New York Yankees

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.

Derek Jeter's range at shortstop has been scrutinized a lot in the media recently as Yankees writers are already worrisome of the Yankees' defense in 2009.  Frankly, it's pissing me off.

Hey peoples,

It's been a minute since I wrote last. Now that there is progress in spring training we can look at what the Yankees have...as far as you can with deceiving Spring Training numbers.

Basically, I am happy A-Rod had surgery. It is good for him, good for baseball, and good for Jeter's peace of mind, because he has been obviously angry with the press over this.

Any idiot can hear it in his replies; they are quick, biting jabs, not mad at A Rod, mad at the press for being gossip column writers instead of sports writers.

The New York Yankees came into 2009 with more depth on offense than any year since Darryl Strawberry came off the bench.

With the acquisition of Nick Swisher and the emergence of Brett Gardner in center field, head coach Joe Girardi had countless ways to mix and match a powerful offensive attack.

The signing of Mark Teixeira, however, was the first spark in an eventual flame out of Girardi’s plans.

It is impossible to question the signing of a dynamite offensive leader in his prime who also possesses top-notch defensive prowess.

The NEW York Yankees—out with the old and in with the new. With the recent acquisitions of "big name" players such as A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia, and Mark Teixeira, the Yankees are beginning to show that they, as a team, are once again a "big name" team.

The Yankees, coming off a most disappointing season, are setting their sights on that precious World Series Championship, of which they have not had the honor of winning since 2000, when they defeated the Mets in the Subway Series.

I suspect I'm not a whole lot different than you are in many ways. 

When 'Old Time Rock And Roll' blasts from the radio, I grab my wife's hair brush and slide across the hardwood floor wearing nothing but a white Hathaway button down and a pair of Fruit of the Looms.

Over the past couple of days, I've been involved in a lot of Yankee/Red Sox banter.

It started when I had dinner with some Red Sox fans last weekend, and has continued on into this week.

Last weekend, we got on the subject of where we all were when Aaron Boone hit the game winning home run in Game Seven of the 2003 ALCS against the Red Sox.

Here is a list of how the Yankees have done so far in spring training. Keep in mind that nobody even has 50 at-bats, so the sample size is a little bit too small to draw conclusions from. It’s still nice to see how people are doing.

The list is via ESPN, and I took out quite a few guys with less than 10 at-bats, although not everyone.

Stats as of March 19, 2009