Originally posted by Irishman12:
Sorry I misunderstood. I also don't remember Chuck changing positions? But now that you mention it, it somewhat is coming back to me

Johnson strikes out six Twins over 6 1/3 sharp innings
By Mark Feinsand / MLB.com



FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Randy Johnson is ready for Opening Day. Now, he just has to wait another nine days to take the ball.

Johnson made his penultimate start of the spring on Friday, limiting the Twins to one run over 6 1/3 innings while striking out six. With one start remaining, Johnson looks to be in midseason form.

"I got my work in, went deep in the game, and felt like I was pretty comfortable with all of my pitches," said Johnson, who threw 88 pitches. "I feel like my last three starts have been good starts, so I've been able to build on those."

"He was really good," said manager Joe Torre. "He looked very smooth and had a good pace going."

Johnson's final start will come on Wednesday, most likely at the Yankees' Minor League complex instead of in Lakeland against the Tigers. Johnson will throw four or five innings in the game for a final tuneup, then do a bullpen session on Saturday in Arizona.

Johnson came to camp in February with the goal of throwing between 27-30 innings, compared to the 21 1/3 he threw last spring. He has 24 1/3 frames under his belt with one outing remaining, so he should have no trouble reaching that number.

Johnson has allowed eight earned runs on 24 hits, posting a 2.96 ERA. He has struck out 24 while walking just three, a good sign for the left-hander.

"For me, it's a progressional thing," he said. "If I wasn't getting better, then it might be something to worry about. My stamina is getting there, my location is much better and I'm throwing strikes. That's the bottom line."

"His stuff is as consistent as we've seen, time after time," Torre said.

Opener in question for Jorge: Jorge Posada remained at home on Friday, two days after breaking his nose while playing catch.

Posada, who is still suffering from headaches, spoke with Torre on Friday morning, and the manager told his catcher to take his time in returning to action, even if it meant missing the regular-season opener on April 3.


"I told him, 'I'm still saying you'll be ready Opening Day, but that's not necessary,'" Torre said. "Instead of having him rush back, we need to have him feel better. We'll see how much work he can get in before we have to decide on that."

Posada also broke his nose in May 2004, causing him to miss five days. It is unclear when he will begin working out again, but Torre has no plans to pressure him into coming back before he's ready.

"I don't think we can really make a statement either way until we see him," Torre said of Posada's availability for the opener. "When he comes out and starts working out, we'll see how comfortable he is. Whether it's Opening Day or two days later is no big deal for us."

Surging Sturtze? Tanyon Sturtze allowed a solo home run on his first pitch on Thursday night, but Torre is pleased with what he has seen lately from the reliever.

Sturtze is 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA this spring, but he has started to find his command, which escaped him in his early outings. Sturtze didn't pitch in games until March 12 as a result of his shoulder rehab program, but Torre is confident that he will be ready to go by Opening Day.

"I thought he was good yesterday," Torre said. "He finally feels satisfied with his stuff, which we've been trying to convince him of for a while. I think he's free and easy, the ball is jumping. It's fine with me."

Torre plans to use Sturtze and Kyle Farnsworth in the late innings to set up Mariano Rivera, alternating the two right-handers in the seventh or eighth innings to keep them fresh.

"I still have the same mind-set that both of those guys are in the same category," Torre said.

Minor Moose: Mike Mussina will pitch in a Minor League game on Saturday, as he was scheduled to pitch against Tampa Bay in each of his final two spring starts.

Mussina will face Triple-A Durham at the Yankees' Minor League complex. He will make his final start on Thursday against the Devil Rays at Legends Field before the Yankees head west for two exhibition games against the Diamondbacks.

Coming up: The Yankees travel to St. Petersburg on Saturday to take on the Devil Rays at 1:05 p.m. ET. Matt Childers gets the start for New York, while Edwin Jackson takes the mound for Tampa Bay.

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
and Martinez when he brings his A game is the best big game pitcher in Baseball.

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
I don't understand all this hostility from New York Baseball fans (Yankees and Mets) toward Curt Schilling but that's another discussion I guess.

