Andrew Marchand of 1050 ESPN Radio interviewed me for their Hot Stove Tracker report. So have a listen.

As the Yankees wait for Mike Mussina to make it official, they scheduled two exhibition games against the Cubs.

This release from the Yankees:

YANKEES TO PLAY FIRST-EVER EXHIBITION GAMES AT NEW YANKEE STADIUM ON APRIL 3 AND 4 AGAINST THE CHICAGO CUBS

The New York Yankees announced today they will play the first-ever exhibition games at the new Yankee Stadium against the Chicago Cubs on Friday, April 3 at 7:05 p.m. and Saturday, April 4 at 1:05 p.m.

Mike Mussina knows he has a decision to make and it’s coming soon.

His agent, Arn Tellem, said in an e-mail this afternoon that he expects Moose to make a decision by the end of this week or early next week.

At this stage, it’s not about the money. It’s about whether he wants to commit to the time away from his family. Had Moose gone 12-12, I bet he would be officially retired by now. But winning 20 games complicated the process.

I still firmly believe he will retire and have yet to find anybody with the Yankees who thinks otherwise. If there is one player who can walk away after a great season, it’s Mike. Baseball needs him more than he needs baseball.

Mike Cummings, who works for the Scranton Yankees, dropped us a line to announce that the club is selling game-used jerseys on EBay.

This from Mike: Right now we have some of the home ones up but will also be listing the roads and alternate blue jerseys as well. It will take a few months to list them all so fans should keep checking.

If they want to just buy them direct, they can send me an e-mail to Mike Cummings at mcummings@swbyankees.com for pricing information.

I would think the Shelley Duncan jersey would go fast. Wearing it would make you impervious to pain. Plus you’d have free reign to tackle your friends for no particular reason.

Here’s the best news of the day: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have a new record coming out on Jan. 27 called Working On A Dream. So that’s what I’ll be listening to in Tampa.

The first song is called Outlaw Pete, which could be my favorite Bruce ever even though I haven’t heard it yet.

One of my off-season habits is to create a list of free agents the Yankees are or might be interested in and try and stay in touch with their agents, or the player himself if possible.

I was updating that list today and noticed were no relief pitchers on it. When is the last time that was the case?

If there is one area of the team the Yankees appear settled, it’s the bullpen. Take a look at the depth chart:

Closer: Mariano Rivera.

Left-handed set-up: Damaso Marte, Phil Coke

Right-handed set-up: Brian Bruney, Jose Veras, Edwar Ramirez

Promising young guys who are moving up: David Robertson, Mark Melancon

Injured guys who could have a role: Humberto Sanchez, Jon Albaladejo

Guys you get a sense could help if they didn’t send them back and fourth to Scranton 500 times: Chris Britton

Assorted long reliever candidates: Dan Giese, Alfredo Aceves

Guys they’re still holding a candle for: J.B. Cox

Minor-league starters who could be good major-league relievers: Chase Wright, Alan Horne, Eric Hacker

Prospects below AAA who could make a move in 2009: Kevin Whelan, Anthony Claggett, Zach Kroenke

That’s 20 pitchers and I’m sure I’m missing a few. The point is that the Yankees have done a nice job of finding and cultivating bullpen arms and it saves them from having to invest in free-agent relievers.

If you’re on Facebook, the LoHud Yankees Blog group is now operational. Thought it might be a good way to encourage more people to read the blog and/or get to know each other better.

So now you have that option. My hope is that Facebook will enhance the social network going on here, not take away from it. If you have any concerns or suggestions, please drop me an e-mail.

UPDATE, 12:35 p.m.: Nothing is changing with this blog. Just trying to use Facebook to generate some more interest, that’s all.

It’s Monday. Time to answer a few e-mails. There have been some doozies lately …

Anthony writes: People are praising the Yankees for the Nick Swisher deal, citing that he has the potential to be a 20-30 home run hitter for the Yankees and continue to become a big on-base percentage type guy. My question is this: Why didn’t the Yankees just bring Giambi back? You got a home run hitter, a high on-base percentage guy, plus you get a higher batting average then Swisher’s .219. You also get more RBI’s out of Giambi than Swisher.

Answer: Swisher is due only $5.3 million next season, less than what Giambi will command. The Big G also will be 38 in January and was one of the worst first basemen in the game last season. Swisher may not drive in as many runs as Giambi,but there are plenty of other qualities he will bring to the table.
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Pete writes: Could you explain what it would take to get Jake Peavy? I have heard a lot of reports over the last year that Towers and the Padres have liked Igawa for a while. In your opinion, could Hughes and Igawa get it done or Igawa, Kennedy, and Austin Jackson?

Answer: People need to forget about Jake Peavy. His agent, Barry Axelrod, had made it clear that Peavy will want compensation to to waive his no-trade rights. So for the Yankees to acquire him, it would take a package of their best prospects and a contract extension. This for a guy who seems determined not to pitch in the AL. I just don’t see it happening. But to answer your questions, Igawa has no value. It would take Hughes or Jackson and at least two other good prospects. That group would include Kennedy, Melancon, McAllister, Betances, players like that.
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Mike writes (and this is verbatim): Do you think any trades for the Yankees will happen in the next few days do you think cc will sign with the yankees what pitchers do you think we will get we should get rid of arod he sucks

Answer: Punctuation is your friend, Mike. Learn it. I don’t see any trades in the next few days. I do think Sabathia will sign. I think the Yankees also will get A.J. Burnett or Derek Lowe. And they should not get rid of A-Rod. While he is a strange dude at times, he doesn’t suck at baseball.
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Dan writes: Has there been any speculation about making a play for Adam Dunn? He’s a below average fielder, and the last thing the Yankees need is another DH, but he might allow them to package Matsui into a deal for a pitcher somewhere along the line.

