The LoHud Yankees Blog

We’re getting started here at the Derek Jeter press conference. Of course the early questions have been about his offseason contract negotiations.

“I can’t say I’m any more motivated by anything that went on in the offseason,” Jeter said.

UPDATE, 9:23 a.m.: Jeter said his winter work with Kevin Long was no different from his work with Long late last season. He said his swing will look physically no different than it was down the stretch.

“You won’t see anything different,” Jeter said.

UPDATE, 9:26 a.m.: “When you’re younger I don’t think you have to do as much (to be ready for the season).”

UPDATE, 9:30 a.m.: On approaching 3,000 hits: “Have fun with it. I think that’s the thing I’m going to try to focus on.” Jeter said because it’s a hit milestone, he doesn’t have to do anything different. He goes to the plate trying to get a hit anyway.

UPDATE, 9:33 a.m.: A few years ago Jeter began talking with Long about the idea of taking out his stride. He used to occasionally not stride in the cage during batting practice.

More early activity than usual here at Steinbrenner Field this morning.

In deep right field, Joba Chamberlain just finished warming up and walked into the bullpen, and now Ivan Nova is warming up with some flat-ground throwing before he too goes for an early bullpen.

In shallow right field, Melky Mesa, Bradley Suttle, Justin Maxwell  and a fourth player I can’t ID are doing some light jogging, apparently getting ready for some sort of early work of their own. I would guess that they’re about to take some fly balls — there are coaches holding bats as if they’re about to hit a few — but a third baseman is in the mix, so maybe they’re just getting loose before they go to the cage.

Today’s main events will take place later this morning.

First Derek Jeter will address the media, then the Yankees will hold their first full-squad workout of the spring.

Associated Press photo of Jeter with CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, pitchers and position players together again

I wouldn’t expect anything too drastic, but Joe Girardi said this afternoon that he’s been discussing different lineup ideas, and we might see some different looks this spring.

“We’ll continue to talk about our lineup and how guys fit in,” Girardi said. “Right now we don’t expect a ton of changes. We’ve talked about some things internally that we might try to do. I don’t really want to get into it, but we’re not really sure exactly how our lineup’s going to break… We might play around a little bit in spring training.”

Girardi specifically mentioned Curtis Granderson’s strong finish as something that he’s been considering while thinking about the lineup. Girardi has already said he’s leaning toward keeping Derek Jeter in the leadoff spot. Asked about the 3, 4, 5 hitters, Girardi didn’t commit to anything, but he did say that last season he never considered switching Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano, despite the fact Teixeira was struggling and Cano was thriving.

“No, I didn’t,” Girardi said. “I have to manage people over the long haul. You can’t manage short term, when it’s April and May. You just can’t do it. It’s a lot more than what he does for you today. There’s personality, the feelings, the confidence, how it affects your lineup. It’s a lot. Managing people is different than managing robots.”

• Speaking of his lineup, Girardi said he thinks Alex Rodriguez can still be a guy who hits .300 with 40 home runs. “That’s obviously a monster year, but I don’t think he’s past that point,” Girardi said. He also said Rodriguez might benefit from being more comfortable with his surgically repaired hip this season. “I would expect that this year there will be more of a confidence in that hip, in the way it feels, and that he’s beyond this and he can move freely,” Girardi said.

• At the opposite corner of the infield, Teixeira seems fully healthy, and although Girardi knows he might need someone else to play first occasionally, he said he doesn’t feel the need to give Teixeira significant time off. “It’s something that I’ll watch,” Girardi said. “He’s an everyday guy, but maybe if you get into a real long stretch, maybe you give him a day off.”

• Speaking of first base, last season the Yankees opened with Nick Johnson as a backup at the position. This year Girardi said the team will look at Eric Chavez and Ronnie Belliard as possible backup options at first. If neither makes the team, the Yankees could always give Nick Swisehr — and maybe even Jorge Posada — a little bit of time at first.

• Hector Noesi is expected to be ready to jump right into the Yankees throwing program tomorrow. “Noesi actually will be in uniform tomorrow and ready to throw, which is good to hear,” Girardi said.

