The LoHud Yankees Blog

Alex Rodriguez is here and in the lineup. The Yankees lineup also includes Marcus Thames batting second, probably to maximize his at-bats against left-handed starter Jamie Moyer.

Derek Jeter SS
Marcus Thames DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Curtis Granderson LF
Brett Gardner CF
Francisco Cervelli C

RHP Phil Hughes

For whatever reason, the Yankees have not posted a lineup for tonight’s game. It’s usually posted six hours before a night game in spring training. Today, it’s still not up three and a half hours before first pitch.

Some are wondering — and this is 100 percent speculation — whether the Yankees might be waiting for Alex Rodriguez to get back from his meeting with federal investigators. They might have one lineup ready if he’s going to make it back, another ready if he’s not.

Again, this is strictly speculation. Brian Cashman said this afternoon that he wouldn’t not comment on where Rodriguez is or where he’ll be tonight.

UPDATE, 3:37 p.m.: Yep. Now comes word that Rodriguez is back in Tampa. Not sure that’s why the lineup is delayed, but it would make sense.

It was the third game of todays Yankees-Media Paintball Challenge, and the goal was to grab a bucket from the far end of the field and take it to the other team’s base.

Without being shot, of course.

Teammate Sweeny Murti had already gotten the bucket, and he was almost to the base when he was hit. Sweeny had to drop the bucket on the spot, so I decided to pick up where he left off. Grabbing the bucket on the way, I made a mad dash for the base. I was no more than four feet away, at a full sprint…

It was Kevin Long who got me. Four shots. Two to the chest. One to the side. One to the stomach.

I’m pretty sure I took the biggest beating today. I also have three welts on my left arm and one on my right leg – I honestly don’t remember being hit there — but we all had a great time this morning. Brian Cashman showed up with a camo hat that had a skull and crossbones on it. That’s when we knew it was serious.

My team captain was Bryan Hoch. My teammates — if I can remember them all — were Brett Weber, Billy Eppler, Jason Zillo, Michael Margolis, Marc Carig, Sweeny Murti and Mark Feinsand. I’m pretty sure Cashman took me out in the first game, but I’m also pretty sure I got Joe Girardi in the second. I know I got Erik Boland with a head shot in the fifth, which was a big win for Team Hoch. At one point, Tony Pena announced that anyone who didn’t shoot Mike Harkey was automatically eliminated. Harkey had a hard time hiding.

One bit of honesty as we move forward: My coverage of the Yankees scouting department might take a bitter turn for the next few weeks. I believe it was the fourth game and Eppler was behind me in a group of forts and trees. He  decided to advance, and as he was sprinting, he accidentally pulled the trigger.

He drilled me in the back of the head from a dozen feet away.

Alex Rodriguez isn’t expected to be in Yankees camp today, and he might not be there tomorrow. Distractions aside, though, the Yankees third baseman seems ready for Opening Day.

“You’re going to start getting at-bats against guys that you are going to be facing over the next six months,” he said last week after his first spring home run. “It’s time to get sharp.”

That home run last Friday was part of a 2-for-3 day, the first of three straight 2-for-3 games that Rodriguez had against the Tigers, Astros and Nationals. He took an 0-for-2 yesterday — the Yankees as a whole had just five hits — and his spring average still stands at .333 with a .600 slugging percentage. The Yankees spring leaders in home runs are the two guys hitting ahead of Rodriguez, Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira, who had three each. Teixeira is batting .333 with a .611 slugging.

“It’s nice to have them both at the beginning of the season,” Joe Girardi has said. “It just makes our lineup a lot more complete.”

The most debated competition in Yankees camp is over. Phil Hughes has been named the team’s fifth starter, moving Joba Chamberlain, Sergio Mitre and Alfredo Aceves in to the bullpen mix.

As part of the decision-making process, Chad Guadin was released. He was the fifth of five candidates, and the Yankees realized they were not going to have room for him. The notebook also has items on Alex Rodriguez leaving for a few days, Aceves struggling against the Orioles and the decision of whether to carry a second lefty reliever.

Once upon a time, I played a lot of paintball. My friend Zac got me started, my gun was identical to the one on the right, and my first tournament finish was third place in a small Missouri town called Blodgett.

I haven’t played in probably 10 years, and that’s going to change in the morning.

