The Force?

From Tyler Kepner:

I never thought of Joe Girardi as Yoda. For one thing, he’s not 900 years old. He’s not green. And while Girardi may carry a baseball bat at times, I’ve never seen him with a cane.

But I couldn’t help but think of the Jedi Master from Star Wars on Friday when hearing an anecdote from Matt Treanor, the Florida Marlins catcher who played for Girardi in 2006.

Yoda’s most famous quote, of course, was: “Do, or do not. There is no try.” Turns out Girardi believes the same thing.

“He expects you to get the job done,” Treanor said. “One time in spring training, somebody said, ‘I’m going to try to do this.’ I remember his comment was, ‘I can get a truck driver to try.’

“So basically that means, you’re out there to do it, by whatever means you have to do it.”

There you have it, the distilled wisdom of the Yankees’ new manager, straight from the playbook of a three-fingered puppet.

That’s why Yankee fans are excited about Joe Girardi. He’s about working hard, but if you don’t succeed you’re simply not working hard enough. That’s a good mentality to have and hopefully it’ll catapult the Yankees to a World Series.

Pettitte on Track

PA is reporting that Pettitte threw another bullpen session today and he’s ready to go on Sunday (minor league game). He says he feels “great” but he’s still experiencing some slight tenderness in his back.

Soon to be Unemployed

Our old friend Mike Stanton is about to be cut by the Reds. That’s pretty tough considering how awful their bullpen already is (okay, it got a little bit better this year, but still).

Friday Morning Bits: Girardi, Pettitte, Bullpen, Steinbrenners, Albaladejo

It’s pretty late, so I’ll try to be quick.

1) First, the Yankees will face the Marlins tonight and Joe Girardi’s looking forward to seeing some old faces. It’ll be a bittersweet return as Girardi’s first managerial stint was with the Marlins in 2006. It was his work ethic that turned that young team around, leading them into the Wild Card race and winning the NL Manager of the Year Award, only to be fired by Marlins owner, Jeffrey Loria, at the end of the season. Well, one man’s loss is another man’s gain, right? Girardi turned his brief Floridian tenure into a managerial building block, which ultimately paved the way for his NY return.

2) The next bit of news is on our favorite lefty, Andy Pettitte. Pettitte is supposed to start in a minor league game on Sunday. However, Joe Girardi has not ruled out placing him on the disabled list. The move would be backdated to March 21st, allowing Pettitte to pitch on April 5th. It would help to give Andy an extra day and the Yankees could bring up an extra bullpen pitcher in his absence. That could be interesting depending on how the pen shakes out. If they do decide to do this, expect to see Ohlendorf of Patterson called up. I’m obviously assuming that they’ll be reassigned to the minors.

3) Now, on to some strange news. There has been some speculation around the baseball world regarding the club’s future. Apparently, people are wondering whether or not the Steinbrenners will sell the Yankees. However, Hal (not Hank) Steinbrenner explictly states that the Yankees will remain in the Steinbrenner family. There are no plans to sell the club now, or in the future. Good to know.

4) Finally, here’s a nice read by Chad Jennings on Jonathan Albaladejo. It gives some background info on his history and he’s definitely looking forward to his time with the Yankees. Our bullpen is a revolving door, so I wouldn’t rule out seeing him soon.