Exactly, let Joba start some games in the second half to get ready for starting the post season and let some young guns prove themselves able to givequality innings outta the pen
Chea.Originally Posted by jrp44
Damn BASEBALL IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!
Originally Posted by TBONE95860
Spring training games start next week
Rotation, rotation: Mike Mussina and Jeff Karstens will each throw about two innings during starts for Wednesday's intrasquad game, Girardi announced. Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain will then do the honors in Friday's scrimmage against South Florida.
Wang will get the ball at 1:05 p.m. ET on Saturday to kick off the Yankees' official exhibition season, taking on the Phillies in Clearwater, Fla.
oh and some great news on Hughes, looks like he's poised to have a great year
Phil Hughes is throwing harder now than he did last year, said Yankees catcher Jose Molina.
TAMPA, Fla. -- The Yankees' catching tandem was ready to hit the streets after another early afternoon at camp when Jose Molina dropped by with a tidbit for Jorge Posada.
Having just completed receiving Phil Hughes' latest bullpen session, an impressed Molina told Posada, "You know what? Phil looks like he has more pop."
Posada concurred, and the backstops aren't the only ones who have noticed.
Said manager Joe Girardi: "You watch him and he leads the groups in running. He just looks like an athlete, a thoroughbred and a leader."
After Hughes' debut season was interrupted by a pop of a different kind -- his left hamstring giving out in the middle of a no-hitter -- the 21-year-old Hughes has set out to keep only positive things on his plate in 2008.
Hughes confirms he's hitting the glove with more force than in his debut season, when he won five games for New York, plus one more in the playoffs. But more importantly, he has confidence that nothing else will go wrong.
"It's not so much the velocity," Hughes said. "It's really the fact that I've felt more comfortable and I've been able to trust my body. I don't have any inklings or thoughts in the back of my head that something will flare up again. I think that's the key, to trust all my pitches and finish everything."
If nothing else, Hughes should feel at home in Tampa. This offseason, Hughes reported regularly to the Yankees' training facility on Himes Avenue, even while general manager Brian Cashman was fielding calls from Twins counterpart Bill Smith, dabbling with a potential deal for Johan Santana.
Even as he attempts to carve his own identity, Hughes is receiving plenty of assistance. Mike Mussina suggested to a clubhouse manager early in Spring Training that Hughes' locker be moved to neighbor his, so the veteran could loop Hughes in with Ian Kennedy if any impromptu pitching discussions broke out.
Then, when Andy Pettitte reported to Tampa, he took it upon himself to walk Hughes, Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain through the same intense workouts Pettitte used to attack with Roger Clemens. Even with so much scrutiny upon the Rocket, his lifting and running regimen still draws admiration.
It helps, of course, that Hughes heeded the call for better fitness. Girardi let it be known that Spring Training '08 would not be a country club, and Hughes showed up ready to go. Spending weeks over at the Minor League complex under the supervision of pitching coach Dave Eiland have been paying dividends early.
"He's in great shape," Girardi said. "All the reports on him that I saw from when he was working down at Himes said he was different. He'd worked really hard.
"... He knows what to expect a little bit more going through."
