Results tagged “andypettite”

     

Last night the Yankees kept their winning ways going up in The Bronx behind a couple of Bombers who are practically old timers at this point—Andy Pettite and Jorge Posada. The 37-year-old pitcher climbed to third on the team's all-time wins list with 189 (tied with Lefty Gomez) and his 38-year-old battery mate blasted a three-run homer in the first to provide Pettite with all the help he'd need to get the victory.

Tomorrow will mark Alex Rodriguez's first time answering questions in public from anyone outside of ESPN's Peter Gammons since news broke that he tested positive for steroids in 2003. The Yankees have scheduled a press conference for A-Rod at their spring training facilities in Tampa's Steinbrenner Field tomorrow.

After spending most of the winter cleaning up the free agent market with new additions CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett, the Yankees finalized a deal today with a familiar face, longtime starter Andy Pettite. Pettite will return to the Bronx for a contract that reported guarantees him $5.5 million. That's a significant pay cut from the $16 million Pettite made last year, but this contract could more than double if he meets various incentives. Despite shedding bloated contracts for players such as Jason Giambi, Carl Pavano and Bobby Abreu, the Yankees are nearing last year's payroll of $209 million (that cost them just under another $30 mil in luxury tax)—the opening day total is around $196.8 million now. Sealing up the deal with Pettite appears to lock in next season's starting rotation where newcomers Sabathia and Burnett will join Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain.

The news just gets worse and worse for Roger Clemens. A day after Congress asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Clemens lied about performance enhancing drugs in testimony, the FBI announced that it is leading the inquiry. Clemens is about to learn that you can’t intimidate the FBI with a 95-mph fastball. They won’t back down if you throw a piece of a broken bat at them. Glare at them all you want, it won’t deter them from their job.

The morning started with rumors of names mentioned in Senator George Mitchell's report to Major League Baseball, but not until this afternoon were any rumors substantiated. Stating in his report that “there is much about the illegal use of performance enhancing substances in baseball that I did not learn,” Mitchell proceeded to lay waste to the careers of many notable players, perhaps none more so than Roger Clemens. In the report Brian McNamee, Roger Clemens’...

Pitcher Roger Clemens, who was coaxed out of retirement with a deal worth $28 million, was supposed to be the savior of the floundering Yankees. The Bronx team's pitching staff has been plagued with injuries and Joe Torre and Ron Guidry have been forced to call up ever-younger prospects from the organization's farm system. Fans were momentarily relieved and distracted from the Yankees' on-field woes during the 7th inning stretch of a game in early May, when Clemens appeared in George Steinbrenner's box and announced that he would be returning to pitch for New York.

It also helps that he's ridiculously good–looking, seems like a nice family man (wife: Mio; 3 year–old daughter Haruna), and is going to try his "best to bring another [World Series ring] to the city for the New York Mets." He wore minority owner Saul Katz's 1986 ring, reportedly "enamoured" of it; relatedly, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King opens next Wednesday (buy tickets at Fandango). With Andy Pettite leaving the Yankees for Houston and Derek Jeter dangerously close to being a punchline, maybe it's time for a little Kaz.