AL East

For those of you who don’t know who he is, Mike Ashmore runs a Trenton Thunder blog for the Hunterdon County Democrat.

He’s also one of the better, and more hard working bloggers out there, covering the Yankees organization.

Well, I’d say he topped himself yesterday as he interviewed at least nine members of the organization during the Thunder’s media day.

Here are the interviews:

Sunday night’s loss was a tough one for the Yankees and the bullpen, but they turned it around last night as they beat the Red Sox 6-4 to improve their record to 1-1.

Here are some notes:

When the series began between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, they had listed three premier pitching matchups for the fans at Fenway Park to see.

So far, the first two games have come down to a battle of the bullpens instead of the starters.

On opening night, the two starters for both teams didn't have great outings. Josh Beckett didn't even get out of the fifth inning, allowing eight hits, five runs, three walks and two home runs and a 9.64 ERA in four and two-thirds innings.

The Team takes a look into the lives of the Detroit Tigers baseball players. My favorite episode can be found here . The (new) Team follows our hero, Curtis Granderson, as he adjusts to life as a New York Yankee. The previous episode can be found here. This is the newest installment. Warning, strong language and stupidity follows.

The Red Sox pulled quite a rabbit out of their financial hat on Monday, locking up pitcher Josh Beckett with a four-year, $68 million deal.

I must admit, I was very surprised to hear they worked out such an economical deal. When Boston inked former Angel John Lackey to a much more luxurious five-year, $82.5 million deal, it was easy to assume Beckett would be gone.

In any endeavor in life, the leap from the No. 2 person to being the No. 1 man or woman is tremendous.

Until you go through it, you will never know how big the actual leap is.

Going from a Director of Sales to a VP of Sales is a huge step. Coaches will tell you going from an assistant basketball coach to the head coach is the longest eight feet in their lives.

In baseball, going from the seventh or eighth inning guy to the closer is a big step.

New Toronto Blue Jays closer Jason Frasor found out how big that step was yesterday.

Unless an injury occurs or a trade happens, the Boston Red Sox will have four-fifths of their starting rotation set until 2014. That is because John Lackey, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, and now Josh Beckett are under team control until that year.

Yesterday, the Red Sox signed Beckett to a four-year, $68 million contract extension. The deal will pay Beckett $15.7 million from 2011-2014. Beckett also received a $5 million signing bonus.

When the deal ends, Beckett will be finishing his 14th year in the major leagues and will be 34 years old.

This past week, Toronto Blue Jays slugger Adam Lind signed a four-year, $18 million contract.

Lind's contract also has three option years that could bring the total to seven years and $38.5 million.

By locking him up now, the Blue Jays eliminate his three arbitration years and get cost control for the next seven seasons. 

So what does this mean to the Rays?

Brett Gardner had a great game for the New York Yankees on Opening Night in Fenway Park.

Against the Yankees' primary nemesis, Gardner was 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored.

This was very good news for Gardner and the Yankees, as his offense has been a question mark. But last night he was aggressive at the plate and on the bases, and he was valuable despite the Yankees' ultimate 9-7 loss.

In his first two at-bats Gardner slashed singles to left field. It was what he did after his second at-bat that was spectacular.

He steps up to the plate with his hat tugged low on a line that meets his eyebrows.

He is shorter than the home plate umpire but he gives the impression he could care less.