New York Yankees

Waite Hoyt won 22 games for the 1927 New York Yankees. Hoyt spent 10 seasons with the Yankees, winning 157 games before being sent to Detroit in 1930.

Although he played for many teams, including the three New York teams, Hoyt was a Yankee.

The Cocky Chicago Cubs

In 1938, Waite was pitching for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the soon-to-be National League champion Chicago Cubs.

When you see Jesus Montero step to the plate, you see more of an NFL linebacker than a baseball player. The 6'4'', 225 pound, 20-year-old catcher hails from Guacara, Venezuela. Signed as a 16-year-old by the New York Yankees in 2006, Montero was tagged as the heir to Jorge Posada—high standards for just a teenager.

Believe it or not, the New York Yankees have had a very quiet offseason. There has been nobody busted for steroids, the manager isn’t on a short leash, and there is no drama surrounding the team.

And in other news of the bizarre, the University of Kentucky has dropped their basketball program.

Just because the Yankees have had a quiet offseason by their standards, doesn’t mean things are happening in Yankee land. Here are some news and notes from Yankees’ camp.

Phil Hughes is named No. 5 starter

Too many articles talked about Joe Mauer heading to free agency after this season and signing with the Yankees. That was never going to happen because of Mauer's native roots and his homegrown status of being a Twins first-round draft choice and first pick overall.*

On an everyday basis during the baseball season, the Yankees make me believe in things. They make me feel strong. Whether it is crushing a 400 foot home run or throwing a 99 mph fastball, it’s almost as if the Bronx Bombers possess powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men.

Simply put, the Yankees are my superheroes.

Then I got to thinking: if the Yankees were superheroes, which ones would they be? I put together a list of Bombers who represent comic book heroes. I tried to match each hero to a Yankee in accordance to their attributes and personality.

With the announcement Thursday that New York Yankees right-handed pitcher Phil Hughes will be the team's fifth starter, a firestorm has arisen over what many now call the misuse of fellow right-handed flamethrower Joba Chamberlain.

This week, the race for the Yankees' fifth starter spot finally ended.

In what started out as a five man race, ended up having one clear winner for the job.

Phil Hughes won the fifth and final starting job for the 2010 season and will be in the rotation with CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, and Javier Vazquez.

Say what you want about George Steinbrenner and his management style, but I guarantee that the Joba Chamberlain debacle would not have happened under his watch.

The word came down today that Phil Hughes has won the fifth starter spot over Joba. It's the right decision–I'm not arguing that. The problem is that the Yankees have spent the last three years messing with Joba's head and because of it, he may very well end up needing a one-way ticket out of the Bronx to get his career back on track.

So it was all for nothing.

The innings limits, the pitch limits, the extra days off between starts the Yankees forced Joba Chamberlain to undergo during the second half of 2009—that rendered him impotent come the playoffs—under the guise that they were "protecting his arm" so that he could at long last become a full fledged starter this season...it was all a lie.

Tossed aside because of 3 2/3 spring innings.

Manager Joe Girardi and the Yankees staff evaluated the entire spring training and came to the same conclusion I did: Phil Hughes should be the fifth starter.

Hughes beat out Joba Chamberlain, Alfredo Aceves, Sergio Mitre, and the recently released Chad Gaudin.

Girardi has been very impressed with the much-improved changeup that Hughes has been using and working on throughout the spring.

Chamberlain, Aceves, and Mitre are all now competing for spots in the Yankees bullpen. Nobody, including Chamberlain, is guaranteed a role. Each player will need to earn it.