New York Yankees

  According to Chad Jennings of the Journal News , Yankees reliever Chan Ho Park , who has been on the DL with a hamstring issue, is close to returning to the Bronx after throwing a 45-pitch bullpen session on Monday.

New York Yankee Designated Hitter Nick Johnson has been placed on the Disabled List for 15 days.

I am not going to pretend to not be the guy who says, "I told you so". But you know what, I told you so!

In an article here on Bleacher Report, I wrote that I couldn't imagine why the Yankees with all of the money in the baseball universe, would want to throw $5.5M down the toilet.

We thought the war of words from Dallas Braden and Alex Rodriguez was a one-time deal. It took a place when that game at Oakland in a few weeks ago ended.

The day after that game, the Yankees carried it on by ripping Braden. Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter and CC Sabathia called Braden out for being a whiner and a journeyman.

That inspired Braden to call out Rodriguez in an interview on CSN California.com last Thursday.

Brennan Boesch tallied two hits and three RBI to help lead Detroit to a 5-4 win over New York Monday night at Comerica Park. Eddie Bonine (3-0) earned the win after pitching 2.1 innings of scoreless relief. Sergio Mitre (0-1) suffered the loss in his first start of the season.

MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that the Yankees have signed 17-year-old Venezuelan catcher Rainiero Coa. The original report comes from Annelida Yoris Rivas at the Venezuelan paper Nueva Prensa . Here's a little more from MLBTR:

When Alex Rodriguez "walked on Dallas Braden's pitching mound," Mr. Braden took umbrage because A-Rod broke an unwritten rule. The mound belongs to the pitcher.

Alex responded by referring to Dallas' handful of wins.

A few days ago, Alex claimed he was not making any more comments because he didn't want to add any more time to the left-handed pitcher's 15-minutes of fame.

Alex Rodriguez will probably finish his career with more home runs than Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron, but there is only way that A-Rod can top what Dallas Braden achieved on May 9, 2009.

As the old saying goes: "You can't win the World Series in April, but you sure can lose it."

Sadly, this looks to be the case for the struggling Red Sox—possessors of one of the MLB's highest payrolls. Their struggles are due in large part to a fragile relationship between a developmentally-minded front office and a rabid fan base desperate for big-name players and marquee deals.

When done correctly, a developmentally-oriented system can lead to great results—enter the Red Sox of 2007, whose mixture of young talent and big-name stars led to World Series glory.

The Dallas Braden/Alex Rodriguez feud is still going strong, and while part of me feels that Braden ought to let it go and move (which he appears to be doing tonight with eight perfect innings against the Rays so far), all of me feels that Alex Rodriguez is one of the bigger punks in the game.

Mike Mussina once was a dominant pitcher, but never was he more masterful than on the night of Sept. 2, 2001 against the Boston Red Sox, when he came within one strike of pitching the fourth perfect game in Yankees’ history.

Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre noted, as he watched Mussina warm up in the bullpen before the game, that he was taken aback by the sharp drop on Mussina’s curve ball.

"It looked the same as David Wells’ curve ball on May 17, 1998."

The New York Yankees' last World Championship was in 2009.

For many Yankees’ fans, the eight years between World Championships seemed like an eternity of defeats, despite the team being in the playoffs seven times.

Some Yankees’ fans, and of course, Mr. George Steinbrenner, consider the only successful season one in which the Yankees win the final game of the World Series.