A True Yankee Podcast 3/26

Nick, Brooke and Chris take a look at the Yankees injuries, the replacements and our expectations for the season. We also talk about the Vernon Wells trade and the WBC.

Checking out Wang

Well to open the World Baseball Classic Chien-Ming Wang pitched 6 shut out innings on 65 pitches against an admittedly weak Australian Lineup. According to Joel Sherman and Jon Heyman the Yankees remain interested in bringing in Wang on a minor league deal, however he is apparently still looking for a major league deal, that he could still get if a starter goes down somewhere. His fastball was reportedly around 89-92, that's encouraging considering that its still only march and having watched the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) v. Australia game his sinker looked very good.
One thing to remember is that Wang is never going to be what he was, Washington thought he might and after three years he managed 94 major league innings between 2011 and 2012 after missing all of 2010. His 2011 was decent with a 4.04 ERA, but in 2012 he was just deplorably bad in both the majors and the minors with a 6.68 ERA in 32.1 innings.
It will take a while for this to develop as Wang will hold out for a major league deal, but it would be nice if the Yankees were able to bring him in and stash him in AAA.

George King says his fastball was clocked in the 88-92 mph range - See more at: http://riveraveblues.com/#sthash.AP14pTr7.dpuf

George King says his fastball was clocked in the 88-92 mph range, - See more at: http://riveraveblues.com/2013/03/yankees-interested-in-chien-ming-wang-had-major-interest-in-javy-vazquez-83086/#sthash.gxTFfZ2p.dpuf

George King says his fastball was clocked in the 88-92 mph range, - See more at: http://riveraveblues.com/2013/03/yankees-interested-in-chien-ming-wang-had-major-interest-in-javy-vazquez-83086/#sthash.gxTFfZ2p.dpuf

George King says his fastball was clocked in the 88-92 mph range, - See more at: http://riveraveblues.com/2013/03/yankees-interested-in-chien-ming-wang-had-major-interest-in-javy-vazquez-83086/#sthash.gxTFfZ2p.dpuf

Andy Pettitte will pitch for Team USA in WBC

Update 1/17 So in the end Pettitte was not on the roster, leaving just Texeira as the only Yankee on Team USA's WBC roster.

Andy Pettitte will be part of the Team USA pitching staff during the World Baseball Classic in March. He will be joined in the rotation by R.A Dickey and Ryan Vogelsong. He will be joined by fellow Yankee Mark Teixeira, as well as numerous other MLB stars. Jon a list of the Heyman has a list of the current roster, but I have to figure its not final as there is no current short stop. I'm not sure when Joe Torre will announce the final roster.
Its a little surprising that the Yankees are willing to let Pettitte pitch considering his age, but they must trust him to be able to handle the workload. Robinson Cano will play for Team Domincan Republic, but past that no their Yankees have announced their participation.

Update 1/14
Apparently Francisco Cervelli will play for Team Italy, he played for them in 2009. Also full rosters will be submitted on Thursday.