AL East

The Yankees have been pretty lucky as far as injuries are concerned in that nothing major has happened, but that doesn’t mean that a few of the players haven’t been banged up quite a bit.

Sorry about the updates being so late in the day today. I had a bit of running around to do this morning.

Just four days until the season starts—who’s excited? I am.

On to the news:

Switch pitcher Pat Venditte got a chance to show off his stuff in the big league camp for the Yankees yesterday. He pitched 1.1 innings allowing one run, two hits, and a walk. Here are some pictures:

With the start of the baseball season less than one week away (yes, a week , with Red Sox vs. Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball), it means only thing: It is time to dust off the magic eight-balls, look into the future, and predict where the 30 teams will end up at the end of the season.

Drafted: First Round, supplemental, 2005 (Aurora, IL)

Height: 6′3″ Weight: 215 lbs

Born: September 9, 1986

The 23-year-old righty put together another strong season in Triple-A last year, going 4-6, 3.13, in 126 IP…but he struggled in a brief promotion with the big league club (1-1, 9.56).

Red Sox minor league pitcher Junichi Tazawa visited Birmingham, AL, to consult with orthopedist James Andrews this afternoon. As of the posting of this article, neither the player nor the team had received the results of the exam—or at least not that they have made public.

On April 3rd, every team in Major League Baseball has the same chance of taking home a division title and ultimately a World Series Championship.

While one can assume that a team like the Washington Nationals won't have a snowball's chance of winning their division, there is always a team like the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays that seemingly come out of nowhere and take the world by surprise.

The Rays are not nearly as under the radar as they have been in years previous; but after missing the playoffs last year, maybe people have been writing the Rays off as possible one year wonders.

The good people over at Maple Street Press were nice enough to send me a free copy of this year’s edition of their Yankees annual to review. If you are looking to pick up a Yankee-specific season preview magazine, I can’t imagine finding a better one than this.

The Magazine : Maple Street Press: Yankees 2010 Annual

The Editor : Cecilia Tan

The Yankees jumped out to a 7-0 lead in today’s game before rain ended things. Damaso Marte got the start (that’s right), and Mariano Rivera pitched the second inning. Andy Pettitte , who has only pitched in one official Spring Training game thanks to rain, had his outing cut short after pitching just one inning. He then went indoors and pitched a simulated game, stopping at 100 pitches.

Joba Chamberlain got his first taste of action as a reliever this spring. He had a save in today’s 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers. Here is some other news on a nice Saturday afternoon: