Red Sox's Schilling Says He'll Pitch Past 2007 Season (Update1)

By Mason Levinson

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said he plans to continue his Major League Baseball career past the 2007 season, which was to be his last.

The 40-year-old right-hander said he'd play elsewhere if a contract extension can't be reached with Boston, ruling out only the New York Yankees, the Red Sox's archrival, as a possible new team.

Schilling told Boston radio station WEEI that discussions with his wife and children in recent months led him to change his mind about his plans to retire when his contract expired after this season.

``We came to the conclusion about a week to 10 days ago that I was not going to retire in 2007,'' Schilling told the radio station. He said his health is good enough to allow him to pitch in 2008 and perhaps beyond.

Schilling, a six-time All-Star, was 15-7 with a 3.97 earned run average last season in 204 innings of work. He has a 207-138 record and 3.44 ERA in 19 seasons for the Red Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles, amassing 3,015 strikeouts while walking 688 batters.

Schilling said he is negotiating a contract extension with the Red Sox and would play elsewhere if an agreement cannot be reached.

``I hope it's Boston. This is where I want to play,'' Schilling said. ``It wouldn't be in New York. I could not make that move.''

The Red Sox finished 86-76 last season, 11 games behind the Yankees in the AL East.

Pavano?? What a joke!!

As for Bernie, I think that last season he proved that still had a contribution to make to the team. I think it would be a disgrace to let him go. A minor league team?? An insult.

I think Bernie would be a wonderful mentor for younger players when the time is right, but I just don't think that the time has arrived. He's still got plenty to contribute.

I would think they wear them night and day. I know I would, wouldn't you?? My neighbor used to wear his Superbowl ring all the time.

Check out what Clemens was sporting at the Sundance film festival:



Sign of things to come???

How arrogant of Schilling to think we'd even want him. There are some players, like Damon, who could make that transition easily. There are others, like Pedro or Manny, that have too much bad blood between the teams to ever make it as a Yankee. Schilling is definitely another one who could not.

Source: Associated Press

Yankees outfielder Melky Cabrera will skip the Caribbean World Series at the team’s request so he can rest up for next season.
Cabrera played the last part of the winter league season in the Dominican Republic and participated in the playoffs, said Mark Newman, the Yankees’ senior vice president of baseball operations.
”We’ve asked that he shut it down at this point. It’s been a long year for him,” Newman said Tuesday on a conference call to discuss the team’s top prospects. ”We thought he needed some rest.”
Cabrera was a pleasant surprise as a rookie last season, getting extensive playing time because of injuries to Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield. Cabrera played excellent defense, especially in left field, and batted .280 with seven home runs, 50 RBIs and 12 stolen bases in 130 games. He also scored 75 runs and had 26 doubles in 460 at-bats.


The 22-year-old Cabrera enters this season as New York’s fourth outfielder, the top backup behind Matsui, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu.
Newman also talked extensively about a few of the club’s top young pitchers, including Philip Hughes - the gem of the organization.
Hughes might have a chance to win a spot in the rotation during spring training, though Newman said the best-case scenario would be to have the right-hander begin the season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
The 20-year-old Hughes went 10-3 with a 2.25 ERA in 21 starts at Double-A Trenton last year. He struck out 138 in 116 innings, and opponents hit only .179 against him.
Newman said the kid’s minor league performance has been ”off the charts.”
”He’s a pretty mature young guy,” Newman said. ”We think of him as a long-term, high-end starter. ... But he’s still a prospect and until he does it in New York, he’s just a prospect.”
The Yankees also are excited about right-handers Humberto Sanchez and Ross Ohlendorf, among others.
Sanchez, acquired from Detroit this offseason in a trade for Gary Sheffield, has the stuff to be a starter and the mental makeup to be a late-game reliever, Newman said. Sanchez is expected to begin the season at Triple-A.
Ohlendorf, acquired from Arizona in the deal for Randy Johnson, throws a lot of strikes and could make an impact for the Yankees this season, Newman said.

