There still is a slight chance, however, that Phillip Hughes beats out Joba in spring training and gets into the starting rotation. With the Yankees luck with starting pitchers over the last couple of seasons there is no doubt in my mind that at least one of the starters will go down to injury for a certain amount of time. So even if Hughes doesn’t start off in the rotation there is a very good chance that he is inserted for the first pitcher to fall.

I think I speak for all Yankees fans when I say I want to see Hughes in the majors again this season because he has some nice stuff and can be a dominant pitcher in this league. Only time will tell though how long Hughes has to wait in the wings again, but don’t expect it to be long.

Torre’s book was not notable for his exquisite metaphors, inquisitive imagery, or anything of that manner. It was revealing the team’s feelings toward Alex Rodriguez, or as the team called him, “A-Fraud”. Now, most players denied these rumors that Torre brought about in his book, but after this past week perhaps Joe wasn’t just bitter about how he went out in New York. A-Rod has been boo’d and cheered during his tenure in NY, but what fuels fans to cheer for the superstar has been his production. A-Rod has to produce to keep NYC off his back, but when he doesn’t terms like A-Fraud come about. It’s the price you pay when you are a high profile athlete in a high profile town. Manny got the same heat and Boston and eventually left. Some players just get tired of it and some players are fueled by it, and one of those players is A-Rod. Rodriguez loves the attention and will do anything to be in the spotlight, but this week I’m sure he wishes it was the late 90′s where he played in Seattle and was a rising star with absolutely no pressure.

A couple of years later he got his contract and cash he earned in Seattle and became a superstar for the Rangers. He played in Texas from 2001-03 where the Rangers finished last all three years. That is time he began juicing. He admitted this week to juicing all three years with the Rangers, but stopping after bolting for NY. Now, what I don’t understand is why would one feel more pressure to put up numbers in Texas, then in NY? Seems a little odd, but this is the Steroid Era in MLB so everything is odd and nobodies word is worth anything anymore, unless your name is Derek Jeter.

Moving forward, Torre may have stirred some people, but A-Rod testing positive for steroids stirred the entire country. With the regular season slowly creeping on us, I have to believe things in NY will not be much different for A-Rod. If he performs to the highest degree possible he’ll still be loved by the Yankee faithful, but if he gets off to a bad slump then it could be a long, draining year for Alex Rodriguez, and perhaps the Yankees as a whole.

Last season Pettitte was 14-14 with a 4.54 ERA for the Yankees. He hopes to improve on that and have a strong second half unlike in the 08 season.

Good deal for the Yankees!

Nady agreed to a one-year, $6.65 million deal, while Cabrera signed a one-year deal worth $1.4 million. Nady earned $3.59 million last season, and is likely to become a free agent after the 2009 season. He has been rumored in some recent trade talk so that could happen before the season starts. Nady at $6.65 million seems like a lot when you see that it is almost double of what he was making last season.

The Yankees will only have to goto a hearing with one player as they were unable to strike a deal with Brian Bruney who was asking for $1.55 million and the Yankees were offering him $1.1 million.

Yankees Blog

The contract would pay Teixeira an average of $22.5 million per season. New York has spent $423.5 million in salary in the last month, with $161 million going to left-handed pitcher C.C. Sabathia in a seven-year deal and $82.5 million on right-hander A.J. Burnett for five years.

The Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals were the two other teams that were in the final three for Tex. This was a big time signing for the Yankees, now let’s all just hope that it doesn’t backfire!

Yankees Blog

Wang was 8-2 with a 4.07 ERA in 15 starts for the Yankees last season before spending the rest of the year on the disabled list with a sprain of the Lisfranc ligament in his right foot and a partial tear of a tendon in the same foot.

If Wang can stay healthy for the Yankees in 2009, expect him to be the number three or four starter in the rotation. Three if Andy Pettitte is not brough back, and number four if he is.

Yankees Blog

“A.J. Burnett has great stuff,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said recently. “I think he’s matured a lot as a pitcher, as well. He’s learned to control the running game a lot better. He attacks hitters and gets hitters out quickly, throws a lot of strikes, fields his position. I think he’s much more complete as a pitcher than he was a couple of years ago.”

As long as he can stay healthy I think this is a good signing for the Yankees. He will be a great addition to the starting rotation that is for sure.

Yankees Baseball

Sabathia, 117-73 in eight big league seasons, will bring something to the Yankees that they haven’t had in three decades: a relatively youthful pitcher at the top of their rotation. Traded to the Brewers by the Indians on July 7, the left-hander almost single-handedly carried Milwaukee to its first postseason berth in 26 years by going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in 17 starts.

Sabathia had been courted by the Milwaukee Brewers, the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Red Sox. The Los Angeles Dodgers said that Sabathia, who lives in California, had expressed interest in playing there, too, although the team did not publicly make him an offer.

In the end however, Sabathia chose the Yankees and he hopes to get back into post season action this next year. It’s an exciting time to be a Yankee fan!

The Yankees won three world series under George so Hank says “”My dad is, needless to say, a tough act to follow.”

We can also expect Hank to stay involved in the team as well as he overlooks Brian Cashman and the baseball operations.

Yankees Baseball

Mussina, spent the last eight seasons with the Yankees after pitching for the Baltimore Orioles for the first 10 years of his career. His 270 wins rank second among all active right-handers, behind only Greg Maddux.

We wish the Moose all the best as he spends more time at home with his family and away from the game of baseball.