A-Rod cleared to begin rehab

Alex Rodriguez will begin his rehab tomorrow July 2nd for the Low-A Charleston Riverdogs. He is scheduled to play 3rd for a minimum of 3 innings and I expect that they will use all of his rehab time because he missed spring training. The Yankees really need Alex's bat despite what some fans and media might think. The 20-day rehab time will expire right after the series in Boston that follows the all-star break so his first home game back will likely be on July 26th against the Rays. The Yankees still need to acquire another bat and soon because they cannot rely on Jeter, Granderson and A-Rod especially considering what happened with Youkilis and Teixeira. Also this makes all the stuff that happened with Cashman telling Alex to STFU even dumber as he was right about when his rehab would begin.

Now is the spring training of our discontent

Well Mark Teixeira is going to miss 8-10 weeks with a tendon sprain in his wrist and he will join Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez as the Yankees on the Disabled list to start the year. The Yankees lineup was already going to be lacking the power that we have been accustomed to and now  the Yankees opening day lineup will feature only three men who qualify as "power bats"; Youkilis, Cano and Hafner. That is putting a lot of pressure on the remaining hitters and especially on the pitching staff to try and carry the team through the first month as at this point the Yankees are unlikely to acquire an impact bat at this point. The biggest issue is that traditionally the Yankees have had great benches, with lots of depth and then this year they have a bad bench with poor depth and it has hurt them.
Some people have decided to write off the season, despite the fact that the season has not even started yet. The Yankees probably will look to acquire a piece, but Brian Cashman stated that he would like to acquire a piece that can display some versatility and so he wants a guy who can continue to play after the return of Teixeira or someone that they can potentially drop. Justin Morneau's name has been thrown around, but Cashman indirectly disputed this rumor, by saying that the player would need to be versatile and his $14 million salary wouldn't be cut or moved easily. That being said Morneau may be the best option as we do not know if this injury could keep Tex out longer than his current timetable suggested as Jose Bautista suffered a similar injury in mid July and it kept him out for the rest of the season. Remember Gardner was only supposed to miss two weeks and he didn't return until September, I'm not trying to say that that's what will happen with Tex but you just don't know what will happen as the season progresses. The Yankees will likely acquire a player to try and fill the void, but as of now we don't know the quality of the player, but it will need to be somebody better than Dan Johnson.

A True Yankee Podcast 2/12

A New Podcast for pitchers and catchers reporting! Brooke returns from her hiatus and we talk about the World Baseball classic, the A-Rod PED accusations and the Yankees offseason. Focusing on the Youkillis signing, the Ichiro deal, the catching situation and a potential new deal for Cano. We also examine the competition in the AL East and what to watch for in Yankee spring training.

Alex Rodriguez accused of using Performing enhancing drugs.....Again

(Photo:Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports)

Alex Rodriguez, along with several other MLB players, has been accused of taking performing enhancing drugs by the Miami New Times. Lets be clear with that as of today February 2nd 2013 the MLB has taken no action against any of these players as the only information has come from this newspaper. This could change relatively quickly , but Alex has vehemently denied the allegations stating:

"The news report about a purported relationship between Alex Rodriguez and Anthony Bosch are not true," Rodriguez said in a statement issued by a publicist. "He was not Mr. Bosch's patient, he was never treated by him and he was never advised by him. The purported documents referenced in the story — at least as they relate to Alex Rodriguez — are not legitimate."

 That has not stopped Alex and these other players from being convicted in the court of ESPN and the Yankees are reportedly trying to void the contract they gave Alex after he opted out his previous contract. They would obviously want this as he is owed $114 million over the next five years and they would love to have that money back. That being said unless the MLB takes action there really wouldn't be anything they could do to get out of the contract, the Yankees gave him this money with full knowledge that they would be paying him well over $20 million a year until he was 42. They did not know he would require two hip surgeries in the first 5 years of that contract and admit to use of PED's between 01-03. Many, many writers are seemingly trying to will Alex into retirement or simply out of his contract with the Yankees, its not happening. Maybe in the future teams will be able to opt out of a contract if a player is busted for PED use, but as of now I do not know if he would face a suspension as he hasn't tested positive for anything. This could change, the MLB could find that the evidence was fraudulent or they could find its incredibly damming and could sustain all the accusations against the players named in the report.
Despite all the willpower of baseball writers I expect that Alex will be back with the team in mid to late July, after that I have no idea how long he will play with the Yankees or otherwise.  Also do not forget that when the Yankees gave Alex this contract after he opted out in 2007, he had just come off an amazing MVP year and had never had any injury issues in his career when he signed that contract. Last off season the contract the Angels gave Albert Pujols was applauded by many writers and that was given after a down year for Pujols, that contract is gonna look really bad in a few years but it wont be slammed as badly because people like Pujols better than A-Rod. Also don't completely count Alex out yet, before his hand was broken by a pitch from King Felix in Seattle he was tearing the cover off the ball and if he starts playing at Designated Hitter more and more then his performance could improve.
Unfortunately for all the non Alex Rodriguez people out there who would have liked to see a way for the Yankees to get out of paying Alex, I expect that Alex will play this season, for the Yankees and will play reasonably well considering his two hip surgeries and increasing age. However all of that remains to be seen and we will all have to wait and see what the results of these accusations are and how the 2013 MLB season plays out.