Source: NJ Star-Ledger

BY LISA KENNELLY AND ED PRICE
Star-Ledger Staff

NEW YORK -- Staying healthy and regaining a spot in the rotation might be the easiest part of Carl Pavano's spring.

The oft-injured right-hander, who hasn't pitched in almost two years, will have to win back a Yankees clubhouse that is hardly convinced of his commitment to the team.

He can begin, fellow starter Mike Mussina said, by showing up.

"He's been away a long time," Mussina said last night at the 27th annual Thurman Munson Awards Dinner, where he was honored with an award. "He's come and gone for periods of time and he's been real close, and everybody thought he was going to come back and he didn't. He's got to earn some trust from some players again, and from a coaching staff and a manager and an organization."

Pavano's spot as the No. 5 starter is hardly guaranteed either, given his long layoff. Should Pavano flop, top pitching prospect Phil Hughes is waiting in the wings to take his place.

Pavano was due to come back last August but faced another setback with broken ribs from a car accident that he tried to conceal from the team.

"We know he can do it, we know he can pitch and we know he can get people out." Mussina said, adding that Pavano has to "be a new guy again." "So if he gets over those other hurdles, then he'll be an asset."

Meanwhile, Hughes could be make the big-league team's roster as soon as Opening Day, senior vice president for baseball operations Mark Newman said.

Hughes, who last year was 10-3 with a 2.25 ERA for Double-A Trenton, is scheduled to begin this season with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

"I think there's some chance he could make the team out of spring training," said Newman, who oversees the farm system. "I would never count someone of his ability out.

"I think the best-case scenario is we give him some time in Triple-A. But it's not unreasonable that he has an impact this year (in the majors)."

The back end of the rotation -- after Chien-Ming Wang, Mussina and Andy Pettitte -- is up in the air, since Japanese import Kei Igawa is an unknown and Pavano's ability is unclear.

Newman said the Yankees want to limit Hughes, who turns 21 on June 24, to 175-180 innings in 2007.

"We think of him as a long-term, high-end starter for the Yankees," he said. "So we don't want to sacrifice the long term for a short-term need. We'll do the best we can to protect him over the long run."

- Former Yankee reliever Goose Gossage will be with the Yankees in Tampa as a spring training instructor.

- Major League Baseball, the Yankees and New York City will officially announce that the 2008 All-Star Game will be held at Yankee Stadium at a press conference at New York City Hall today.

Source: Lower Hudson Journal

By PETER ABRAHAM
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: January 31, 2007)

The Yankees plan to limit top prospect Philip Hughes to no more than 180 innings this season. The question is how many - if any - will come in the major leagues.

The 20-year-old right-hander has been invited to spring training. But expectations are that he will start the season with Triple-A Scranton. Hughes was 12-6 with a 2.16 ERA last season. Counting the playoffs, he pitched 152 innings.

"I think there's some chance he can make the team out of spring training. I would never count someone of his ability out," vice president of baseball operations Mark Newman said yesterday during a conference call. "The best-case scenario is you give him a little time in Triple-A. It's not beyond reasonable that he would make an impact (in the majors) sometime this year."

The Yankees have proceeded cautiously with Hughes as he moves through the organization. Studies have shown that loading innings on young arms can lead to injuries.

"We think of him as a long-term, high-end starter for the Yankees. So we don't want to sacrifice the long term for a short-term need," Newman said. "Admittedly, that's hard to do with our franchise and with our city. But we're going to do the best we can to protect him over the long run."

Veteran Mike Mussina, speaking before the Thurman Munson Awards Dinner last night, agreed.

"He's got ability, he's got skill, he's got an idea, and he had a good year last year," Mussina said. "I don't know if they should be throwing him into the fire at 20, 21 years old, but he's not very far away. ... I hope they let the kid go out there and develop and be a strong major-league pitcher when it's time to ask him to be."

