How To Improve The Yankees

Good morning y'all and welcome back to Yankee baseball.

I've just returned from a scouting mission with El Duque and Mustang.  Turns out, they find all the ballpark bars faster than I do but, when called upon, I am more inclined to " hit it out of the park,"
when it becomes time to lose oneself in public.

In any case, here is what I have seen so far;

1.  Reggie may be right.  Jose Peralta looks like a really good hitter.  He is a bit clumsy, as yet, at second base.  But no where near the fiasco that was Nunez.

I'm told they are playing him everywhere, desperate to find a roster spot for a guy who is not a great glove man.

2.  My new " man of the future" is Jake Cave.  great baseball name, and a fine prospect in CF.  He is having a hot spring with limited appearances, which is my criterion for a quality player.  That is; he delivers whenever he is given a shot.

3.  Judge made a great running/diving catch about four feet in front of our seats in the Sarasota game against Baltimore.  Sadly, he did nothing at the plate.  Nothing.  Mustang and Duque keep telling me about a game changing HR he hit a few weeks back.  Ancient history.  He K'd twice when I saw him.  Send him down and cross your fingers.

4.  The draft pick lefty (Lindgren?) pitched a dominating 1-2-3 ninth.  He reminded me, though his style is totally different, of a young kid I saw in Tampa several years ago who struck out the side in the 9th, on 9 pitches;  David Robertson.

5.  Heathcott struck out on a ball in the dirt in his one appearance.

6.  Refsnyder ( SP?) did the same….looking, I think.  Unimpressive.  But he looked good walking out of the stadium, with an aluminum container of food, heading back to the Yankee bus after the game.

7.  Flores and Austin, two other hot prospects, are rumored to be trade bait.  Maybe they get packaged with JR Murphy ( he hit better when he was JR ) for some old, loser who costs $18 million a year.  Now that Cappy is down, and with Tanaka on a tight rope, those rumors about mortgaging the future again, for Cole Hamels, seem to have some life.

8.  The projected starting line-up is boring beyond belief.  Hedley can hit.  So, too, can Gardy and that ex Red Sox centerfielder.  But Tex is a double play machine with a slow bat; Beltran is a NY Met in the playoffs against the Cardinals; Gregorious could go all spring training without a hit; Mc Cann could hit .300 if he went to the opposite field, but he won't.  Stephen Drew can't hit a lick.  It is two runs on a good day.  And I feel that A-Rod will be ineffective as a DH.

9.  I think Romine wins the back-up catcher job, even though Murphy is already pencilled in.

10.  Starting pitching for this team is precarious, to say the least.  We may have a pretty decent bullpen.

11.  Any day that that other ex-Met plays in ( Young…the outfielder ) , I won't watch or listen to.

Let's play two !