Answer: Not that I have heard. Dunn is a remarkably consistent offensive player. But the Yankees seem pretty determined to try and improve their defense and get more athletic and Dunn would not serve those purposes. I also don’t see Matsui having much trade value after two knee surgeries in the span of 11 months.
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Mike writes: I’ve been wondering, where do the Yankees stand with Xavier Nady? Do you see him playing in pinstripes next season? I haven’t heard anything about him lately and was wondering if you knew anything.

Answer: Brian Cashman said just the other day that Nady is their starting RF next season. That was their intention when they traded for him, I believe.
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Zack writes: I just have two questions. One: if you ran the Yankees who would you sign? A.J. Burnett or Derek Lowe? Two: What do you think the Yankees bullpen will look like at the beginning of next year? Does Phil Coke have a chance with the signing of Marte?

Answer: That’s three questions, Zack. I would sign Lowe, who will likely get a shorter-term deal and is more reliable than Burnett. If they have Sabathia and Wang, they need a solid No. 3 starter. That’s Lowe. I think the bullpen will look pretty much like it did last season, which is to say it will be pretty good. Coke will get his chance, but signing Marte gives the organization a chance to see if he can be developed into a starter. If I ran the Yankees, I’d want to give a young left-hander with a good arm every chance to be a starter.
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Bob writes: Are the Yanks 100 percent committed to Cano? I would love it if they could deal him and sign Orlando Hudson. I would take virtually anything for Cano at this point.

Answer: They are. Why else would they send Kevin Long to the Dominican Republic this week to work with him? I also disagree strongly with the idea of trading him. He had a down season, why trade him when his value is low? I’d also rather have a 26-year-old player signed to a reasonable contract than the 31-year-old Hudson, who will cost more. It’s amazing to me how people have turned on Cano. But then few Yankees fans have patience for young players.
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Adalberto writes: Is there any chance the Twins could trade Carlos Gomez and wouldn’t the Yankees be in the mix for him? He’s 23, fast, a work in progress and he’s got good defense and plays first base. Kevin Long could work with him on his hitting.

Answer: Why would the Twins trade a 0-3 service time player they really like? Beyond that, Gomez has never played first base in his life as far as I know. He’s a center fielder.
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Albert writes: Last year the Yankees signed a few pitchers that had big league success at one point but had sort of fallen off the face of the earth, such as Eric Milton, Sidney Ponson, and Victor Zambrano to name a few. What are the chances the yankes take a flyer on Mark Prior? Maybe a two-year deal loaded with incentives?

Answer: Prior’s long injury history suggests that he would be a risk. But I would think he’ll sign a minor-league deal with somebody if he rehabs successfully from his shoulder surgery.
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Jim writes: At this time last year there was quite a bit of talk about the Yankees going back to having a long reliever/spot starter type guy. It never happened but I think it is still a good idea. They need someone to eat up innings in blowouts and give a decent start when needed. Any ideas? Maybe Aceves?

Answer: In spring training last year, Joe Girardi talked often about having a long reliever and then they broke camp without one. I think they should fill that spot and Aceves makes sense. I’d rather use an older guy in that spot instead of a younger prospect.
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Finally, this is my favorite e-mail of the week …

John writes: Pete, I’m sick of you saying that the Yankees can’t sign Sabathia and Teixeira. In my mind, they need to sign CC, Tex, Manny and Brian Fuentes to be the set-up man for Mo. Or K-Rod, then he can take over for Mo. Tell Cashman. I think you’re getting paid by the team to lower expectations with the fans so you all make money.

Answer: I’ve been exposed. The Yankees have been sending me under-the-table payments for several months now. I’m blogging this from my beach-side cabana in St. Thomas while Ashanti and Eliza Dushku fetch frozen drinks. Gotta run. Remember, Paul Byrd makes perfect sense.

Tyler Kepner of the Times wrote a good blog entry about Darrell Rasner for Bats. Rasner was a player everybody on the beat rooted for because he was unfailingly professional with us. Here’s wishing him good luck in Japan.

Gawker mentioned my blog today and it wasn’t to expose me as some sort of mainstream media idiot. That’s a good thing.

The Waikiki Beach Boys are in the Hawaii Winter League title game today. Damon Sublett is their DH. Here’s how Jeremy Bleich finished in Hawaii: six starts, 30.2 innings, 24 hits, 7 ER, 8 BB, 31 K,1 HR. Pretty solid. It’ll be interesting to see how far he advances next season.

It’s easy to follow the guys in various winter leagues, by the way.

One of our readers in Virginia, Rick, sent along this link to the web site of 2,175 for ALS. Ben Davis is hiking the Appalachian Trail (2,175 miles) to raise money for ALS research.

In case you missed it, Fire Joe Morgan called it quits. The Hat Guy must be relieved.

Kevin Long will be in the Dominican Republic this week working with Robinson Cano to polish up the changes they made to his batting stance at the end of last season. Brian Cashman will listen to any offer that comes along. But the Yankees didn’t send their batting coach from Arizona to the Dominican to tutor a player they want to trade.