Newman said Hughes was the best pitching prospect the Yankees have had since he joined the organization in 1989.

Two of the pitchers the Yankees received in trades over the winter - Humberto Sanchez and Ross Ohlendorf - could help the Yankees this season, Newman said. He also thinks highly of reliever Kevin Whelan, who was obtained from the Tigers.

The Yankees also believe strongly in three pitchers they drafted last June: Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain and Dellin Betances. All three already have reported to the team facility in Tampa, Fla., and started workouts.

Young outfielder Jose Tabata, a spring-training invitee, also reported early, as did 17-year-old Venezuelan catcher Jesus Montero. The Yankees plan to have Montero start his career in the Gulf Coast League.

"He's got huge power," Newman said. "We've never had a Latin player with that kind of power."

The Yankees named former big-leaguer Jody Reed the manager of their Gulf Coast League team.

Source: ESPN.com

The Yankees have long had the game's biggest payroll, but their farm system has lain fallow for several years, the result of some uninspired draft picks and trades that rid the system of the few prospects who remained. Over the last 18 months, however, the Yanks' system has made a stunning turnaround, going from one of the five worst systems in the game to one of the 10 best.

What sets the Yankees' system apart from most others is the presence of two of the 10 best prospects in baseball, something no other organization can claim. The first of these two is right-handed pitcher Philip Hughes, who should show up in the Bronx in the first half of this season. The Yanks' first-round pick in 2004 has rocketed through the system, and would likely have reached Triple-A this year had the Yanks not been keeping their best prospects away from the Columbus clubhouse. Hughes has two consistent plus-plus pitches in a 93-95 mph fastball with fair sink, and a 12-to-6 curveball, and he has a promising changeup as well. Hughes pounds the strike zone and his command made some strides late in the 2006 season, although he still relies a bit too much on his secondary stuff. A year ago, Hughes had promise, but had missed time with minor shoulder injuries and had command issues. Now he's one of the top two pitching prospects in the game.

Hughes' hitting counterpart on the Yanks' prospect depth chart is teenaged center fielder Jose Tabata, who spent all of 2006 in the full-season Sally League; only the Mets' Fernando Martinez and the Braves' Elvis Andrus were younger among such players. Tabata has an outstanding package of tools, but also has a degree of baseball acumen not often seen in players so young. He has a quick bat with developing power and good command of the strike zone. He has good instincts in center, with a plus arm that will allow him to move to right if he outgrows center. His season ended in early August due to a thumb injury, but he's playing in the Venezuelan winter league and swinging the bat with no trouble.

The Yanks' system also now boasts depth that it hasn't had in years. Trading Gary Sheffield netted the Yankees another top pitching prospect in Humberto Sanchez as well as two live arms in Kevin Whelan and Anthony Claggett. Randy Johnson didn't bring as much back, but the Yanks did grab another live arm in Ross Ohlendorf. Meanwhile, Tyler Clippard passed the Double-A test and looks like at least a fifth starter in the majors, while 2006 sandwich pick Joba Chamberlain, who fell out of the top 10 picks due to serious concerns about the state of his shoulder, threw extremely well in the Hawaiian Winter League.

The Yanks also added two more tough signs in Mark Melancon and sashimi-raw flamethrower Dellin Betances. It's a significant improvement for such a short period of time, and it's very bad news for the other four teams in the AL East.

Five more

1. Tampa Bay: The Devil Rays have the best farm system in the game right now, and it's not particularly close. They're stacked with impact bats like Delmon Young, Elijah Dukes, Evan Longoria, and possibly Reid Brignac, and they have a wave of young arms coming behind those hitters, including Wade Davis and Jeremy Hellickson. The question dogging them is whether they can get the pitching to the majors before their offense starts to hit free agency.

