News & Notes from the Weekend

-- Jason Giambi is excited to have a good season in 2008. If he can stay away of becoming "short-porch" happy, and stay healthy, that may be a real possibility.

- Tyler Kepner writes about how Robinson Cano was almost traded three times.

-- Pending Pinstripes has a great list of PECOTA comparisons of current Yankees and some prospects. "PECOTA weighs everything from age, performance, injuries, and minor league level to create a list of similar players." The one that stood out the most to me was Melky Cabrera:

Carlos Beltran sits at #1, with Coco Crisp and Pete Rose immediately following, and Carl Yastrzemski, Nick Markakis, Reggie Smith, and Bernie Williams also coming up. Lesson: Wait 1 more year before knocking him off.

-- Mr. October is already a big fan of Austin Jackson. "He moves like La Dainian Tomlinson, he glides, he moves like Devon White and Gary Pettis," the Hall of Famer told The Post. "He is the best athlete in the organization. I saw a lot of great outfielders, I needed one on my right."

-- Buster Olney breaks down the most difficult early-season schedules in baseball. The top two: the Red Sox(1) and the Yankees(2) of course.

1. Boston Red Sox
Total games: 37, 19 at home
Games vs. teams over .500 in '07: 23
Other schedule notes: The Red Sox open the season with two games in Japan on March 25 and 26, then return to the U.S. for two more games in Oakland. Their next five series, in succession are against Toronto, Detroit, the Yankees, Cleveland and the Yankees again.

2. New York Yankees
Total games: 36, 18 at home
Games vs. teams over .500 in '07: 21
Other schedule notes: From April 8 to 28, the Yankees play 20 games -- and all but two of them are on the road.

-- Baseball Digest Daily asks "Can the 2008 Yankees Be the Next Dream Team?"

By 1998 the rookies of ’95 had invaluable experience. They were still young, but were now seasoned. In 1998, the balance between rookie and veteran players was just right. From 1998 through 2000, the Yankees brought home back-to-back-to-back World Series championships. Since then, the New York has been trying to restore that balance of experienced veterans and young energetic talent. 2008 may be the year they do just that. Read the rest of the article here

-- Yankees prospect Austin Krum was arrested in Florida over the weekend for starting a drunken bar fight at a Tampa hot-spot and then refusing to leave. Good job!

-- Former Yankees manager Joe Torre reached out to his former player Andy Pettitte this weekend to show support for the southpaw.

"You form relationships. Knowing Andy as a person for as long as I've known him, I just wanted to let him know I was thinking about him," Torre said before the Dodgers faced the Mets Saturday. "I certainly couldn't give him any advice other than, 'If you need for me to help you in any way, I'm here.' I think very fondly of Andy, and other players. I just felt that, knowing the person he is - who sort of loved living out of the limelight - I knew it was going to be uncomfortable for him."

Torre has been and always will be a class act.

-- The Yankees beat writers were able to talk some baseball with Yankees Legend Yogi Berra yesterday in the clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field. Tyler Kepner and Peter Abraham both wrote about it on their blogs.

Did you know that in 1950 Yogi struck out only 12 times in 597 at-bats? ... Wow!

When he was asked what he thought about Yankee Stadium coming down he said, “I never played there, It’s a different stadium.”

-- Remember that picture of the horribly ugly vendor's shirt I posted last week? Well here's a little more info on it from Uniwatchblog.com. Apparently it was worn by vendors at Yankee Stadium from 1968-1972. Here is a photo of vendors wearing it.