• I wasn’t on the field to see batting practice, but Brett Gardner was once again listed in the second hitting group. He wasn’t in camp yesterday, but Gardner has been hitting with the veteran catchers most of the week.

• In the back of the Yankees clubhouse, Nick Swisher has a locker right next to his old Oakland teammate, Eric Chavez. Swisher said he’s expecting a bounce back year from Chavez, and Swisher promised Chavez that he’d love playing in New York.

• Yesterday morning, Phil Hughes walked into the clubhouse completely drenched in sweat. I thought he’d been out throwing a bullpen, and didn’t get a chance to talk to him before the clubhouse closed. He seriously looked like he’d just thrown 100 pitches in a row. Turned out, it was all cardio. His bullpen yesterday was almost exactly like his bullpen on Wednesday, two sets of roughly 20 pitches with a very small break in the middle.

• Mark Prior threw one of the early morning bullpens, which is usually a green light to be one of the first guys out of the complex. Instead, Prior was still here pretty late, including some training work on the back fields.

Associated Press photos: Rodriguez and Eduardo Nunez; Gardner and Kevin Long

This winter, Mark Teixeira bought a pitching machine. He gave it to Bobby Valentine’s Sports Academy in Stamford, CT., where kids can use the machine for their own batting practice. It’s available to anyone. Most days, anyway.

“They make sure that, when I’m in there, I get the cage to myself,” Teixeira said.

It took Teixeira four or five weeks to rebound from his October hamstring injury, and it took him until the end of December to begin to feel comfortable with his bruised hand and broken toe, but when he was healthy enough to swing a bat, Teixeira started hitting. And he kept hitting.

Last year was unusually inconsistent for the Yankees first baseman. He finished with the lowest batting average of his career, and the lowest slugging percentage since his rookie year. He hit .244 against right-handed pitchers. To remedy those numbers, he’s committed himself to more time in the cage, whether back home in Connecticut or down here in Tampa or back at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.

“At the end of the day, no matter how long I’ve been playing baseball, I’m still a right-handed hitter who switch hits,” Teixeira said. “I’ve had to work harder at it (from the left side)… That muscle memory is very, very important. My attitude this year is, if I have a half hour, instead of putting it in the gym lifting weight, put it in the cage and make sure my left-handed swing is consistent.”

Manager Joe Girardi said he never considered pulling Teixeira out of the No. 3 spot in the lineup last season, trusting that a hitter who had shown such consistency would eventually hit up to his ability. And Teixera had stretches of his old MVP-caliber self.

But Teixeira is also well aware that last season was not up to his standards. He’s also aware that last year started with another bad month of April, something he would like to avoid this time around.

“This spring training, I told K-Long, give me some tough love,” Teixeira said. “Don’t tell me I’m doing OK if I’m not. I want to make sure, April 1 or March 30, whatever it is, that we’re ready to go.”

Here’s Teixeira.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Associated Press photo

This morning, Mark Teixeira called the Yankees underdogs, and said he enjoys coming to camp with that kind of target on his back.

“It’s a lot of fun because we’re the underdogs this year,” Teixeira said. “I love it. No one’s picking us right now, and everyone in here should be looking forward to winning a championship. When you put on the pinstripes, that’s exactly what your goal should be every year. I think everyone understands that. Just because the public might not be picking us doesn’t mean we don’t believe it in here.”

Brian Cashman just came to the press box to talk to the media, and he said he likes Teixeira’s approach.

“I think it means, I want the collective to think we have to fight,” Cashman said. “We’ve worn the target of being the hunted. Let’s be the hunter, see if that works well for us.”

As he’s said previously this winter, Cashman said the Red Sox are a better team on paper because they seem to be a finished product. The Yankees still have some uncertainty and things that could be addressed down the road.

“I have more work to get accomplished,” Cashman said. “They’ve accomplished all of their roster goals. I have yet to accomplish all of my roster goals… If this were a horse race, they would have the inside lane as the race starts. They’d have the pole position. Doesn’t mean you win the race.”

