Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Wednesday Night Open Thread: Girardi Honored Again

- Joe Girardi was honored as the March of Dimes Sportsman of the Year today. Venus Williams was also honored today as she was named Sportswoman of the Year.

- Here's some more on Joe Girardi via Tyler Kepner of the NY Times. Girardi was asked by the beat writers about many different baseball related topics and here's the main three impressions Kepner took away from the Yankees skipper:
1) Andy Pettitte will come back, which is no surprise. Girardi has spoken with Pettitte and said: “I got the sense at the end of the season that he wasn’t done, but sometimes you go home, you talk about things with your family. I’m sure he’ll prepare like he’s going to pitch, though.”

2) Girardi likes the flexibility of using the designated hitter spot to rest his older players. He did not say it, but the return of Hideki Matsui would impair his ability to do that. “I could see it working well either way,” Girardi said. “The nice thing we were able to do last year, when we played Hideki about five out of seven days, was we were able to give Alex a day, Jeet a day, Tex a day every once in a while, Johnny a day, and I do like that, because it’s a way of keeping them in the lineup. I found that to be extremely important. I found it was beneficial to the guys, and we didn’t lose their bat.”

3) The Yankees will pay close attention to the Roy Halladay sweepstakes, which will be a major topic of conversation at the winter meetings next week. “We don’t know if he’s going to be moved or not, but he’s pretty good,” Girardi said. “If he is moved, whoever he goes to, he’s going to be extremely beneficial. He could make a significant impact.”
Girardi also said that he looks at Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes as starters and he's not too concerned with his own contract.

- Derek Jeter stopped by the folks on the Fox & Friends morning show over on FOX News. You can check out a video of the interview as well as the details here.

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