Sunday, March 2, 2014

2014 Spring Training Roster Battle Recap

We're almost a week into the ST schedule and already the roster battles are starting to heat up.  There are 4 main ones in camp that I covered earlier this week and they're only going to get more intense as guys like Michael Pineda and Scott Sizemore get into game action this coming week.  Here they are again for anybody who missed them:

- 5th Starter

- Utility Infielder

- Backup Catcher

- Bullpen Spots

Spring Training News And Notes: 3/1/14

The calendar turned yesterday and the Yankees kept plugging away on their early ST schedule, blanking the Phillies 4-0.

- The big news of the day was the 2014 debuts of CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, and Masahiro Tanaka.  All 3 threw scoreless 2-inning outings and all 3 came through their first appearance without any problems.

- As for the specifics, Sabathia's fastball topped out at 88 MPH, so expect the worry alarm to go up.  Kuroda looked sharp and only needed 17 pitches to get his 6 outs.  Tanaka needed 31 but looked impressive throwing them.  He mixed a lot of his pitches in, got a lot of swings and misses, and struck out 3.  His fastball was sitting low-to-mid 90s.

- Derek Jeter played again and looked good again, drawing a walk and making a few plays in the field in his 6 innings of work.  He actually ranged to the other side of second base (!!) to field a chopper.

- In the morning, Matt Thornton threw a sim game to a few MiL guys and David Phelps and Jim Miller each threw bullpens.

- Tyler Austin received some kind of injection in his injured wrist and he's expected to start baseball activities again on Monday.  Alfonso Soriano still isn't quite ready to play after his bout with the flu and his debut has been pushed back to Monday as well.