Yankees Roster Set

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Travis G. | Sunday, April 1, 2007

Some good choices by the Cash-Tor duo. RPs Brian Bruney and Sean Henn are in the pen – Ron Villone will either pitch in AAA or become a free agent. Back-up-catcher Wil Nieves made the team (mostly for defensive reasons) over Todd Pratt, Ben Davis or Raul Chavez. And best of all, 1B Josh Phelps will be the righty platoon over Andy Phillips.

Spring stats -

Bullpen
Villone, 5 ip, 14.40 era, 5 k, 4 bb
Henn, 9 ip, 3.00 era, 6 k, 6 bb
Bruney, 8 ip, 6.75 era, 15 k, 2 bb
Makes sense.

Righty first-baseman
Phillips, 26 ab, .192/.192/.192
Phelps, 38 ab, .395/.442/.737
Makes even more sense.

Back-up-catcher
Pratt, 21 ab, .143/.182/.190
Davis, 13, .154/.154/.385
R. Chavez, 18 ab, .278/.263/.444
Nieves, 22 ab, .227/.227/.227
Hmmm… I’m not quite sure why Nieves made the team. He certainly didn’t stand out offensively in Spring Training, and Pratt’s defense was superior (from what I saw). I would’ve liked to see Davis get some more abs. Cash-Tor must be hoping Nieves’ hitting is a victim of SSS (small sample size). His career minor league hitting is much better (at least for a back-up-catcher): 3368 ab, .288/.339/.398.

In past years, Torre almost certainly wold have gone with Villone, Pratt and Phillips for their ‘veteraness.’

The complete Opening Day roster.
SP: Pettitte, Mussina, Igawa, Pavano, Rasner (with Wang and Karstens out until late April)
RP: Rivera, Farnsworth, Proctor, Vizcaino, Myers, Bruney, Henn
OF: Matsui, Damon, Abreu, Melky
IF: Arod, Jeter, Cano, Giambi, Dmint, Phelps, Cairo
C: Posada, Nieves

PS – My wife just scored two tickets to Opening Day! (I know, good for me, right?)

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