The Weekend Yankeeland

Dave Eiland would never have been mistaken for Joba Chamberlain when he was playing. Eiland didn't have the greatest stuff, but worked hard to get to the majors. After an up and down playing career, he's made the big time as the Yankees pitching coach. The Star Ledger's Ed Price has a wonderful piece on Eiland and the influence his late Dad had on his life and his work.

Former Yankees great Graig Nettles has revealed he is suffering from prostate cancer.

"A pretty good scare," Nettles said. "They said I may have had it a few years. So there wasn't any urgency. I always thought there would be an urgency of getting it out of your body, but they thought it wouldn't matter a couple months."

Nettles was diagnosed last November, but doctors told him surgery could wait until after spring training. Nettles served in his usual role as a special instructor for the Yankees. Our thoughts and prayers go out to "Puff" for a speedy recovery.

In case you missed it the other day, Chien-Ming Wang got the official nod that as the Yankees opening day starter. The Wanger was supposed to start last year's opener, but pulled a hamstring muscle. It's still hard to believe that Carl Pavano made that start.

Speaking of Pavano, he was once again added to the 60-day DL to make room for Morgan Ensberg on the 40-man roster.

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The Weekend Yankeeland

Chien-Ming Wang and pitching coach Dave Eiland looked over tapes of Wang's performance on Thursday and found a glitch in the right-hander's mechanics.

According to Eiland, Wang has been "collapsing" his back leg. When he reaches the balance point of his delivery, Wang is leaning back, and thus he drifts forward in his delivery and drags his arm behind. That keeps Wang from getting his hand on top of the ball, and his sinkers and sliders stay up.

"It's getting the top half in sync with the bottom half," Eiland said.

Derek Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation donated $500,000 to the Phoenix House youth and family counseling center in Tampa. The facility will be renamed on Monday to "Derek Jeter Center at Phoenix House".

Hideki Matsui is expected to make his 2008 debut as the DH when the Yankees travel to Ft. Myers on Sunday to take on the Minnesota Twins. Phil Hughes gets the start for the Bombers, his 3rd appearance of the spring.

Austin Jackson and Ian Kennedy were honored by the Yankees on Saturday as recipients of the 2007 Kevin Lawn Award. The award goes to the top player and pitcher in the Yankees organization. Kevin Lawn, son of long time Yankees VP, Jack Lawn, passed away in 1999.

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Chien-Ming Wang has been working on a new changeup and threw it 4 times in yesterday's game against the Phillies. It could be an effective weapon in addition to Wang's wicked sinker and hard fastball.

Among Melky Cabrera's goals this season is to increase his stolen base total. Cabrera stole 13 times in 18 attempts last season, and is hoping his new manager gives him the steal sign more often. That's one of the many goals Melky has for the season.

"Mainly on running bases, my batting and my defense," he said. "I want to work a lot on stealing bases, too. I want to steal more bases."

Alex Rodriguez has taken Melky and Robinson Cano under his wing, and the influence has already paid off.

"I feel better prepared now," said Cabrera, who took over center field from Damon last year. "I've always wanted to play every day and help the team. I appreciate that this manager, like Joe Torre, has showed confidence in me."

Ed Price of the Star Ledger has a Q & A w/ Ian Kennedy

Among the questions was the comparison some have made between IPK and Mike Mussina.

Q: People have compared you to Mike Mussina since long before you were teammates. Your pitching styles are similar -- wide repertoire, good control, outsmart hitters -- and both of you dip down low when starting a delivery from the stretch position. Do you like the comparison?

Yeah. He's pitched 18 years in the big leagues. It's awesome, especially since I looked up to him probably ever since high school. I haven't told him that.

I asked him (recently) how he came up with the "down" stretch. We were comparing stories. I thought he did it for the same reason, but it's a totally different reason. He had an old pitching coach that made him do something sort of like that, and he exaggerated it. I did it to get a grip on some pitches. ... It just buys me more time because my changeup's so hard to hold. (Kennedy holds the ball with his middle, ring and pinkie fingers on his changeup.)

Tyler Kepner - NY Times
Cano has quickly risen to the elite level of 2nd Basemen. GM Brian Cashman feels that only Phillies' 2nd Baseman Chase Utley is at a higher level. The Yankees did their best for a few years to try to be sure it would happen somewhere else. Thankfully, opponents saw less in Cano than the Yankees.

The Rangers turned down Cano as part of the A-Rod - Alfonso Soriano deal, instead opting for Joaquin Arias. For a brief time in 2004, the Yankees moved Cano to 3rd base in an attempt to deal him and Dionner Navarro to the Royals for Carlos Beltran. Later that season the Yankees also tried to package him in a deal for Randy Johnson. Luckily, no one took them up on any of the deals.

“Thank God we never traded him,” said Gordon Blakeley, a special assistant to Cashman. “We liked him a lot and we didn’t want to give him away, but he wasn’t a ‘No, don’t trade him for any cost’ guy. If we felt we could get a Beltrán or an A-Rod, he could have gone in a deal. We were fortunate.”

With a new long term contract, Cano can totally concentrate on baseball and continuing to improve in the field and at home plate. He already turns a slick DP with Derek Jeter, and could have a batting title in his future.

Austin Krum's professional career has not gotten off to a good start. Last year's 9th round draft pick was arrested yesterday for trespassing and resisting arrest. He was asked several times to leave "Tia's Tex Mex" in Tampa after having issues with another patron. Tampa police were called when Krum repeatedly refused and he made the mistake of being belligerent to them.

Mark Feinsand - NY Daily News has a piece on how Joe Girardi developed his managerial style.