2. Colorado: Despite some odd first-round selections in recent years (Greg Reynolds, Chris Nelson), the Rockies have still managed to stack their system with promising hitters. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and catcher Chris Iannetta will see a lot of big league time this year, and corner infielder Ian Stewart and outfielder Dexter Fowler are both promising. The system is short on pitching prospects, though, with oft-injured right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez the closest to the majors.

3. Arizona: Former scouting director Mike Rizzo can still claim a good chunk of the credit for the wave of young talent showing up in Phoenix, and there's more coming, including homegrown products like outfielders Justin Upton and Carlos Gonzalez, catcher Miguel Montero and right-hander Micah Owings, as well as players acquired by GM Josh Byrnes via trades, including second baseman Alberto Callaspo and the system's jewel, center fielder Chris Young.

4. Kansas City: The Royals' system lacks depth, although new GM Dayton Moore has tried to fill in some of the gaps by acquiring guys like left-handed pitcher Tyler Lumsden. The Royals make the cut here, however, because their top three prospects are as good as any team's top three -- third baseman Alex Gordon, DH Billy Butler and right-handed starter Luke Hochevar. Outfielder Chris Lubanski and right-hander Chris Nicoll aren't in the same class, but both have promise as well.

5. Cleveland: Unlike Kansas City's top-heavy system, Cleveland's boasts tremendous depth but just one impact prospect, right-handed starter Adam Miller, who sits in a class with Hughes and Homer Bailey among the game's best pitching prospects. Left-handed starter Chuck Lofgren and outfielder John Drennen could make the leap into the top prospect ranks in 2007, and the system is stacked with useful prospects like left-handers Scott Lewis and Tony Sipp, slick-fielding shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and outfielder Trevor Crowe.

Cold Plate Special: San Diego Padres

There are a number of barren farm systems, but San Diego's stands head and shoulders above ... er, below the pack.

Since the trade of their best hitting prospect, catcher George Kottaras, for a month of David Wells' time, the Padres no longer have a single prospect who could earn a solid 45 (one grade below average) on the 20-80 grading scale. Their best pitching prospect, 2005 first-rounder Cesar Carrillo, missed the last half of the season with an elbow injury.

They had the first overall pick in the 2004 draft and went for signability, taking shortstop Matt Bush in a first round that also included Justin Verlander, Jered Weaver, Homer Bailey, Stephen Drew, Josh Fields and Philip Hughes. Their first pick in 2003, Tim Stauffer, hid a shoulder injury until after he was taken and looks like a four-A player at best. And in 2006, they went conservative again in the first round, taking Wake Forest infielder Matt Antonelli, who projects as a utility player in the majors.

Source: YES Network


Even without Helton, Sox hold surprising offense edges
By Steven Goldman / Special to YESNetwork.com


MISSILE GAPS AND THROW WEIGHTS
When John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, he made a "Missile Gap" between the United States and the Soviet Union a central part of his appeal. Kennedy suggested that the Dwight Eisenhower-Richard Nixon administration had let the Soviets overtake the US in the seemingly important category of total nuclear missiles. The only problem with this point was (as Kennedy well knew), that it was wholly fictional. As historian John Lewis Gaddis wrote in his recently-published The Cold War: A New History, "The U-2 photographs quickly confirmed the limited size and inferior capabilities of the Soviet long-range bomber force. Determining Soviet missile capabilities took longer, however, because the missiles themselves — in the quantities that Khrushchev had claimed — did not exist. By the end of 1959 his engineers had only six long-range missile launch sites operational."

The missile gap captured the popular imagination because, in Cold War logic, if you could blow up the other guy 11 times over but he could blow you up 12 times, he might be tempted to launch a first strike and could strong-arm you diplomatically. These things tended to upset people. Existentially. Similarly, the Red Sox-Rockies talks on Todd Helton, now apparently dead (Larry Lucchino has that affect on people), had Yankees fans worrying about the Boston-New York missile gap. The irony is that in this case the doomsayers are right. While winter worries have focused on New York's lack of frontline pitching, its offense is almost certainly not the best in the AL East.

