Notes
So, Philip Hughes has continued to struggle. I haven’t written about him since his first appearance when I chalked his wildness up to nerves. Now, a couple of appearances later, he still hasn’t come on like I had hoped. In 4 2/3 innings, he has an ERA over 7. He’ll be spending the season in Triple-A. He didn’t seem too concerned, and Torre said the Spring was more about getting him some experience. Hopefully it doesn’t signal some mental setback in Hughes’s development. I’m sure he’ll be fine. I’m just a little disappointed that he didn’t perform better this Spring. He wasn’t going to make the club, but it would’ve been nice to see him perform well.
Meanwhile, Jose Tabata is impressive. He hit an opposite field homer on Sunday and is batting over .450 so far for the Spring. I wonder when he’ll come up….probably in 2008 for a few games.
Meanwhile, Pavano flaked out. I don’t trust this guy at all.
I’m happy to see Wang’s contract was renewed. He’s performed well so far this Spring. Sunday, except for the homerun in the first, he pitched 4 good innings of 1-run ball. As the Yankees’ ace this season, I expect he’ll really carry this team. He was one of the few consistent pieces last season, and I’m looking for more of the same. Hopefully he’ll have a little bit of help from the rest of the staff. It’ll be nice to have an almost-for-sure win every five days, something we haven’t really had for a couple of years (at least not where we expected it). While I’m not entirely sold on the rotation this season, I don’t look at it like I have in the past and think, well, there’s a loss every 5 days. Instead, I see the potential for a rotation that is sneaky good. Not star-studded. But steady and reliable. The main question mark for me is Kei Igawa. How will he perform? In his second start, he pitched 3 innings and gave up two runs. If my math is correct, that’s 4 runs in 4 innings so far on the spring, an ERA of 9.00. He’s still a question for me.
Also a slight question in my mind is Carl Pavano. He flaked out and missed his start on Friday, claiming girlfriend health troubles. How can someone who spends most of his time in a doctor’s office maintain any sort of serious relationship? But, we know Pavano has been good before. I’m hoping he can be again. I guess he’ll pitch against Boston tonight, so we’ll see. The Yankees are only sending 4 regulars to the game, and one of them is Melky Cabrera, not exactly a regular this season. I bet Boston puts every it’s got in there.
DirecTV and MLB agreed to the terms of their Extra Innings deal. As a result, the Extra Innings package finally became available to direcTV customers over the weekend. As I expected, the price went up. It’s available for now at the typical $159. But a little thing on the DTV website says that’s $40 cheaper than the regular season price. hhmmmm….I’m a DTV subscriber, and I love it. But I think this deal really stinks. Not only for those who do not or cannot have DirecTV, but I knew they’d raise the price as soon as the deal went through. I hate that sh1t.
Mile High Yankees 