AL East

Before being faced with a serious elbow injury, Chris Ray was locked in as the O's closer, and deservedly so. At age 24, Chris went on to post a 2.73 ERA and record 33 saves. 

It wasn't until the following season in 2007 that something peculiar began happening. 

Chris lost his dominance, but being the warrior that he is, kept on insisting nothing was wrong. Despite having discomfort in his elbow, even taking drugs to ease the swelling and null the pain, Chris still insisted he felt fine.

The Yankees' 4-2 victory over the Twins marked their eighth consecutive win, and it was their second time beating the Twins this week.

The Yankees outfield will probably look vastly different next season than the players that will be starting this year. There are many different possibilities on who will be starting each of the positions. Nobody knows not even the Yankees who these players will be, allot will depend on individual performances this season.

The New York Yankees beat the Minnesota Twins by a score of 4-2. Phil Hughes is pitching pretty well this spring.

I went out and just had something to eat at Wendy's and I had a cheeseburger with lettuce, onions and pickles. I was hoping to make it back at a decent time and I did.

A—Phil Hughes

From Mark Feinsand:

"I feel good about it, I do. And last night's the best I felt, because of what I saw," Girardi said. "When he threw it, I went, 'wow.' That's the expression I used when I looked at Tony (Pena). He said he felt great, and that was really positive."

Girardi said the Yanks likely will try to have one or two kids run on Posada today at the minor-league complex, but joked "if nobody gets on, then we have an issue."

Despite an offseason full of free agent splashes, the Yankees could be in for another April belly flop. 

Sure, the additions of Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett automatically make the Yankees an improved team, but there are substantial questions as the calendar flips.

A distracted Alex Rodriguez is one thing, but putting him on the shelf for the season’s first six to nine weeks is quite another. General manager Brian Cashman is sticking with farmhand Cody Ransom for, if nothing else, the lack of available free agent third basemen.

The World Baseball Classic has taken many players around the major league away from their teams this spring and in some cases it has been viewed as a very negative thing. For Mark Teixeira that was not going to be an issue during his first spring training with the Yankees.

Sky Kalkman of Beyond the Boxscore wrote a great article this week covering the major league teams and their optimal lineups and what he had to say about the Yankees was very interesting.

Brett Gardner and Melky Cabrera came to camp this spring battling for the center field job that has been Melky’s for the past couple of years.