More From Hank

Tyler Kepner wrote an article for the New York Times today about how the Yankees expect to open up spring training without Johan Santana. This is not newsworthy, and it doesn't even mean anything. If the Twins would lower their demands, a deal will be done within the week.

What I did find interesting were several quotes from the always talkative, Hank Steinbrenner. First, there was the typical ambiguous garbage that we've all been hearing for weeks:

“It’s most likely that we’re going to stay with what we’ve got,” ... Hank Steinbrenner said on Monday. “That always can change — of course, that’s up to Minnesota — but there were no offers on the table. You don’t make an offer unless you 100 percent intend to do it, and the final decision hasn’t been made.”

But he then said made several statements that I hope are true, and also, sort of surprised me. Now Hank has shown, time and time again, that most of what he says is bull****, so I know I shouldn’t believe him here. And honestly, I don’t, but I hope he is telling the truth. Here are the quotes:

“He’s the general manager, and I’m going to pay attention to the opinion of our top baseball people,”

“With young pitching, everybody seems to want to keep all of them — a lot of the fans and media seem to lean that way.”

“But everybody’s got to remember, we’ve all got to be patient. They’re only going to get better. That’s a fact. The young pitchers are only going to get better and better each month. If one of them has two or three bad starts in a row, I won’t care, because I know what they can do, and all our people — all our baseball experts — know what they can do.”

If he is telling the truth, he may have learned from some of his father’s mistakes. George Steinbrenner would rarely listen to his "baseball people", and always thought he knew better than everyone else. This hurt him many times throughout the years, and I think (and hope) Hank was paying attention.

It sounds like he may also be a little more patient than his father.

He also reiterated a point that he made several days ago, that Joba Chamberlain’s role is going to be decided by Girardi, and his staff. We’ll see.