One way we can look at this is to use the 2007 Pecota projections now available from Baseball Prospectus. Rather than quote the whole prediction for each player, we'll just borrow one aspect, MLVr, or Marginal Lineup Value per game. Marginal Lineup Value estimates the additional number of runs a player will contribute to a lineup that consists of average offensive performers. For example, last year, Robinson Cano's MLVr was .252, so in a lineup of average players he would have chipped in an "extra" quarter of a run per game.

These fractions can numb the eye, so the key thing to focus on is that we're looking at a projected rate of offense at each position, and the precise meaning of the number is less important than which team has the player with the higher rate.


YANKEES

BOSTON

POS

PLAYER

MLVr

PLAYER

MLVr
C
Jorge Posada
.036
Jason Varitek
.047
1B
Doug Mientkiewicz
-.112
Kevin Youkilis
.082
2B
Robinson Cano
.083
Dustin Pedroia
.041
3B
Alex Rodriguez
.207
Mike Lowell
-.010
SS
Derek Jeter
.144
Julio Lugo
-.024
LF
Hideki Matsui
.119
Manny Ramirez
.285
CF
Johnny Damon
.077
Coco Crisp
.085
RF
Bobby Abreu
.096
J.D. Drew
.146
DH
Jason Giambi
.203
David Ortiz
.299


YANKEES

BOSTON

POS

PLAYER

MLVr

PLAYER

MLVr
U-OF
Melky Cabrera
-.033
Wily Mo Pena
.082
U-IF
Miguel Cairo
-.210
Alex Cora
-.202
U-C
Raul Chavez
-.531
Doug Mirabelli
-.190

Again, these are projections, and while PECOTA is usually good at what it does, there are reasons to question its prediction that Varitek will be more productive than Posada or that Abreu's season is going to be more reflective of his Philadelphia 2006 than his Yankees 2006. PECOTA also thinks that Coco Crisp will pick up where he left off before last year's injuries, and it is very optimistic about Pedroia. All predictions can only be proved with the passage of time, but these seem more vulnerable to being disproved by events than some of the others.

Still, many aspects of the projection are almost certain to be true. The Red Sox won't have a great bench, but the Yankees bench will be worse. Raul Chavez is a poor hitter of historic magnitude, and Wil Nieves, should he win the reserve catcher's job in spring training, won't be significantly better. Barring injuries, the Red Sox will out-hit the Yankees at DH and left field. The Yankees will out-hit the Red Sox at second, third, and shortstop. Center field and catcher should be competitive, regardless of which team's player is actually more productive. First base will almost certainly be an unmitigated disaster for the Yankees.

None of this is to say that the Yankees will have a bad offense. Their starting lineup, if healthy, should stack up with that of almost any team. It should also, in a global sense, keep up with the Red Sox; with the exception of first base, the Yankees aren't significantly far behind the Red Sox at any position, and will dominate them at second, short, and third.

The Helton deal was probably not in Boston's best interest. While it would have allowed them to be rid of Lowell and the depressing Julian Tavarez, both would have been coming off the books after the 2007 season, whereas peace will reign in the Middle East before Helton's contract is over. Boston might have a better offensive team if it tried Wily Mo Pena at first and shifted Youkilis to third when a fly-ball pitcher is on the mound. In the meantime, the relief pitchers that the Rockies coveted would be best kept handy until (a) the major league pen shows it won't need them, or (b) a long-term first or third base solution presents itself, one that doesn't carry the financial baggage of Helton.

As for the Yankees, they would actually reap more of a benefit from adding Helton, though the contract is still a major deterrent. It's not really Helton the Yankees need to add, it's anyone. As the predictions above suggest, their attack isn't so dominant that they can afford to give away offense at any position. Given one or more significant injuries, and the shortfall at first base will not only hamper them, it will stop the offense cold.

