Good morning Yankee fans! It’s Monday February 27, 2012 and this is your daily rundown. Spring Training is underway and so far, so good for the Yankees. Everyone is in camp, everyone is healthy – so far – and there hasn’t been any drama.
We’re not even out of the month of February and already, the Yankees have been projected by the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino’s Superbook to lead the league with 93.5 wins in 2012. I’m not sure how the half win works but let’s go with it. They’re in the lead ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies projected to have 93, and the Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers both projected to have 92.5 wins. The defending World Series Champion St. Louis Cardinals are only projected to have 83 wins. The reasoning behind the Yankees finish are the two newest members of the starting rotation, Hiroki Kuroda and Michael Pineda. Also helping the Yankees was getting rid of A.J. Burnett.
Joba Chamberlain will be throwing off a full mound tomorrow. Good news for both the Yankees and Chamberlain and hopefully all goes well. Other pitchers in the league have not had luck coming back from injuries. Poor Joel Zumaya may have to retire after tearing his UCL.
Nick Swisher is not thinking about a contract extension but what he will talk about is how he wants to take over the pie throwing duties from the departed A.J. Burnett:
“You know, A.J. was a good buddy of mine and he was a good buddy of all the guys in here. Sad to see him go, wish him the best of luck. But hey man, we’re going to have to keep something going, because people in New York want pie!”
He was asked what would happen if he was the one to get the walk off hit and he answered by asking, “Can you pie yourself?” I’m sure if anyone can do it, Nick Swisher can.
Here are a few pieces for you to read from the Yankee blogging universe:
Rebecca Glass at Pinstriped Bible writes about the aging Yankee offense, specifically Alex Rodriguez. Aging sucks, I should know. I’m up there with the ‘soon to be pretty old’ Derek Jeter.
In case you missed it, Steve Sciacco of the Yankee Analysts makes his case for Joba the starter. It really is amazing how long that argument has been raging.
Another thing you may have missed, a piece in which Chad Jennings of the Lohud Yankees blog takes a look at the non-roster position players. You’ll learn a lot about guys you probably never heard of.