• Cashman once again said he’s open to making a move, but he’s not close to a move. “I have nothing I’m involved with right now,” he said. “Zero.”

• Robinson Cano was a light arrival because he got the dates mixed up. He thought the physicals were tomorrow and the first workout was Monday. “No biggie,” Cashman said. This morning, Curtis Granderson was talking about how none of the position players working out at the minor league complex this week seemed to know for sure what day they were supposed to report.

• Hector Noesi is supposed to fly into town tonight. “Until I actually see him, I’m going to keep it at, there’s a chance,” Cashman said.

• Bartolo Colon’s weight doesn’t bother Cashman. “We saw him pitching in winter ball,” Cashman said. “We know what we signed.” Cashman said Colon is athletic enough to keep up with everyone, despite his size. “He is what he is,” Cashman said. “We’ll condition him like everyone else, but there’s no crack down on him. I signed him for a reason, and I know what I signed.”

• Asked about Alex Rodriguez showing up a little lighter this spring, Cashman zinged a one-liner: “He’s lighter. That’s all I’ll say.” Given this week’s Joba Chamberlain conversation, it was hilarious.

Associated Press photo of Rodriguez and Teixeira

Kind of an unusual day today. Pretty much the entire beat spent the late morning and early afternoon standing around in the corridor beneath the stands, waiting for players to either talk to the media or go to the field for workouts. There wasn’t much of either, mostly just a bunch of fruitless standing around.

But, the full team — most of it anyway — is finally in camp. A few quick thoughts on the first day with the full roster:

• Alex Rodriguez is slightly thinner. It’s not a drastic difference, not something that jumped out at me when I saw him, but Joe Girardi acknowledged that his third baseman lost a little bit of weight this offseason. “That was his idea,” Girardi said. Sounds like the Yankees were on board, though.

• Robinson Cano isn’t here yet. Girardi wouldn’t say why Cano wasn’t in camp this morning, but Cano is expected to arrive late this afternoon or early this evening. He’ll be ready for tomorrow’s full-squad workout.

• The only other position player who stands out as someone I didn’t see was Ronnie Belliard. But I might have just missed him. Girardi said everyone will be here at some point today.

• Nick Swisher was his old self, happy as ever. He said he’s enjoying the married life. “Amazing,” he said. “Loving it.” He kept his offseason routine the exact same this year as last year. If it ain’t broke…

• Mark Teixeira said his hamstring injury took only four or five weeks to heal. It was the bruised hand and broken toe that didn’t feel 100 percent until early January. “I’m going to get hit with pitches, I’m going to dive and jam stuff,” Teixeira said. “You just have to play through it and hope for the best.”

• It’s easy to see why the Justin Maxwell scouting reports rave about his athleticism. The guy is tall and lean. He just looks like a guy who can go get the ball in center field and drive the ball gap to gap. Of course, I like him because when I told him I went to Missouri he immediately started asking about Kareem Rush. The guy knows some Mizzou basketball. What’s not to like?

• Colin Curtis went from having a locker last spring that was tucked in a rather obscure, decidedly minor league portion of the room, to having a spot in the back row with Swisher, Teixeira, Eric Chavez, Curtis Granderson and Andruw Jones.

• Since I wasn’t around a computer this morning to post the bullpen assignments, I’ll post them here. CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Prior all threw early this morning, leaving only two groups for the regular bullpens.

Group 1
Bartolo Colon (to Austin Romine)
Freddy Garcia (to Jesus Montero)
Sergio MItre (to Gustavo Molina)
Boone Logan (to Jose Gil)

Group 2
Luis Ayala (to Francisco Cervelli)
Buddy Carlyle (to Gustavo Molina)
Robert Fish (to Jose Gil)
Ryan Pope (to Kyle Higashioka)

Associated Press photos of Jeter and Swisher

No official workout for position players today, but Alex Rodriguez still made his way to the half fields behind Steinbrenner Field to go through some fielding drills.

First Rodriguez got on his knees in foul territory, where he fielded a series of two-hop grounders. He did some with his body facing the hitter, some with his glove side toward the hitter and some with his throwing hand toward the hitter. He was just picking the ball off the hop.

