A few random thoughts on spring training - 美國職棒

A few random thoughts on spring training


As I wait for my laundry to dry:

This idea that the Andy Pettitte situation could distract the Yankees
is comical. Pettitte will be distracted, no doubt about it. He already
admitted that his workout routine was disrupted. But the other players
don’t much care beyond wanting their teammate to be OK. Baseball is
an individual game. Pettitte’s problems are his own.

Joe Girardi has handled his first few days well. The Yankees work
hard but it’s not like he’s running around yelling at people. He
also has been patient and forthright with the media, which is important
in New York. He set the right tone with Pettitte and said the right things.
You think it was some coincidence that three chairs for Jeter, Mo and Posada
suddenly showed up?

Still to early to ask how anybody looks. The pitchers throw in the bullpen
then they do fielding drills and conditioning sprints. It’s hard to screw
that up. The best way to tell how a pitcher is throwing is to see him face
hitters. That’ll come soon enough.

That said, Mike Mussina seems to have come to camp with a sense of purpose.
Phil Hughes, too.

Shelley Duncan has been added to my list of players I hope do well because
I enjoy their personalities. He’s not the most graceful dude but he’s out
there every day taking grounders and working on his footwork. First base is
much easier for lefties than righties but Shelley is trying to get it down.
Get this: He and Mussina were wrestling the other day. If you can get an
old crank like Mussina to wrestle, you must be fun to hang with.

If there is somebody on the team Joba doesn’t have a personal relationship
with, I haven’t met the guy. The other day he wandered over to Matsui’s
locker and tried on his batting helmet. Hideki, as you might imagine, has
himself a large batting helmet and Joba looked like The Great Gazoo.
Matsui was cracking up.

You know who’s a smart guy? Kevin Long. Chien-Ming Wang is a quiet guy
by nature. He likes to sit and watch people. Former coach Larry Bowa used
to kid around with Wang, just to make him part of the group. He’d always
ask Wang how many runs he wanted the Yankees to score in his next start,
things like that. Today, Long walked by Wang and said, “Hey, Wanger, how
many runs?” CMW started smiling. “Six,” he said. Stuff like that makes
a team.

Did you know Jeff Karstens speaks fluent Spanish? He regularly engages
the Latin guys in conversation.

Keeping Jose Molina was a very good idea. Posada keeps himself in shape
and he says he’s young in catcher years because he played infield as a kid.
But he can’t stay on the pace he has been on forever.

Yogi Berra’s golf clubs arrived today. The man himself won’t be in for
another week or so. The clubs were immediately placed in Girardi’s office.
The manager of the Yankees has two duties in spring training: get the team
ready and take good care of Lawrence Peter Berra.

http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2008/02/18/a-few-random-thoughts-on-spring-training/#comments

回應中有人提到locker的分佈，Peter的答案：

Peter Abraham
February 18th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
the main pitchers are in this order in the locker room:

Sanchez, Albaledejo, Hughes, Mussina, Kennedy, Hawkins, Farnsworth, Pavano,
Traber, Pettitte, Wang, Bruney, Chamberlain, Mo.

There’s sort of a little corner area where Mussina is.

另外，之前 NJ.com的 Ed Price有在他的blog中提到Moose要clubhouse manager
幫Phil Hughes換locker的文章中有畫出一部份的locker分佈圖:

http://blog.nj.com/ledgeryankees/2008/02/musical_chairs.html

另外在2.18.2008 聯合報中，廖廷儀有提到

"2008年春訓，王建民在球員休息室的位置有改變，向左移兩格、接下已離隊好友
麥爾斯的置物櫃。左手邊是電視，右邊去年本來是日籍左投井川慶，現在變成了
後援投手布魯尼 。"

（上面的台灣報導再加上NJ.com的圖，大概可以猜測了Pettitte過去是電視，
然後才是王建民，然後是Bruney, Chamberlain, Mo）

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