Open Thread: 3/3 Camp Notes

March 3, 2012 by Mike Axisa 32 Comments

Jorge Vazquez, Dontrelle Willis — Jorge Vazquez doubled off Dontrelle Willis. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The Yankees beat the Phillies 8-5 in the their first official Grapefruit League game this afternoon. Cole Garner (2-for-2 with a bomb to left and a big league bat flip) is the early favorite for the Jon Weber Memorial He Should Make The Team! Award, and Curtis Granderson (2-for-2 with a double to right-center and a homer to left) did some nice things as well. It was really windy in Clearwater, everything hit in the air was an adventure.

Ivan Nova sure looked like a pitcher in his first Spring Training outing, leaving a lot of breaking balls up in the zone. I did see one really nice changeup for a swing-and-miss though. Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances were all over the place, but I thought David Phelps looked surprisingly good for early-March. He was probably the most impressive pitcher of the day, for either team. Eduardo Nunez (booted a grounder), Jayson Nix (airmailed a throw), and Nova (threw away a pickoff throw) all made errors early on. Here’s the box score, and here’s the non-game news from Tampa…

Phil Hughes and some minor leaguers/non-roster invitees threw live batting practice today while Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia threw in the bullpen. Pineda will start Monday’s game while Hughes and Sabathia are scheduled to pitch on Tuesday. All the position players didn’t make the trip to Clearwater hit at the home base. [Chad Jennings]
Hiroki Kuroda will throw a simulated game tomorrow with his first Spring Training start scheduled for Wednesday. Adam Warren, Graham Stoneburner, and Brett Marshall will all throw bullpens tomorrow after pitching against the University of South Florida yesterday. [also Jennings]
Pretty neat story from Tim Brown about Alex Rodriguez, who gave the team a bit of a motivational speech prior to yesterday’s game against USF.

Here’s tonight’s open thread. None of the hockey or basketball locals are playing tonight, but MLB Network is showing a replay of this afternoon’s Yankees-Phillies game. You folks know what to do by now, so have it.

DM

Highlight of the day for me was Almonte’s AB. He looked much more “hitterish” than I expected. Pleasant surprise.
Paul VuvuZuvella

Definitely a neat story on Alex.
Preston

I definitely enjoyed that A-Rod story.
- Steve (different one)
  
  Me too. Goosebumps. Let’s go….
  - I am not the droids you’re looking for…
    
    Seriously. Goose bumps. Awesome.
    
    Couldn’t help but wonder what goes through Jeter’s mind during those ten minutes. I also wonder if this was the kind of thing Posada would normally have done, and whether Alex was basically taking over the tradition, or carving out a new one. Either way I think this is phenomenal, sort of the logical extension of the mentoring of younger players we already knew about.
    
    Play. Fucking. Ball.
- Paul VuvuZuvella
  
  He’s becoming a Mensch, or maybe a Buddha, I get them mixed up. He’s becoming Yoda like.
http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/63320Paul,Ilovedyourhandlesomuch,Irippeditoffformyfantasyleague'stitle.Westillneedacoupleteamsforacompetitive,butjustforprideleaguewherewe'vetriedtomatchupth The Fuzz of Reggie’s Beard

“Paul”, I loved your handle so much, I ripped it off for my fantasy league’s title. We still need a couple teams for a competitive, but just for pride league where we’ve tried to match up the scoring with more legitimate stats (like reducing the value for win in favor of “quality starts”, the best measure yahoo allows. We’re also open to scoring adjustments.)
http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/63320
- Paul VuvuZuvella
  
  Wear it well grasshopper ;)
http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/63320Paul,Ilovedyourhandlesomuch,Irippeditoffformyfantasyleague'stitle.Westillneedacoupleteamsforacompetitive,butjustforprideleaguewherewe'vetriedtomatchupth The Fuzz of Reggie’s Beard

Ugh. Kept seeing “comment failed.’ Sorry for the repeats.
- Plank
  
  The mobile version of this site sucks. Also, if you switch the box so you see the regular version, it reloads the mobile version again. Very frustrating.
  
  The irony is that the regular version of the page is infinitely more readable on an iphone than the mobile version.
  - forensic
    
    I had that same aggravating problem and have since switched to using the ‘Atomic’ web browser. You can customize that stuff in the settings and it has several other very useful functions such as a bottom of page button to bring you to the bottom of the possibly long lists of comments. Don’t know if it’s available on all phones/tablets or whatever you have, but I highly recommend checking it out.
the other Steve S.

Where in the world did you get “through live batting practice”? Using voice recognition software?
http://twitter.com/#!/czm26 Craig

Lincecum was only topping 90 today, while Noesi was apparently hitting 94-96 according to Gameday.
- whozat
  
  Noesi played winter ball, while this was Timmy’s first game action since last fall. As we saw with Colon last year, that can make a big difference early in spring training :-)
- pat
  
  Noesi >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Lincecum
- Bo Knows
  
  I would put money on most starters being a couple of mph off their norm at this point.
http://twitter.com/#!/czm26 Craig

I have to opportunity to meet Dave Dravecky in August. Does anyone have any meetings with players they’d like to reflect on/share?
- http://twitter.com/steveh603 Steve H
  
  http://mystiqueandaura.com/2010/03/24/my-brush-with-a-milb-legend/
- Plank
  
  I used to see Yogi Berra around town pretty regularly growing up.
  - Paul VuvuZuvella
    
    Hopefully, when you got to the fork on the road, you took it.
    Anyone know if Whitey is there this year?
- Midland TX
  
  I hear he’s a very disarming guy.
TypicalTrollDbag

Manny and Dellin looked soft. Looked like they couldn’t handle the limelight of a pennant race if push came to shove. Yanks should probably look to trade them both while value is high for a solid RF prospect like Josh Reddick. Swish is a playoff faker and will never be a productive OF like Ty Wigginton.
- jsbrendog
  
  my sarcasm meter is going off. please tell me im right
  - Plank
    
    I think the name says it all.
- Jesse
  
  I laughed.
http://www.bronxbombersreport.com Craig Maduro

Also…

Carolina smashed Duke tonight.

Heels and Yanks. Does it get any better?
- gc
  
  Yes. Kentucky and the Yankees. The last six times the Wildcats won the NCAA title, the Yanks have won the World Series.
  - Jesse
    
    Wow. Had no idea that has happened. I’m by no means a Kentucky fan, but I hope they win the NCAA tourney this year, haha.
  - Steve (different one)
    
    That’s a cool stat. Although the yanks did win the WS the last time UNC won a title, so it’s ok to pull for the Heels…Maybe they are just in the beginning of their 6 coincidental title run.
Eirias

So, Ike Davis may have Coccidioidomycosis, aka “Valley fever.” Oh, those Mets…
- I am not the droids you’re looking for…
  
  Trade him to LA.
Monterowasdinero

On Betances: his mechanics need a lot of work. A big project for Rothschild. Must be scary to get in the box against
him.