Rodriguez then took some standard grounders from the edge of the infield grass at third base. This time he actually made throws across the diamond. It was nothing too intense, just some light early work.

Of course, every writer and photographer stuck around the field, just in case Rodriguez or any other position player stopped to talk. None of them did, including Rodriguez, who was eventually driven out of the stadium in a golf cart.

As Rodriguez took the field for drills, photographers snapped a series of pictures. His teammates, of course, couldn’t let that attention slide.

It was Joba Chamberlain who came through and poked a little fun: “Smile pretty, honey.”

Derek Jeter was the first position player I saw when the clubhouse opened this morning. The last guy to walk in, just as the clubhouse was closing to the media, was Alex Rodriguez.

Looks like everyone is here, or at least almost everyone. The only big name I didn’t see this morning was Robinson Cano, but that doesn’t mean much. He easily could have been out of the clubhouse, but still somewhere in the stadium.

The weight watchers stories will probably come to an end. All of the hitters seemed to be in good shape, including Mark Teixeira who said he took a lot more swings than usual this winter, trying to break his string of bad Aprils and trying to correct some problems with his left-handed swing.

Otherwise, it was business as usual this morning. Camp is starting to get a lot more lively.

Spring training is about to get a little more lively.

Position players report today for their physicals, They’ll be in and out of the clubhouse throughout the morning, though I’m sure we’ll never see some of the guys. Physicals started at 7:30, so some guys have been here for a while.

First full-squad workout isn’t until tomorrow. Derek Jeter will address the media Sunday. Alex Rodriguez will do his press conference on Monday. No specific reason for the Jeter and Rodriguez events, those two are simply the most prominent Yankees and they’re going to be surrounded by media one way or the other. Might as well do it in an organized setting.

As for the early morning work, Mark Prior was on the field when I got to the stadium. He’ll be one of the guys throwing an early one-on-one bullpen with Larry Rothschild.

Associated Press photo of Granderson and Golson at the minor league complex earlier this week

Not much going on today, so it was a good opportunity to talk to the two veterans who are trying to pitch their way into the Yankees rotation. It’s too early to know where Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon stand in the competition — “You don’t put a lot of stock into bullpens, especially this early in camp,” Joe Girardi said — but we can get some idea of how they’re feeling in these early days of spring training.

How well have they been pitching?

It makes no sense to expect either Garcia or Colon to be what they once were, but the Yankees aren’t looking for dominance at the back of the rotation, they’re looking for dependability. Colon said he touched 94 mph this winter in the Dominican Republic, but that doesn’t mean he’s sitting at that sort of velocity and the Yankees haven’t had radar guns for these early bullpens. Garcia said he’s comfortable when he’s 88 to 89 mph, but he’s gotten into trouble when his fastball drops to 83-84.

Colon: “I feel really happy. I’m not throwing hard like I used to, but I know I’m throwing a lot of strikes.”

Garcia: “Last year my ERA was a little high, but it’s because I had three or four real bad games. Most of the time, I was really happy with the way I threw the ball.”

Any current health concerns?

Both have dealt with their share of injuries the past four years or so, but they’re both pitching now, and both say they’re feeling good. For Colon, weight could to be an issue, but he was a big guy even during his best years. For Garcia, a troublesome shoulder seems to have caused him no problems this winter.

Colon: “I feel really good right now the way I am, but I feel like I need to go down with my weight a little bit more.”

Garcia: “I’m really happy with the way I feel… I’m feeling good. I’m feeling 100 percent.”

Why sign with the Yankees?

To some extent, it’s all about opportunity for both Garcia and Colon. They certainly recognize this as a chance to be in a big league rotation again, and as Colon put it, “They gave me the opportunity to pitch again.” But there was certainly an underlying factor for two aging veterans.

Garcia: “I’m 34 years old. I don’t want to go play on one team that’s in last place all the time. I want to be on a winning team.”

Colon: “There were more offers, but I want to be with a team that’s always in the finals.”

Associated Press photo of Garcia