitches, 34 strikes.

UPDATE, 2:06 p.m.: Yup, he’s found a good routine. Whatever you’re doing today, Nick Johnson, write it down. Two homers today and it’s 5-3 Pirates.

UPDATE, 2:14 p.m.: Final line on Sabathia: 2.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 W, 2 K, 1 HR. Clearly this means he’s washed up. I’ll be sure to ask if he’s planning to give some of that $161 million back.

UPDATE, 2:31 p.m.: Getting interesting here: Kevin Russo works a walk and now the bases are loaded for the Captain. Yanks down three but one swing here could be big.

UPDATE, 2:35 p.m.: Well, I think we all predicted that, didn’t we? Jeter bounces to third (did score one run) and Jon Weber – yes, Jon Weber – delivers the big blow, slicing a double down the left-field line to score two and tie the game at 6.

UPDATE, 2:37 p.m.: Single up the middle for Posada and it’s 7-6 Yankees.

UPDATE, 3:08 p.m.: Just got back up from talking to CC Sabathia. As much as he knows these games don’t matter, he wasn’t too pleased. “Everything was up – belt-high and above. It’s pretty easy to hit when it’s like that,” he said. Of course, CC got knocked around in Lakeland last year too and, obviously, that didn’t exactly ruin his season.

Alex Rodriguez met with reporters for a few minutes this morning and offered no new information on when he’ll meet with federal investigators. He did say that he was aware of Anthony Galea’s assertion that he had treated A-Rod, and while he wouldn’t confirm whether that was true, he said, “I’m at ease, no matter what.”

A-Rod has been reasonable in dealing with the questions surrounding this situation, and when asked if he wasn’t saying much because he didn’t want to or because he had been told to keep quiet, A-Rod smiled. “I think the latter,” he said.

Earlier, Francisco Cervelli talked about his concussion and said this latest blow was in the “same spot” as the one he suffered during winter ball. He also revealed that, in addition to these two recent concussions, he suffered one in 2005 in the Gulf Coast League and maybe one more. Asked for details about that fourth one, Cervelli said he couldn’t remember. He joked that he has a “hard head” but that many concussions at age 24 is certainly something to monitor. When someone asked if he was feeling symptoms today, Cervelli said, “It’s not dizzy, it’s not headaches. It’s just … not a lot of energy.” Cervelli will catch a bullpen and hit today, and he seemed determined to play in a game on Friday.

In other injury news, Chan Ho Park estimated he threw about 35 pitches and reported that “everything else is very good.” He would like to pitch in a game soon.

UPDATE, 10:20 a.m.: Since I know everyone loves the Cisco kid, here’s the audio from Cervelli’s interview this morning. I know he wants to get back out there as soon as possible but that’s a lot of head injuries for a kid so young. Better to be cautious.

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Yankees vs. Pirates

Jeter SS
Johnson DH
Posada C
Rodriguez 3B
Granderson CF
Swisher RF
Winn LF
Miranda 1B
Russo 2B

Pitching: CC Sabathia

Javier Vazquez may not have had the best beginning to his outing yesterday but that he recovered nicely to show off some of the changes he’s made since the last time he wore pinstripes.

Mariano Rivera works at his own pace during spring training and the legendary closer moved a step closer to getting in a game yesterday. The notebook also has word of a combined one-hitter during split-squad play, updates on Francisco Cervelli and Nick Johnson, as well as information on a, uh, familiar injury for Chan Ho Park.

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Yanks-Pirates today at The Boss with CC Sabathia on the mound. Clubhouse opens just before 9 a.m. so check back then for the lineup and throughout the day for more updates.

Earlier today we learned that the controversial Canadian doctor Anthony Galea told The AP that he did, in fact, treat Alex Rodriguez after A-Rod’s hip surgery last year. A-Rod’s surgeon, Marc Phillipon, told The Times he never authorized Galea to work with Rodriguez and the Yankees are already on record saying they have no knowledge – and, more importantly, gave no permission – for A-Rod to work with Galea.

Galea says he only gave A-Rod anti-inflammatory medication and not human growth hormone, and Rodriguez has continued to stay quiet when asked about when he will meet with FBI officials investigating Galea. A-Rod is one of several athletes connected to Galea (Tiger Woods, Carlos Beltran and Jose Reyes are among the others).

Beyond the obvious questions about whether Rodriguez could get himself in “real-life” trouble (a perjury charge, for example) are the baseball questions: How long will this investigation continue and will it be any kind of distraction for Rodriguez? A year ago, A-Rod enjoyed a year that – once he came back in May – was largely controversy-free. To say that didn’t help Rodriguez enjoy a terrific season and postseason would be naive. If he’s hounded by investigators, press and allegations throughout 2010, will it affect his play?

