The Girl Who Loved Andy Pettitte

Last night, Joey Gathright jumped over Hiroki Kuroda to get a base hit. Did you know he also jumps over cars?

Spring Training is a time for experimentation, most notably for pitchers. Mike Mussina is pitching inside, Chien-Ming Wang is dusting off his secondary pitches, etc. They’re also shaking the dust off their arms. What this means is that you can’t expect them to look super amazing. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t worry if someone [...]

1B Jason Giambi - If he is healthy, there is no reason (or justification) to keep him out of the starting lineup. Not the hitter he used to be, but still useful.
2B Robinson Cano
3B Alex Rodriguez
SS Derek Jeter
RF Bobby Abreu
CF Melky Cabrera - I love Melky a lot, but don’t be surprised if he is [...]

I missed yesterday’s game, but I watched a little bit on mlb.tv and Ian Kennedy’s command looked a little weird. I’m not overly concerned, since it’s Spring Training and he’s probably testing things out. Today’s game had weirder Spring Training quirks anyway.

Wang 4.1 6 4 4 2 7 1

Wang had 7 strikeouts, which is strange for Wang in any game never [...]

(Was busy yesterday and didn’t get a chance to finish this–better late than never, I say.)
The game against the Pirates was Mike Mussina’s third start in Spring Training, where he has looked anywhere from awful to okay. Today, he looked great.

Mussina 5.0 0 0 0 0 2 0

His breaking balls were really sharp once again, and overall he looked very good. [...]

If there is one idea circulating this Spring Training that makes me unreasonably angry it’s the large amount of people in the media who think that the Yankees should keep Joba Chamberlain in the bullpen. I know the bullpen is a weakness, but Joba is really a starter and has several excellent pitches and needs [...]

Wang’s last outing wasn’t very good, so everyone was looking for him to improve today. The good news is that he did.

Wang 3.2 2 0 0 2 1 0

The first inning, his fastball wasn’t really sinking like it should but he still got his outs. It was generally hitting 93-95MPH which is good because it means he wasn’t overthrowing, which is what [...]

Chamberlain 2.1 2 0 0 0 1 0

Joba’s second start didn’t go by without its bumps, he didn’t show very good command of his fastball in the first inning and wasn’t pitching aggressively. With the kind of stuff he has, Joba really should not be trying to paint corners. He was originally meant to go four innings but hit his pitch [...]

Ladies and gentlemen, Clayton Kershaw:

Phil Hughes picked up where he left off his last outing. Rain will not keep him down.

Hughes 4.0 0 0 0 2 1 0

Those two walks were both in the fourth inning and were both four pitch walks, when Hughes seemed a little tired. Girardi left him in to get out of the jam, and he did it. I was impressed [...]