RODRIGUEZ'S APOTHEOSIS: WHEN IT WILL HAPPEN
One of the fascinating aspects of the season to come is that Alex Rodriguez is very likely to hit his 500th career home run sometime late in the second half. With 464 career home runs entering the season and a career average of 43 home runs per 162 games played, he probably won't have to wait until 2008. Rodriguez would become the third player in history, and the first since Mickey Mantle, to hit his 500th home run in a Yankees uniform. Just three members of the 20-member 500 home run club have played for the Yankees-Mantle, Babe Ruth, and Reggie Jackson. Reggie hit his 500th round-tripper as a member of the Angels.

With the days of Yankee Stadium dwindling, Rodriguez's 500th may be one of the last historic events to take place there. You wonder what the Yankees will plan for him, and how much enthusiasm the fans will show. Here's a prediction: No. 500 will come at Yankee Stadium on August 30. It's a day game against the Red Sox. The fan reaction, it is safe to say, will be strongly positive.

Source: NY Sun

By TIM MARCHMAN
February 2, 2007




It's already that time of year when people start talking about the top prospects in the game. To what extent this is the result of the vagaries of publishing schedules and the fantasy baseball calendar is left to the reader to determine, but this year we're starting to see something unusual: A growing consensus that a Yankee, Philip Hughes, is among the game's elite prospects. Scouts Inc.'s Keith Law rated him as the top man in the minors, Baseball Prospectus's Kevin Goldstein called him "the best pitching prospect in the game," and John Sickels called him "the best pitching prospect in baseball." These three are respected talent evaluators, none of them liable to throw claims like that around, and their words carry some weight. It's one thing to hear from the proverbial anonymous baseball official that Hughes is the real deal, another to hear it from an independent party whose reputation rests on being able to make balanced judgments based on indepth knowledge of all 30 teams' farm systems.

For Yankees fans, this means two things. First, any fears that Hughes is just another product of the same hype machine that brought you Brad Halsey and Ed Yarnall can be set aside. Hughes is not guaranteed ever to do so much as throw a pitch in Yankee Stadium, but he's as good a bet as any minor leaguer to do great things in the game. Second, any concerns about the state of the Yankees' rotation should be balanced against the near certainty that Hughes will make a substantial impact this season, and the distinct possibility that he is, as of right now, the team's best starter.

Concern that Hughes is just another chump is understandable but misplaced. Whatever you look for in a pitching prospect, Hughes has it. He's young (he turns 21 in June) and huge (6-foot-5, 220). He has great stuff, with excellent command of two fastballs, the harder of which coming in as high as 96 mph, as well as a hard curveball and a change-up. He has an immaculate statistical record, with a 269/54 K/BB ratio, only six home runs allowed, a solid ground ball rate, and a 2.13 ERA in 237.1 minor league innings. He has a clean health record, hasn't been overworked, and has pitched enough to prove he has the durability to be a starter. He hasn't had any notable run-ins with teammates, umpires, opponents, or the law so far in his young career. If you were to design a top pitching prospect, you'd come up with Hughes.

Further good news for Yankees fans is that one worry they may have is misplaced, and that's fear that no matter how bright and shiny Hughes may be, he hasn't yet pitched at Triple-A, and thus isn't ready for the big leagues. It's nonsense; truly elite prospects rarely spend much time in Triple-A, both because they don't need to and because it's better for them to learn on the job in the majors against the tougher competition. Just look up the records of any of the really great pitching prospects of the last 10 years. Mark Prior made three starts in Triple-A, Kerry Wood made 10, Scott Kazmir made none, and Rick Ankiel made 16. All demonstrated why they were considered studs as soon as they stepped foot on a major league mound. Barring injury, Hughes is going to be ready by June, and there's little reason to think he wouldn't be ready to take the ball right out of spring training.

