Pitchers and catchers officially report to Tampa for the time today, but as we already know, just about everyone is there already. PeteAbe has a list of who’s throwing in the bullpen today:
Burnett (Molina)
Chamberlain (Cash)
Kennedy (Romine)
Sabathia (Posada)
Pete also says that Brian Bruney, Dan Giese, Jose Veras, Jon Albaladejo, Kei Igawa, David Robertson and a handful of minor leaguers will also take the mound. Oh, and apparently no one’s told CC to lose the beard yet.
Now here’s a question: Given the concerns about Posada’s shoulder, would it be prudent for the Yanks to let Molina be the personal catcher for say, Burnett and Joba this year? My highly unscientific reasoning is that 1) Burnett can be wild, so it would be nice to have the better defender back there, and 2) Joba has better splits throwing to Molina (.178-.264-.228 against) than Posada (.231-.300-.307). This would also split up the chore of each guy having to learn two new pitchers. Posada’s familiar with Pettitte and Wang obviously, so now he can focus on CC while Molina tackles AJ.
There’s also the added benefit of Posada working with two lefties, who are naturally better at controlling the running game. Given the uncertain state of his shoulder, that’s a pretty big bonus. A “catcher rotation” like this would put Posada on pace to catch about 98 games this year (basically 60% of a 162 game season), but skipping a few Joba starts will put him up around 105-110 games caught, right about where they want him. It would also keep him fresh for the stretch run, theoretically.
Eh, I guess I’m just thinking out loud.
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