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The Weekend Yankeeland

Joe Girardi has set the spring rotation up so that Chien-Ming Wang would be the opening day starter. The Wanger was supposed to get the assignment last season, but he was one of the many Yankees to suffer hamstring pulls. It's still hard to believe Carl Pavano made that start.

Joba Chamberlain may only be 22-yrs old, but he's one of the guys who are keeping the Yankees clubhouse loose. It was revealed a week ago that he and rookie Andrew Brackman were sporting nipple rings. Joba the Pitcher is a live wire who can even bring out humor, even in the sometimes curmudgeonly Mike Mussina. Just take this exchange reported by the NY Times' Joe LaPointe.

Addressing Mussina by his nickname, Moose, Chamberlain asked if he wanted to join in playing video games. "No", the 39-year-old Mussina told the 22-year-old Chamberlain; he does not play video games.

"Want to watch me play video games?" Chamberlain asked. "No thanks", Mussina said. "Well", Chamberlain continued, would Mussina like to play Ping-Pong? Without answering, Mussina kept walking out the door and turned left down the corridor.

So Chamberlain added in a loud voice, “Hey, is the hearing the first thing to go when you get old?”

Suddenly, Mussina reappeared in the doorway and replied, “I hear everything!” in a way that made Chamberlain smile and onlookers chuckle.

For a team that has long been the model of a corporate personality, guys like Joba and Shelley Duncan are a welcome addition.

The Daily News' Mark Feinsand has a good piece on Ian Kennedy, who may not have the same spotlight on him as Joba, but may make just as big a splash in the majors.

Speaking of guys not in the spolight- Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankees' Director of Scouting is one such person. He's the guy responsible for the Yankees getting Kennedy, Chamberlain, and Mark Melancon in the same draft. John Harper of the News gives us an in-depth look at the man responsible for much of the team's young talent.

Steve Serby of the NY Post has a Q&A with freshly minted Hall-of-Famer, Goose Gossage. Topics included Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte.

Ed Price of the Star Ledger has a story on the "other" Duncan- Eric Duncan, who is still trying to live up to his draft hype. Still just 23 years old, Duncan knows he needs to start putting up consistently good numbers.

Peter Abraham talks about the possibly new and improved Brian Bruney. The portly righty has lost 20 pounds and some of his bad attitude.

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What the fucku? The Yankees met with agent Alan Nero to discuss his client, Kazuo Fukumori. Nero has indicated there are 10 teams interested in the Japanese reliever, and the Yankees were late additions.

Fukumori, 33, served most recently as a closer for the Rakuten Golden Eagles. He went 4-2 with a 4.75 ERA in 34 appearances, striking out 33 and walking 17 in 36 innings, before going down with an elbow injury. He underwent season-ending surgery in July to remove bone chips from his elbow. Source

Luis Vizcaino turned down the Yankees' arbitration offer in hopes of finding a multi-year deal. He's still hoping to remain with the club. The Yankees are talking to infielders Nick Green, who was with the club in '05, and former Met Chris Woodward about minor league deals. Source

The Yankees had been having discussions with Mark Loretta about a possible utility role, but yesterday he accept arbitration from the Astros.

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The Post's Steve Serby has an interesting Q&A session with Hank Steinbrenner. While there are some similarities - talk now, think later - the prince sounds a lot less rehearsed than the king. Read Here.

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Alex Rodriguez's new deal could pay him an additional $30 million in incentive clauses. Clauses that are normally illegal in baseball contracts. The Yankees have written it up in a way though so it is like a marketing package.

A-Rod can earn up to $6 million each time he passes one of the historical home runs leaders - Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds. Another $6 million would be thrown in for becoming baseball's all-time home run leader. So 27.5 mill a year wasn't enough??? Source

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The Weekend Yankeeland

Not a lot of baseball news/rumors going on this weekend. The Giants played a putrid 2nd half this afternoon in losing to the Cowboys..at home. There's a clear talent and coaching difference between the 2 teams. Top that off with temps in the 20s, some snow flurries Saturday morning, and Spring Training just can't come fast enough.

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The Yankees face a big deadline tomorrow. The end of the exclusive signing period for free agents. The Journal News' Mike Dougherty ran into Jorge Posada at the Knicks game earlier and asked what's going in the "process" (had to say it).

Posada felt confident a deal could be done with the Yankees and felt the chances were better than 50/50. He clearly wants to stay with the Yankees, but money/length of contract may overrule that (our words not his). Posada expects to hear from the Mets tomorrow. He also re-emphasized that his relationship with Joe Girardi is a good one. Source

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As we're sure you heard by now, Joe Torre had some comments about A-Rod and Andy Pettitte at the Safe at Home Foundation fundraiser the other night. Torre feels that Pettitte will indeed hang it up. Hopefully he's wrong. What is funny though, is how many Yankees fans have expressed outrage at Torre's statement. So now he can't express his opinion? Torre also felt there was a possibility that A-Rod could join him in the Dodgers uni. Lee Mazzilli won't be joining Torre's coaching staff, however, choosing to stay closer to his ailing Mom, who is suffering from Alzheimer's.

A video of Bruce Springsteen, the real Boss, performing at the fundraiser, as well as pics of Bernie Williams jamming with him, can be seen here courtesy of Backstreets.com.

Also attending the gala was Donnie Baseball, with his twin son. No he doesn't have twins, but his son Preston, a member of the Dodgers organization, is a spitting image of the young Donnie B.

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A member of the Twins organization told Newsday that Robinson Cano would be the target in any discussions involving Johann Santana. Even if the Yankees were given a window to negotiate a long term deal, we're totally against giving up a young star talent like Cano. Source

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The NY Post is reporting that Carl Pavano may be released to make room on the 40 man roster. Source

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