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
Anyways, I think Schilling lost a lot of stuff last year and although he was brilliant in The Red Sox W.S. championship a couple of years ago, he will not be able to duplicate that success this season. I'm not saying that he has absolutely lost the magic and he's just a dud now (if healthy he'll prolly win at least 15 maybe even 20 and strike out 175 at the very least) but he is not the pitcher he once was. Also Schilling is pushing 40 and Martinez (who's no spring chicken himself mind you) is 5 years younger I believe. In any case I wouldn't mind both of them on my team.

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
Personally, I think that Carl Pavano is overrated...Pavano's not even in the same ballpark as Burnett or Martinez.

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
I don't understand all this hostility from New York Baseball fans (Yankees and Mets) toward Curt Schilling.

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
Pavano's not even in the same ballpark as Burnett or Martinez.

TUESDAY, March 21, 2006
ABRUPT CHANGE OF PLANS
The topic of today's column was going to be the grand showing by Yankees pitchers of late, but the Mike Mussina Show derailed what would have been a buoyantly optimistic opening about how the pitchers were rounding into shape and all was right with the world. Then it became Moose season — not the drunkenly lustful Moose mating season you read so much about, where Vermont motorists must be on their guard against hormone-drunk furry humvees with antlers stumbling into their cars. In that scenario, the moose does the damage. This time, the car got the Moose.

Mussina won't always be this bad, but as we've discussed in the past, age and injuries have taken just the slightest edge off of his very fine control. Now it's Very Fine Control Minus. That difference accounts for a lack of Mooseish consistency from start to start. Some days he's the old semi-Cy Young candidate. On others, he gets undressed like Charlie Brown pitching to the 1927 Yankees.

So Mussina's a buzzkill, because in the previous days even creaky old Randy Johnson had looked more like creaky young Randy Johnson. Pitching remains this club's weakness, because Johnson and Mussina have aged past consistency, Chacon and Wang might be one-hit wonders, and Pavano and Wright might already have registered for membership in that category. As for the bullpen in front of Mariano Rivera, who knows? Designing a bullpen on paper is a bit like designing the Freedom Tower. The conceptual work is easy, but in reality, the end product may prove to be unlike your expectations.

Fortunately, help exists. The scout-heads consider Matt DeSalvo — love to be the sign of an unorthodox fool, and PECOTA doesn't like the right-hander either. Yet, let us joust with this particular windmill, for it may yet prove to be a giant. (Note: Let's not oversell. Call him a serviceable giant.)

The first step for any pitcher to achieve Yankees success is to not cheese off Joe Torre, as Sean Henn did last year with his rookie jitters. Though he's been sent out for more seasoning (paprika and a roll in an Iron Chef-style lattice of pig fat), DeSalvo made a good impression, as Torre revealed to intrepid YESNetwork.com correspondent Jon "Don't call me Lois" Lane yesterday:

"DeSalvo is very close. We heard about him last year and what we saw this spring,
we were impressed with him. From the people who know him more than we do, they
are pretty comfortable with his insides. It's going to have to be a first time, some time."

By that last statement, Torre seems to mean that at some point the Yankees will have to trust a young pitcher and endure his virgin start, rather than giving that honor to, say, the Cleveland Indians and then trading for him after another club has gotten him over his nerves, his youth, his low-salary years, and his health. At least, that is what the Torre Kremlinologists are saying today. Torre could actually have been talking about something else entirely — channeling a Yogi Berra-ish point of philosophy, thinking wistfully back to his series of sandwich commercials with Willie Randolph, or to his desire to try something new for bedtime reading, moving beyond the same old Zane Grey novels.

Torre Kremlinologists suggest that the Henn version of this same statement is, "Over my dead body."

COX (A WORD YOU CAN LEARN IN THE ROB LOWE CLASSIC "OXFORD BLUES")
Torre may also be feeling bullish on last year's relief draftee J. Brent Cox — never to be confused with "Too Close for Comfort" co-star Jm J. Bullock, legendary financier/damaged nose case J. Pierpont Morgan, or Spider-Man nemesis J. Jonah Jameson. Like DeSalvo, Cox has been farmed but not planted. Interrogated by Jon "Penny" Lane, Torre remained positive and non-Hennish, being especially approving of Cox's ability to retire left-handed hitters:

"It's based on his stuff. He's got a live fastball. He doesn't throw 90-95, but he has
tremendous movement and he has a good breaking ball. And he's got some fire in
his belly. He fights himself right now, which is understandable for youth, but the last
couple of outings, he got it together and did well for us."