There is also the question of what, if anything, this means for Rodriguez’s relationship with the Yankees. Here’s what I know: many Yankees officials are tired of these kinds of issues surrounding Rodriguez. The Yankees have stuck to their party line about not asking A-Rod anything until he’s done dealing with the FBI, but at some point there will be conversation about what, exactly, A-Rod did and whether it was a violation of his contract with the team. Remember, the Yankees say they didn’t approve him working with Galea.

There are no obvious answers for these questions yet and maybe Rodriguez will be able to deal with it and have it fade away like last year’s steroids issues did. Legal issues like this, however, often have a way of lingering. Today, A-Rod said “nada, nada, nothing” when asked if anything was new regarding the FBI; at some point, he’ll have to come up with a better answer than that.

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That’s probably it for the blogging tonight. Thanks to everyone for reading today. Back at it tomorrow with a game against the Pirates at The Boss. Check in all day for updates.

To some players, the idea of being the designated hitter sounds great – hit three or four times a day and take it easy the rest of the time. Not a bad gig, if you can get it.

To others, though, it’s an incomplete task. Whenever Joe Torre would give Derek Jeter the famous “half day off” by having him DH, Jeter would make a point to sit right next to Torre on the bench and – for lack of a better word – nag him as much as possible. If Torre ever said anything, Jeter would just point out that he could solve the problem by putting Jeter back in the field.

Now, Nick Johnson is trying to transition into the idea of being a full-time DH. There are, obviously, a lot of upsides to Johnson being the DH, not the least of which being that it would sure seem like there’s a far decreased chance of injury when he’s not in the field. For someone with Johnson’s run of bad luck, that’s not a small thing.

The challenge, though, as it was for Jason Giambi a few years back, is to find a routine between at-bats that a) keeps you loose and warm, while b) not overdoing it. “I’m going to find one,” Johnson said earlier today, and then he mentioned that he tried riding the stationary bike as well as “throwing a few medicine balls” to keep his blood moving. I remember Giambi mentioning once that he’d talked to Don Baylor about the DH routine and said Baylor was a big fan of the stationary bike; Giambi added some dry swings to keep his shoulders loose.

Joe Girardi said he can’t offer many suggestions about DH routines, but expects Kevin Long to help Johnson figure out what works. They’ll also give Johnson plenty of chances to try things out this spring. “We want to DH him a lot of days in spring training, as opposed to playing him at first – we want him to get used to it,” Girardi said. “He knows how to do the first base thing.”

Nice day for the Yankees, who snapped their losing streak with a 7-5 win over the Phillies in Tampa and a 6-0 win over the Pirates in Bradenton. Much of the conversation afterward focused on Javier Vazquez, who had an eerily familiar beginning to his second tour with the Yankees – a first-pitch home run to right – but settled in and showed excellent command in striking out four over two innings.

Vazquez said a main difference between what he’s like now and what he was like in 2004 is that he used to be “a little stubborn” in sticking with his fastball too often. Now, he says, he’s mixing in curveballs and change-ups much more and that was obvious today. Vazquez struck out the side in the second and, earlier, showed a nasty change-up to Chase Utley, a pitch Joe Girardi said was “the best change-up I’ve seen all spring.” Vazquez also dropped down slightly to get Ben Francisco with a soft curveball.

“I still have the ability to throw my fastball in any count,” Vazquez said. “It doesn’t mean I’m going to stay away from it.”

Jorge Posada estimated that Vazquez threw about 85 percent fastballs but, unlike A.J. Burnett who has stayed away from breaking balls so far this spring, Vazquez wants to work his entire repertoire. He threw 26 pitches in the game then tossed 10 more in the bullpen before finishing. I posted the audio of Vazquez’s interview below and it’s an interesting listen; he also talks about the different pressures of being a Yankee in 2004 (when he was trying to replace Andy Pettitte, Roger Clemens, etc.) versus how it is now, when he’s adding to a rotation that is already established. Check it out.

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In other news, Francisco Cervelli’s tests came back clean and he’ll do some light baseball activity tomorrow. The Yankees will be careful, though; the earliest he’ll get in a game is probably Friday, Girardi said.

Just to update something from before: After consideration of the schedule, it now seems likely that Mariano Rivera will pitch in a game on the 16th, not the 17th — hardly a surprise considering the 17th is a road game.

And lastly, as we were heading out of Girardi’s office, he mentioned that the “second game begins in about 15 minutes.” By the time we got up to the press box, he was back on the field with his family, including son Dante wearing baseball pants and high socks.