This brings us to the real question: Should Hughes, assuming he has reasonable success in spring training, break camp with the team? In a literal sense, the answer is surely no — with the early season schedule, you can't guarantee a no. 5 starter regular work in April, and you don't actually even need him anyway. The broader sense of the question, though, is about where he ranks among Yankees starters. Statistically, a case can be made that he's better than any of them: Baseball Prospectus's PECOTA system projects an ERA of 3.91, best on the staff (and better, one notes, than that projected for new Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka). Of course a lot more goes into being a top starter than a pretty statistical projection, and no one save perhaps Mrs. Hughes would rather see the ball in his hand than in Andy Pettite's in a big game. That's for now, though; four months as the team's best starter would change an awful lot. Baseball, for whatever its problems, is very much a meritocracy.

We'll see how Hughes does, and it's worth keeping in mind that even an enormous impact this year would guarantee nothing for the long term, as the examples of Prior, Wood, and Ankiel should show vividly. For now, though, it's February, and baseball is all about hope, and anyone who can't wait for spring can just think about Philip Hughes, who has every chance to be the best homegrown starter this team has had since Whitey Ford. It's something.

Source: Newsday

BY KEN DAVIDOFF
Newsday Staff Writer

Published February 2 2007

Bernie Williams is leaning toward accepting the Yankees' offer of a minor-league contract, two people familiar with the situation told Newsday yesterday.

The 38-year-old, ultra-popular outfielder is aware that he'll be a long shot to make the 2007 Yankees, the sources said. But after spending all 16 of his big-league seasons as a Yankee, he has no desire to play for another team, and Williams figures that if he doesn't make the cut, he'll retire in Yankees pinstripes.


Should Williams move forward and agree to the non-guaranteed deal, he would give Yankees fans a likely final chance to thank him, albeit in exhibition games, for his outstanding career. But he also would make himself one of the focal points of the media, from the first workout until the close of camp.

Williams has made it clear in recent interviews that he's not ready to retire. Yet both his strong family ties - he makes his full-time home in Westchester - and his appreciation of his place in Yankees history have made him reluctant to join another team. Viewed through that prism, going to Yankees camp could at least give Williams a sense of closure.

The Yankees effectively eliminated Williams' roster spot when they committed to a platoon at first base, signing free agent Doug Mientkiewicz to share the job with either Andy Phillips or Rule 5 draftee Josh Phelps. Jason Giambi is expected to get the bulk of the at-bats at designated hitter.

Source: Lower Hudson Journal

Yankees, Red Sox taking rivalry overseas

By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
(Original publication: February 2, 2007)

TOKYO - The Yankees hope to introduce a whole new set of fans to their rivalry with the Boston Red Sox.

And with Daisuke Matsuzaka now pitching for the Red Sox, playing against Hideki Matsui and Kei Igawa, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman has every reason to believe that will be the case.

"We have two great organizations that both respect each other, and now we'll take that battle overseas," Cashman said at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday. "Bringing the rivalry over here is something special."

Cashman and Yankee president Randy Levine were in Tokyo on the second leg of an Asian tour.

The two were in Beijing earlier this week, and the Yankees agreed to send coaches, scouts and trainers to China to boost interest in baseball, furthering a push by Major League Baseball into one of the world's fastest-growing sports markets.

The Yankees' delegation held meetings with management of the Yomiuri Giants, their Japanese partner, yesterday.

They will travel to Okinawa today, where the Hanshin Tigers will be holding spring training. The Yankees bought the rights to Igawa from the Tigers last month.

Matsuzaka signed a $52 million, six-year contract with the Red Sox in December after they bid $51 million for his negotiating rights.

Shortly after that, Igawa agreed to a $20 million, five-year contract with the Yankees after the club bid $26 million for his negotiating rights.

Note: Right-hander Matt DeSalvo cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Scranton. He was invited to spring training.