Tomorrow, the Yankees major league staff, a few members of the front office and the beat writers are getting together for a few hours of paintball before the night game against Philadelphia. Joe Girardi will be there, Brian Cashman will be there and director of media relations Jason Zillo, who organized this craziness, will be there. I have no idea if I can still play — I’m actually not sure I was ever especially good to begin with — and I’m not at all looking forward to the welts and bruises, but it should be a lot of fun.

Things will probably be a little light here on the blog tomorrow morning. Now you’ll know why.

I’ll literally be attempting to shoot your manager and general manager. To be fair, they’ll be trying to shoot me too.

• In honor of whoever started the discussion of Simon and Garfunkel in the comments, here’s the AP picture of Paul Simon after he threw out a first pitch earlier this spring.

• Speaking of pictures, LoHud has some spring training galleries online. Check out the Yankees pictures. They should be updating throughout the year.

• Of course, MLBTradeRumors is keeping up with the Chad Gaudin chatter. Looks like the Dodgers and Mets are already believed to be interested.

• Speaking of pitchers. Check out Frankie Piliere’s take on Christian Garcia‘s start against the Phillies earlier this week: “Garcia is a complete, three-pitch pitcher, and that is with three plus pitches,” Piliere wrote. “I don’t like to throw around plus grades often, so to see a pitcher with three plus pitches is a real rarity. It’s never been about stuff with this big right-hander; it’s always been about his health.”

Marcus Thames went 0-for-4 today and his spring average is down to .094, which is the lowest in camp. Across the board, his numbers are worse than returned Rule 5 pick Jamie Hoffmann.

Of course, Thames has something going for him that Hoffmann did not: A track record. He’s proven to have legitimate major league power, especially against lefties, but it hasn’t shown this spring.

“The one thing that we talk about Marcus is playing against a lot of left-handers possibly,” Joe Girardi said. “He hasn’t seen a lot of left-handers this spring.”

The Yankees are schedule to face lefty Jamie Moyer tomorrow, and Girardi said Thames will be in the lineup. They’re supposed to face lefty Nate Robertson on Saturday.

“He was brought in to complete for the spot, and right now he’s the last man standing, so to speak,” Brian Cashman said. “But that doesn’t mean he’s not still needing to compete for that because I don’t know what’s going to become available between now and the end of camp.”

• That’s obviously not Thames in the AP picture above. Derek Jeter was one of just three Yankees to get a hit today. Ramiro Pena also had one and Randy Winn was 3-for-3, bringing his spring average up to .259.

• Phil Hughes on winning the fifth-starter job: “It was what I set out in the spring to do. I grew up a starter in high school, minor leagues, even my first couple partial seasons in the big leagues. It was something that I really wanted and I feel like I’m ready for the challenge and ready for the season that lies ahead. I’m just looking to go out and put together as many quality starts as I can and give our guys a chance to win everyday. That’s really all I can asked from myself.”

• Girardi said he sees Sergio Mitre as a long man out of the bullpen, but he seems honestly open to putting whoever is pitching well into key late-inning roles. “When you’re pitching well, you’re going to pitch,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. You don’t know exactly what happens to a guy when he turns into a one-inning guy. We saw Hughesy’s velocity jump three, four, five miles per hour at times. It changed him.”

• Because Cashman said today that the Yankees might not be able to carry two situational lefties, Girardi was asked if Boone Logan is strictly a situational lefty. “He has that changeup that can neutralize right-handed hitters somewhat,” Girardi said. “And he has pretty good sink on his fastball. He’s a guy that you want to see down the stretch here and see how he does.”

• Girardi said “I’m not sure” when asked if Alex Rodriguez will be available to play Saturday.

• Another night game tomorrow. Yankees vs. Phillies in Tampa at 7:05.

• Hughes is starting tomorrow, A.J. Burnett on Saturday and Andy Pettitte on Sunday. Monday is listed as TBA. It should be Javier Vazquez.

With Phil Hughes locked into the fifth starter spot and Chad Gaudin released into free agency, the Yankees have only one pitching decision to make: Whether to carry a second lefty.

If the Yankees carry all three of their leftover starters, then the seven-man bullpen will have  no room for either Boone Logan or Royce Ring. But Joe Girardi wouldn’t rule out the idea of sending Hughes to Triple-A for the first few games of the season and carrying eight relievers until the Yankees actually need a fifth starter.

“Those are things we still have to talk about,” Girardi said.