YANKEES
Brett Gardner CF
Nick Johnson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Jorge Posada C
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Marcus Thames LF
Kevin Russo 3B
Ramiro Pena SS

Pitching: Javier Vazquez (15-10, 2.87 ERA in 2009)

PHILLIES
Jimmy Rollins SS
Placido Polanco 3B
Chase Utley 2B
Ryan Howard 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Jayson Werth DH
Ben Francisco CF
John Mayberry Jr. RF
Carlos Ruiz C

Pitching: Kyle Kendrick (3-1, 3.42 in 2009)

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m., YES

WEATHER: Lovely day here at The Boss. A few wispy clouds in an otherwise blue sky, and the temperatures are approaching 70 degrees.

UMPIRES: HP Paul Emmel, 1B Marty Foster, 2B Dan Iassogna, 3B Damien Beal

BREAK ‘EM UP: A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and Randy Winn are among the players in Bradenton today for a split-squad game against the Pirates. I’ll have updates from there as they’re passed along in the press box. Alfred Aceves is the starter in that game.

IN THE PEN: Following Javier Vazquez today will be Mark Melancon, Royce Ring and David Robertson, among others. Jeremy Bleich, Zach McAllister, Grant Duff and Ivan Nova are slated to throw in Bradenton.

HIT PARADE?: It’s spring training so take it with a (very big) grain of salt, but the Yankees have scored eight runs in the past three games (they were shutout yesterday) and have been outscored by a combined 32-8.

RANDOM FACT OF THE DAY: Catcher Kyle Higashioka is the youngest player in camp at age 19 … or 21 years younger than the oldest player in camp, Mariano Rivera, who is 40.

Stay tuned all afternoon for much more.

UPDATE, 12:49 p.m.: Spoke to Chan Ho Park a little bit ago and he was sufficiently surprised that any of us were interested in talking to him. “Is this big news?” he said. He says he’ll face live hitters tomorrow.

UPDATE, 1:07 p.m.: Well, OK. First pitch? At 1:07. First ball over the right-field fence off the bat of Jimmy Rollins? Also 1:07 p.m. That ball got out in a hurry.

UPDATE, 1:10 p.m.: Loud start for Vazquez but then he settles in and gets the next three hitters, including a roller from Ryan Howard.

UPDATE, 1:17 p.m.: No flying body parts or anything when Nick Johnson comes up. Just a pop to center. His back seems fine.

UPDATE, 1:24 p.m.: Word out of Bradenton is that A-Rod has lined a two-run single off Paul Maholm to give the Yankees an early lead. Aceves had a 1-2-3 first.

UPDATE, 1:33 p.m.: Nice piece of hitting from Cano with a double down the third-base line but he’s stranded. Vazquez is done for the day, having thrown 26 pitches, 16 strikes. Jonathan Albaladejo – he of the 189.00 ERA this spring – is on from the bullpen.

UPDATE, 1:39 p.m.: Other than the first pitch to Rollins, Vazquez looked pretty good. He struck out the side in the second inning and showed very sharp breaking pitches. As first outings go, it was more than fine.

UPDATE, 1:42 p.m.: Well that was weird. Utley ripped a RBI single to right except the second base umpire Dan Iassogna ruled the ball hit Placido Polanco running from first, ending the inning. No one seemed to know what was going on for a moment and then the Yankees just ran off the field. Strange.

UPDATE, 1:48 p.m.: Nice job by Albaladejo as he moves his ERA back into double-digits. He’s out now and Dave Robertson has come on. Official line on Vazquez: 2 innings, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 K.

UPDATE, 2 p.m.: Dave Robertson not having a good day. Francisco and Mayberry with back-to-back ropes and it’s 3-0.

UPDATE, 2:07 p.m.: Robertson out, Amaury Sanit in. Still 3-0.

UPDATE, 2:10 p.m.: Update from Bradenton: It’s 3-0 Yankees after a Juan Miranda RBI single. Aceves pitched four scoreless innings, three strikeouts. He faced the minimum.

UPDATE, 2:27 p.m.: Two-out, two-run double from Swisher makes it 3-2. Vazquez is available so we’re headed downstairs.

UPDATE, 3:12 p.m.: Nick Johnson reported no issues with his back. “Things feel fine,” he said. “No grabbing. No nothing. I loosened up before. Felt nothing.”

UPDATE, 3:35 p.m.: Update from Bradenton: It’s a final, 6-0, for the Yankees over the Pirates. Aceves, Nova, McAllister and Hirsh combined to throw a one-hitter.

UPDATE, 3:38 p.m.: Good news for Francisco Cervelli: All tests came back clean after a visit with a neurologist and he’s been cleared to resume physical activities beginning tomorrow.