The Daily Yankeeland - 4/24

Mike Mussina's win last night was the 252nd of his career, putting him in sole possession of 42nd on the all-time wins list. It was also the 105th of his Yankee career, which remarkably is now in its 8th season, just one less year than his time in Baltimore.

Alex Rodriguez has rejoined the team, but Joe Girardi said it's "highly doubtful" that he'll be able to play before the weekend due to his strained calf. Even the weekend may be stretching (pun intended) it.

April is great for quickly rebuilding your batting average. Jorge Posada's 4-5 effort against the White Sox moved his season .avg from .255 to .304. On the other hand, Derek Jeter's 1-10 in the first two games of the series has dropped him 32 points to .277.

Tyler Kepner wrote up a piece in today's NY Times on how well Darrell Rasner (3-0, 0.72) is doing at Scranton as he waits for a chance to return to the bigs.

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The Daily Yankeeland

In case you missed it over the weekend, the NY Times' Tyler Kepner had a good story on Billy Traber's road back from the reconstructive surgery he had in 2003. Traber's career highlight was a complete game shutout he pitched against the Yankees in 2003. He faced just one batter over the minimum, allowing a single to John Flaherty.

And yesterday, Kepner wrote up a great feature on the heart and soul of Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

Hideki Matsui will be re-evaluated today to determine when he can play next. Godzilla went 0-3 as the DH in yesterday's game. Though his swings weren't very good, both he and Joe Girardi were pleased with the outcome. No word on when Matsui will return to the outfield.

Morgan Ensberg continued to help his chances yesterday, going 1-2 with an RBI, run scored, and a walk. He's now batting .429 this spring. Chris Woodward's 2-3 raised his average to .529 as he battles for a utility spot.

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The Daily Yankeeland

There is a good feature by Tyler Kepner in today's NY Times on how Phil Hughes is interacting with fans via his blog. Other players have official websites, but rarely ever update them. Dr. Phil Good on the other hand, usually updates his on a daily basis, holds contests, and takes fans' questions.

So far, so good. That could describe how things have been going for Andy Pettitte since he arrived in Yankees camp.

"Everything has been normal," Pettitte said after throwing his first and final round of batting practice yesterday. "It was nice to come in here and get into a routine. What I needed was a routine. Everybody acted like nothing happened. I came here and wanted to apologize for making them answer questions and [everybody said] I didn't need to apologize. Everybody has made it extremely easy, including the organization."

As for his pitching, Pettitte says he still lags behind but has ample time to recover.

"My legs are getting there and I can tell my arm isn't quite sharp. It got fatigued at the end," Pettitte said. "It felt like my arm was dragging. I have six starts here so I am not concerned."

Now we'll see how he handles that first road trip.

Things are far from over for Roger Clemens. The House Oversight committee, after making a mockery of this whole thing, has now drafted a letter to the Department of Justice to investigate whether Clemens lied before Congress. Ironically, Brian McNamee, who was clearly lying at times before Congress, is not being looked into further by the committee.

On top of that, an unnamed major league snitch player has apparently told Congress that Clemens often joked about his wife and Jose Canseco's ex comparing implants at the infamous party.

One of the best in the business, Mike Vaccaro, has a great piece on our man Melky Cabrera and his destiny as the last regular center fielder in the current Stadium.

Some good anecdotes; stories from the always-entertaining Peter Abraham:

A feature on fielder's pitching practice

Jason Giambi's work ethic

and Mike Mussina's locker "with a view"

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Hughes Lacking in Velocity

The NY Times' Tyler Kepner spoke with Brian Cashman about Phil Hughes' lack of velocity. Instead of averaging 91-93 mph, Hughes is only hitting 88-91.

“I don’t know why,” Cashman said. “It’s our job to continue to look and see if there’s anything mechanically. He could still be just building arm strength from being down for so long.

“It’s starting to improve, though. His last two outings, he’s been popping a few more high-velocity fastballs. But he’s got more arm strength than he’s shown lately. He’s not coming at hitters with his full ability yet.”

Read the full story.

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