This is not the choice I would make, but for the possibility that Nady is being burnished for a trade.
“If we were to break today,” Girardi said, “Xavier Nady would be my right fielder.”
At the start of camp, Girardi said right field would be a competition between Nady and Swisher. Each has played roughly to form, and because Nady had an edge at the start, Girardi said, he was comfortable giving Swisher the news Monday morning.
“I’ve been thinking all day about what I wanted to say,” Swisher told reporters after Monday’s game, an 8-3 loss to Philadelphia. “I’m the type of guy, I want to play every day, there’s no doubt about that. I guess we’re just going to see how it plays out.
“I love this team. I love the coaches, players, I love it all. I think it’s a great spot. But that’s the biggest thing; we’re going to have to wait and see how it plays out.”
Not happy to read that at all. Swisher is younger, more patient, has a better track record until his last season which was bad - which enabled him to be brought to NY, and he's a better defender.
Another thing sort of did occur to me. Nady came up as a 3B. If they really like his bat that much they could throw him at 3B while A-Rod recovers and put Swisher in RF.
AJ Burnett Beats Bosox (in Spring)
The kind of news you have when it's not news.
A.J. Burnett, who is 5-0 with a 2.56 ERA in his career against Boston, allowed one run on three hits and two walks in 5-2/3 innings, striking out four. He threw 82 pitches, 49 for strikes, extending his pitch count as high as any Yankees starter has this spring.
"I heard lots of cheers and boos," Burnett said of his first Yanks-Sox experience. "When David (Ortiz) came up the first time, he was covered in them. It's awesome. I can't wait to get in there during the season and see what that's all about."
Well, it's nice to know he can beat those guys so well, so often.
Jeter Is Back From The WBC
Jeter came back to Yankee land where he is most beloved and needed. His inability to lead the hastily assembled host of 'yankees' notwithstanding, that is.
Now that the whole world has seen just how bad his range is, you'd think the mystique has eroded on Captain Crunch.
“I need to play,” Jeter said. “I’ve had enough days off. We just had three days off before our last game. With tomorrow’s off-day, I didn’t feel I needed to miss three more days. I wanted to come and play today.”
Jeter hopes to play most of the Yankees’ final nine exhibition games, which is fine with Girardi. Even before Jeter arrived, Girardi penciled him in Tuesday’s lineup, batting second behind Johnny Damon. Girardi also listed Jeter on the travel squad to Clearwater for Thursday’s game with the Phillies.
“I told him, after today, give me what he wants to do, whether it’s one day off or two days off,” Girardi said. “Just let me know what you need, because you know better than what I do.
“I think there’s enough time for him to get ready. I do. But we’ll find out.”
Since Jeter has been gone for about three weeks, his return prompted a series of “hello stranger” moments. The bench coach Tony Peña greeted him with: “Cap’n Crunch! How you doing? About time you showed up.” Tino Martinez, Jeter’s former teammate and a special instructor in spring training, stopped by for a visit.
There were no insights if he had any, no new experiences he could incorporate or convey to the press, no new information. He remains oddly elusive from giving us a piece of his mind. You'd think he never went away and played those games for the USA. It's bizarre.
Graig Nettles Is Better Now
Graig Nettles is recovering from prostate cancer. That' good news.
Nettles had surgery to remove his prostate in April of last year.
"Hopefully that's all been taken care of and I'm cancer free," said Nettles, taking a break from working out with the Yankees in Tampa. "I still have to go every six months to get it checked out, but my health is good."
Cancer hasn't stopped the 64-year-old Gold Glove legend, who's already talking about making his way to the Bronx this season.
"I'll make it out there to the new (Yankee) Stadium a few times this year," he says.
Nettles spends his springs with the current Yankees as an instructor and is more than familiar with the parade of havoc that comes with wearing pinstripes. He invited fans into his crazy days in the Bronx with his book entitled "Balls," released in 1984, so he's no stranger to the absurd. He once summed up his Yankee career succinctly and perfectly in 1978 by saying: "When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join the circus. With the Yankees, I have accomplished both."
As with so many of my heroes in my life, I loved him because he was funny as well as good.
"I'm indebted to the Yankees for always inviting me out to spring training," says Nettles, who came to Yanks in trade with Cleveland in 1972. "I know I can't do the things I used to anymore, so I live through the players. It's all in memory what I did."
And Nettles did a lot, enjoying his best season in 1977, when he picked up his first of two Gold Glove and crushed 37 homers and 107 RBI in helping lead the Yankees to a World Series win over the Dodgers. The following season, Nettles earned his second Gold Glove and made diving stop after diving stop against the Dodgers in what was back-to-back World Series championships in the Bronx.
But his most cherished memory?
"The biggest thrill I got was when (Chris) Chambliss hit the home run to put us in the World Series in 1976," he says. "That was it."
The memories that stay on and on. I remember that shot.
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