The Sommer Frieze

Joba went 4 1/3, giving up b-2-b HRs to Utley and Howard as the Yanks won 10-2 over the Phils today. His line is below.

An interesting aspect of the game was the flip-flop in the batting order. Jeter led off and Damon was 2nd. As Pete Abraham points out, could it be one of two things? One, an indication that Gardner has won the job? That way 9-1-2 would be L-R-L. The other is to try and keep Derek from grounding into the DPs….something he did a lot of.

We don’t know yet if this is the way it’ll be, but Girardi will be using the rest of spring training to see how Jeter 1 and Damon 2 works.

Hey…if Jeter leads off the game with a hit or walk, the first baseman has to hold him on…opening the hole for the lefty hitting Damon. Damon hits the hole, a good baserunner like Jeter goes 1st to 3rd. (and somehow….although it wasn’t planned this way….it would work out that Derek is the first Yankee to hit in the new Stadium???).

Derek went 2 for 4 in the leadoff role today (double) and scored 2 runs. Damon was 1 for 4 with an RBI hitting #2. Jeter stole a base, Damon got caught.

Melky, I guess, wanted to say “not yet” as far as the CF job today. He had 2 hits, 3 RBI including a HR off Eyre.

Matsui, Ransom (Alex who?) and Swisher also HR’d.

Joba went 4 1/3, 2 R, 3 H, 3 walks and 3 K.

Great job by Phil Coke. 2/3 of an inning, both Ks. Likewise with Edwar. 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 2 K.

Bruney gave up a hit, but no runs and a K in his 1 IP. He needed a good outing. Veras (2 H) and Albaladejo (0 hits) finished up.

The Rangers released Brendan Donnelley.

Good thing the Yanks didn’t go after Ollie Perez when they had the long Pettitte delay in negotiations. The way Perez is being chewed out about his weight apparently he’s turning into Oliver Hardy.

Meanwhile Freddy Garcia is minor league camp bound for the Mets.

CC will open the season and also open the new ballpark.

Pete Abraham reports on someone who won’t open the new ballpark…Bob Sheppard. Frankly, I’m starting to wonder if he’ll ever get back.

Good point by Bryan Hoch:

Chien-Ming Wang will start Saturday for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre vs. Pirates Minor Leaguers. The Yankees are using Brett Tomko, Dan Giese and Alfredo Aceves against the Braves that day, an afternoon which could decide the long relief job .

We will see if the upsets start in the NCAA tonight.

One thing to point out….remember that Joba is just 23. He has the makeup of a future ace, and is coming off a lot of bullpen work. He has a lot of developing to do. So far in camp, he is pitching like what he is…a #5 starter (and it can be argued that Hughes put up a better argument for that than what Joba has so far). But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just shows that Joba has a ways to go. We’ve seen how the others have been…in some cases, like AJ, extremely good this spring.

…and that’s a good thing. The rotation looks solid, and #6 (emergency “Phil”-in) looked great too.   

My thanks to Mike F. for sending me this interesting article…