Some Loose Ends

Due to an extremely busy weekend (school), I missed out on a couple of important team issues and notable news items. Let’s get into them:

• Billy Traber, a lefty who has been competing for a spot in the pen, was recently added to the 40-man roster. Although a good sign for Traber, this doesn’t necessarily mean that he’ll be on the roster come ST’s end. However, he has been effective and could get a shot, especially with Kei Igawa reverting back to his normally horrid self over the weekend.
• Next up, Peter Abraham of the LoHud Blog presents us with the reality of Joba’s tough spring. Joba’s line, although somewhat poor, is not at all disheartening. We know what the kid is capable of and he’s been experimenting with his repertoire. Plus, this is his first big spring so nerves, pressure, the experience itself, are all playing into that.
• Bill Madden, of the Daily News, continues the dialogue about the Yankees and their young group of pitchers. In his text, Madden details the uphill climb in store for the Yankees and their “3 Amigos.”

Back with more later (of course)…

Wang Strikes Out Seven

In today’s exhibition game against Cleveland, Chien-Ming Wang was able to strike out 7 Indians. That’s pretty impressive considering he doesn’t strike out too many people. You can tell that he’s using his secondary pitchers a lot more (slider, change), especially with teams that have been successful against him in the past. Joe Girardi seems very pleased with Wang’s expanding repertoire and Dave Eiland is encouraging Wang to throw more changeups during the regular season as well.

Check out the complete box score for the game, here.

That’s Appealing

Shelley Duncan and Melky Cabrera plan to appeal their 3-game suspensions. No surprise here. Melky can definitely make a case for himself, although Shelley has essentially been vilified over his slide.