The Yankees could keep their top four starters on normal rest — or even extra rest — and still not need a fifth starter until April 17, their 11th game of the season. Girardi cautioned about skipping his fifth starter too often because it leaves his top four starters with more innings than he’d like at the end of the year, but it does seem to be a possibility.

“The only danger in skipping a guy a lot is you give the other guys too many starts,” Girardi said. “You can do it some. That is the next thing that we will iron out. We will probably try to do that in the next few days, how exactly we attack (Hughes innings limit). Try to take what we learned from last year, in a sense.”

Not so long ago, Alfredo Aceves was making noise as a legitimate dark horse candidate in the fifth starter competition. After allowing six runs through two-plus innings this afternoon, his spring ERA has ballooned to 6.06.

“I thought (Sergio) Mitre threw the ball pretty good,” Joe Girardi said. “Ace was up a little bit, missed some spots. Obviously there are some emotions that they’ve had to deal with today and those are understandable, but Serge threw the ball pretty good.”

Mitre was good. He allowed one run, two hits and walked a batter through his two innings of work, but the run came on a seeing-eye single that would have been a double play had Robinson Cano not been on his way to cover second base with a runner moving from first.

CC Sabathia also had an ugly line in a Triple-A game: 3.2 IP, 7 H, 7 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HP, 2 HR -– 88 pitches, 58 strikes. The good news is Sabathia threw an additional 12 pitches in the bullpen, so his pitch count got up to an even 100.

Some good pitching lines to look at:

Boone Logan: One hitless, walkless inning.
Dave Robertson: One scoreless inning, one strikeout, one walk.
Chan Ho Park: Two scoreless innings, two strikeouts, no walks.

“Chan-Ho has pitched exceptionally this spring,” Girardi said. “Whether he’s sunk it, he’s cut it, he’s thrown his curveball and change. He’s thrown all of his pitches and thrown the ball very well for us.”

That’s another Associated Press photo.

YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Nick Johnson DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Marcus Thames LF
Randy Winn CF
Francisco Cervelli C

RHP Alfredo Aceves

ORIOLES
Felix Pie LF
Miguel Tejeda 3B
Nick Markakis RF
Matt Wieters C
Adam ones CF
Luke Scott DH
Garrett Atkins 1B
Ty Wigginton 2B
Cesar Izturis SS

RHP Brad Bergesen

TIME/TV: 1:05 p.m./MASN in the DC/Baltimore area

WEATHER: Cloudy but not really threatening. Temperature in the high 70s.

UMPIRES: HP John Hirschbeck, 1B Tim Welke, 2B Wally Bell, 3B Bill Welke

ON THE LINE: With Phil Hughes locked into the rotation, the biggest decisions the Yankees have to make are whether to carry a second lefty and whether to carry Marcus Thames as their last man on the bench (which seems likely). Boone Logan made the trip and is available out of the bullpen. Thames is starting in left field.

UPDATE, 1:32 p.m.: Adam Jones just took Aceves deep, a two-run homer in the bottom of the second inning. The press box here is pretty close to the field, and Jones is a much bigger guy than I realized. I’ve been sold on him for a while, just didn’t realize he was this thick.

UPDATE, 1:55 p.m.: Two-run double by Matt Wieters. It’s now 4-0 Orioles in the third. Aceves is getting knocked around, 6 hits in 2+ innings.

UPDATE, 1:56 p.m.: Aceves is finished after a walk to Jones. He got no outs here in the third inning and leaves with a 4-0 deficit and runners at first and second. Boone Logan is in to face Luke Scott.

UPDATE, 2:01 p.m.: Logan got a ground ball to the right side, but the wall was thrown away and Scott got to second on the error. One run scored and it’s now 5-0. Make that 6-0 on a sac fly by Atkins.

UPDATE, 2:42 p.m.: Earlier we had a delay because an umpire was hit by a foul ball, now we’ve had a very brief delay because the sprinklers turned on in foul territory. It’s currently 7-0 in the bottom of the fifth. Mitre pitched a scoreless fourth.

UPDATE, 2:50 p.m.: Runners at first and second with one out, Mitre induced a routine double play ball to second. But the runners were going on the play, Cano was on his way to cover second base and the ball got through for an RBI single. Tough luck. Then again, Mitre had hit the previous batter to get into that situation. It’s now 8-0 Orioles.