1. The whole Yankee squad worked out for the first time yesterday, so this felt like a good time to guess what I think the 25-man roster will look like on March 31 when the Yanks open the regular season. My suspicion is that the Yanks will go with 13 position players and 12 pitchers.
There are 11 positional locks (barring injuries): Jorge Posada, Jose Molina, Jason Giambi, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Wilson Betemit, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Melky Cabrera and Bobby Abreu. Shelly Duncan is likely to have an edge on one of the final two open slots, but keep in mind he has all three of his options and the Yanks might worry if there are enough at-bats for him. I suspect, however, that he will make it, and the Yanks also will take a utility guy among Morgan Ensberg, Nick Green and Chris Woodward. My hunch is Green.
Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy all have options, but I would suspect they are pitching staff locks along with Andy Pettitte, Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera, Kyle Farnsworth and Latroy Hawkins. That leaves three open spots. Sean Henn is out of options and the Yanks still like his stuff too much to just lose him on waivers. My gut tells me Jose Veras and Brian Bruney emerge over Ross Ohlendorf. Here are my two wild cards: The Yanks really like Alan Horne, and may see the benefits of working him in relief, though I think they will send him to Triple-A as an emergency starter in waiting. The other wild card is Billy Traber, who many Yankee officials think can be a lefty specialist.
If anyone is interested, go ahead and guess along, as well. We can see how many we got right before Play Ball on the season.
2. The word on Yankee outfield prospect Brett Gardener was that he was really fast, and I am here to testify the word was true.
3. It is a subtle item, but I think the Yankees will miss Larry Bowa, a great coach, but a bad manager. Bowa particularly had good relationships with Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez, and you wonder if someone will push Cano as relentlessly as Bowa did. Bowa’s instincts as a third-base coach also were terrific, as good as I have ever seen.
