Some News & Notes to Start Your Week

Here's some news from around Yankeeland to start your week.

-- Jack Curry of The NY Times has this article on outfield prospect Brett Gardner. Gardner, who has impressed everyone this spring, says he "absolutely" sees himself playing center field for the New York Yankees in the near future. Gardner's father also has a couple quotes about his son in the article.

-- Dan Graziano of The Star Ledger talks about how Mariano Rivera's value goes beyond saves, and how he is one of the teams' biggest leaders in the clubhouse, and how he is a teacher to many of the other relief pitchers on the Yankees staff.

"The greatest thing about Mariano Rivera is, after he says 'Hi,' the second word he tells you is something good for you," Yankees reliever Jose Veras said. "The second thing that comes out of his mouth is something to make you better. It's hard to find people like him."

Rivera is the bullpen Yoda, Graziano writes.

--Peter Abraham, Dan Graziano, Mark Feinsand and Kat O'Brien all take a look at the race for the Yankees final three bullpen spots. They each agree that the Yankees will take a lefty, a long-man, and a righty, and that the battle will come down to the final couple games of Spring Training.

Ed Valentine of Bugs & Cranks talks about how the Yankees success this season relies heavily on the bullpen.

-- Andy Pettitte may miss his first start this season because he isn't go to push himself, or his bad back the rest of spring. He wants to wait until he's healthy to pitch. “I got to feel good to be able to go out there and pitch,” Pettitte said. “I want to make sure I’m healthy, I don’t want to go into the season with a bad back.” Like I said yesterday, it's no big deal if he misses a start or two, the important thing is that he's get himself healthy and remains that way for the rest of the year. Kevin Kernan says something similar in his article, saying there is no need to rush Pettitte back.

-- Yankees lefty Sean Henn may go on the DL with a "tender left shoulder." He's out of options and this is a way for the Yankees to keep him, at least for a little while.

-- Steve Caimano of Dugout Central says "Robinson Cano is better than you think." He breaks down Cano's first three seasons compared to other great Yankee second baseman, including Joe Gordon, Willie Randolph and Tony Lazzeri. It turns out, Robinson Cano is pretty damn good.

-- The winner of the "Name The Three Kids" contest over on The Bronx Block has been announced. The winner is "Trip Aces." So now the Hughes, Chamberlain, and Kennedy are known by most people as "The Big Three," other people are calling them "Generation Trey," (which I personally hate with a passion), and they call themselves "The Three Amigos." These kids have way too many nicknames.

-- Steve Lombardi over at Was Watching asked me, along with several other Yankees bloggers to write about what we felt would be the biggest story of the upcoming season. You can check it out here.
Some TV related stuff:

-- Yankees 2008: Pride, Power, and Pinstripes premiered this weekend, and I have to say I think it was the best edition of the annual season preview show to date. I may just be saying that because I'm very excited for the season to start, but I truly feel that this year's show was very good.

-- I also got to check out that NBC special on Yankee Stadium. It was very well done, and I enjoyed it a lot. Although it left me kind of depressed because it we really are losing a wonderful place. As I was watching it all I could think to myself was, "Why are we leaving this place?" and "What a huge mistake." I think it says a lot about the Red Sox and Cubs organizations that they're keeping their ballparks open, and trying to add improvements instead of building new parks with a ton of luxury suites. The Yankees sell out almost every game, the fans are happy, and the players seem to love The Stadium as well, so once again, why are we leaving this place? .... Oh, that's right, Greed.