ARod out until September with Broken Hand and other Yankees news

KEVIN P. CASEY/AP

ARod joined the list of the wounded with a non-displaced hand fracture that will sideline him for the next 6-8 weeks. With the exception of the switch hitters Teixeira and Swisher, ARod was the Yankees only regular right handed power bat and now the injury prone Chavez will need to play almost everyday. The Yankees could make a move for a third baseman, but I do not know how likely that is as I expect that it is more likely they could look for a versatile bench bat or just platoon Chavez and Nunez when he is healthy. They could also look for another bounce back candidate like Scott Rolen but I do not expect they will get involved for Chase Headley. The other bats are going to need to step up with ARod out especially with the Red Sox series coming up and some tough games in August. One interesting name to consider is Marco Scutaro if the Rockies make him available as he could play both Short Stop and Thirdbase. The Yankees have recalled Ramiro Pena for the time being.

Joba Chamberlain pitched a perfect rehab inning yesterday and will rehab again today. The hope is that he can be back at the end of the month and that bullpen really needs it as the shortcomings of three match up guys in a seven man bullpen are really showing lately.

This one is not technically Yankees related but the Tampa Bay Rays DFA former Yankee Hideki Matsui who had only hit .147/.214/.221 with two home runs and one double in 103 PA. This is likely the end for Matsui as he struggled to find a job this season and looks to be done. When he played against the Yankees you could see that his power was gone as the balls off his bat just were not going out. Matsui was my favorite Yankee from when he first came to the team in 2003 and we will still have to wait to see if Matsui decides to walk away now that it seems he cannot play at the MLB level anymore.

The upcoming Toronto series 4/19-4/20/11 and Notes

The Blue Jays came into the season strong with a 4-2 record, but they now stand at 7-9 with several poor performances from their starting pitching and their offense sputtered after the series opener against the Red Sox and they only managed one run in each of the three games they lost to the Red Sox. The Pitching matchup will be featuring Kyle Drabek going against A.J Burnett. Drabek is 1-0 with an 1.93 ERA in 3 starts while Burnett has a 3-0 record with a 4.67 ERA in his 3 starts. Wednesdays game will feature the very uninspring pitching duel between a Bull frog that has found his way into Pinstripes, aka Bartolo Colon who has posted a 3.97 ERA in 3 relief appearances and Brett Cecil who has a 1-1 record with a 6.19 ERA in 3 starts. There is no official word of whether or not A-Rod will play in Tuesdays game but it has been stated that he will play in Wednesdays game. A positive for the Yankees is that if they need to exhaust the bullpen they have Thursday off before heading to Baltimore for an Easter weekend series. The Blue Jays have really struggled the last 3 games and lets hope the Yankees will spoil the Blue Jays home opener.

*If you haven't heard about the J triplets tearing up the international league.  Jesus Montero, Jordan Parraz and Jorge Vazquez have been absolutely destroying AAA pitching Jesus Montero is hitting .452   and Jorge Vazquez has a very impressive .340 with 7 HR and 17 RBI's in only 11 games. Jordan Parraz who I wrote about in a previous article is hitting .356 with 3 triples and 2 HR. Also if Justin Maxwell raises his BA to match his .435 OBP then I can start calling them the J Quintuplets.
*Curtis Granderson is hitting .333 against lefties and .194 against eighties. I never thought I would have to say this but Granderson you need to start hitting RHP as well as you are hitting lefties.
*Check out CC's Commercial