Cox is another pitcher on whom the scouting jury remains hung. That same lack of pure stuff to which Torre referred is always a strike against a young pitcher, a sign that he's not to be used in late relief but might be more suited for the middle innings. Yet, outs are outs, and if a pitcher can get 'em it doesn't matter when they pitch.

WILY AND THE ROADRUNNER
Theo Epstein swung another good deal on Monday, snagging slugging outfielder Wily Mo Peña (Yankees ex-officio) with fourth/fifth-ish starter Bronson Arroyo. The Red Sox were heading for a difficult spot at the end of the year when Trot Nixon's contract expired. Nixon is a decent player, but not someone the Red Sox would have been wise to renew for a period of years. He's too delicate and has too many flaws. Peña is only 24 and is signed through 2008. He's young enough to improve on his miserable on-base percentages while maintaining his power. It's not likely, but it's a worthwhile gamble. Outfield depth was going to be a real weakness for the Red Sox this year. Now when the inevitable ouchies set in they can substitute without falling to replacement level.

No doubt there will be the usual in-house gnashing of teeth at Yankee Stadium for every home run Penña hits against the Yankees, but the trade of Peña was inevitable given the contractual leverage he had to force the Yankees to carry him on the big league roster. That just wasn't going to happen, nor should it have, given that the Yankees, unlike the Reds, are playing to win every year. If your team is going to have a tread water for a season or two, it can devote a roster spot to on-the-job training. The Yankees, thankfully, don't have that luxury.

Even with their abundance of starting pitchers, the Red Sox did gamble in dealing the redoubtable Arroyo. Curt Schilling and David Wells may prove to be finished, Josh Beckett is likely to miss a start or 10, Jon Papelbon may not be a starter. All of these things rolling up at once would leave the Sox only with Tim Wakefield, the Rock of Plymouth ("Look at Wakefield, standing there like a stone, um, rock! Rally 'round him, boys! No bullet can harm you if you maintain a positive attitude!") and prospect John Lester.

On the other hand, one can't be so devoted to contingency planning no risks are taken, leaving needed improvements in some other part of the operation ignored. If Sox starting pitching blows up in the way described here, they could have two Arroyos and still not win.

Originally posted by Tony Mosrite:
[quote]Originally posted by Don Jasani:
[b]Pavano's not even in the same ballpark as Burnett or Martinez.

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
Bah...exhibition games don't do it for me. I mean it's good that M.L.B. Baseball is being played but as everyone knows they don't mean anything and they're too much of a tease for me. April where are you??!! :rolleyes: :p

Originally posted by Double-J:
Well, the Yanks and Phillies are on tonight at 7 on YES...

BTW - anybody know about the Mets channel? I don't like the Mets, but I have DirecTV so I would get it. :p

Originally posted by Double-J:
Did anyone see that skirmish between the Red Cocks and the Devil Rays the other day? WTF is their problem? It's spring training baseball...I wouldn't mind seeing that Boston asshole suspended for punching that guy in the face and stomping on his arm. Focking stupid.

It seems like Boston has been itching to fight though...Beckett ended up in a shouting match with Ryan Howard the other day, and then Tavarez punches Gathright in the face. WTF is their problem?

Link

Originally posted by Don Jasani:
Whatthefuck?! Are The New York Yankees turning into The Baltimore Freakin Ravens?! :p

Originally posted by Irishman12:
Hmm, what channel? Is it MSG or whatever network the Nets play on? Or do the Nets play on YES? I know the Knicks come on MSG

Originally posted by Double-J:
Furthermore, previous performance in minor leagues is not an indication of future performance at a major league level. :rolleyes:

Originally posted by J Geoff:
[quote]Originally posted by Irishman12:
[b] Hmm, what channel? Is it MSG or whatever network the Nets play on? Or do the Nets play on YES? I know the Knicks come on MSG